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LIBRARY     OF 


1685- IQ56 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT 


ON  THE 


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BENKFICIA,!.   ^ND   OTHER 


INSECTS, 


OF   THE 


STA.TE    OF    MISSOURI, 


MADE  TO  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE,  PURSUANT  TO  AN  APPROPRIATION 
FOR  THIS  PURPOSE  FROM  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  THE  STATE. 


BY  CHARLES   V.    RILEY^ 

STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


JEFFERSON  CITY,  MO., 

BLLWOOD     KIP.  BY,       PUBLIC     PRINTKR. 
1869. 


INTKODUCTOKY. 


To  the  Members  of  tlie  Missouri  State  Board  of  Agriculture  : 

Gentlemen^ :— I  herewith  present  my  first  annual  report  on  the 
Noxious,  Beneficial  and  other  Insects  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  pursu- 
ant to  your  instructions  of  April  1st,  1S6S. 

It  is  neither  so  full  nor  so  valuable  as  I  hope  to  make  its  success- 
ors, should  the  ofiice  be  continued.  This  is  principally  owing  to  the  fact 
that  but  eight  months  have  elapsed  since  my  appointment,  and  that 
the  natural  history  of  a  number  of  the  insects  that  received  my  atten- 
tion during  the  summer,  can  only  be  given  after  they  have  completed 
their  transformations,  which  will  require  one,  two  and  in  some  cases, 
even  three  years. 

I  have  been  exceedingly  gratified  at  the  warm  reception  which  I 
have  met  with  from  all  quarters.  Wherever  I  have  been,  from  one 
end  of  the  State  to  the  other,  the  cordial  hand  has  been  extended,  and 
I  have  found  our  farmers  and  fruit-growers  thoroughly  alive  to  the 
importance  of  the  work,  for  they  know  full  well  that  they  must  fight 
intelligently,  their  tiny  but  mighty  insect  foes,  if  they  wish  reward  for 
their  labors.  During  the  year  1868,  insects  injurious  to  our  fruits  have 
been  unusually  numerous,  but  it  may  well  be  asked  whether  this  in- 
crease is  not  a  meteorological  eff'ect,  as  was  suggested  by  Mr.  W.  C. 
Flagg,  in  his  ad  interim  report  to  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural  Soci- 
ety, rather  than  one  caused  by  the  increase  of  our  products.  The 
severe  drouth  of  1867,  had  a  peculiarly  injurious  efi"ect  on  many  trees, 
and  it  seems  quite  evident  that  certain  insects  increase  more  rapidly 
in  injured  fruits  and  injured  trees  than  in  those  which  are  healthy  and 
vigorous.  The  part,  indeed,  which  insects  principally  have  to  play  in 
the  economy  of  this  world,  is  that  of  scavengers.  They  hasten  the 
decay  and  dissolution  of  unhealthy  vegetable  organism,  the  quicker 
to  convert  it  into  mould,  and  make  room  for  healthy  plants;  while 
they  multiply  at  such  a  prodigious  rate,  that  whenever  the  conditions- 
are  at  all  favorable  to  the  increase  of  a  particular  species,  that  species 
appears  as  if  by  magic,  over  vast  districts  of  country,  and  commits 
sad  havoc  to  either  orchard  or  field  crops,  as  the  case  may  be. 

With  this  view  of  the  matter,  we  might  materially  check  the  in- 
crease of  some  insects,  by  anticipating  Nature  in  her  operations,  and 


4  FIRST  ANNUAL  EEPORT  OF 

cutting  down  such  trees  as  have  been  injured  from  whatsoever  cause, 
so  that  they  shall  not  remain  from  year  to  year  as  a  hiding  place  for 
noxious  insects,  or  as  a  hot-bed  for  equally  injurious  funguses. 

The  peach  crop  failed  pretty  generally  on  account  of  the  great 
increase  of  the  Plum  Ourculio,  and  the  opinion  has  been  advanced 
and  extensively  published,  that  this  insect  will  cause  a  failure  of  that 
crop  in  certain  districts  for  very  many  years  to  come.  Let  the  wise 
place  no  confidence  in  such  predictions,  for  the  predictors  can  have 
but  a  vague  conception  of  the  grand  scheme  of  Nature,  and  of  the 
laws  which  govern  both  animal  and  vegetable  life.  For  many  rea- 
sons unnecessary  to  mention,  the  prospect  for  a  good  crop  the  year 
succeeding  an  entire  failure,  is  greater  than  at  any  other  period — at 
least  so  far  as  insects  are  concerned.  Because  an  insect  is  numerous 
and  destructive  one  year,  therefore  it  will  be  even  more  so  the  next, 
is  apparently  plausible  but  very  fallacious  reasoning.  Every  one  of 
the  thousands  of  species  which  are  known  to  exist,  multiplies  at  a 
sufficient  rate  to  entirely  cover  our  globe,  in  a  comparatively  short 
time,  if  nothing  hindered  ;  and  the  struggle  and  warfare  necessary  to 
enable  all  the  different  species  to  exist  and  hold  their  own,  causes  a 
constant  fluctuation  in  the  relative  proportion  of  each.  We  have  an 
illustration  of  this  in  the  case  of  the  Colorado  Potato  Beetle;  for  in 
those  districts  where  it  had  caused  so  much  alarm  in  1S66  and  1S67,  its 
enemies  have  so  increased  that  it  was  comparatively  harmless  in 
186S. 

The  importance  of  the  study  of  Entomology  has  already  become 
apparent  to  every  tiller  of  the  soil,  but  there  is  yet  a  class  of  citizens 
who  fail  to  appreciate  the  laborious  efforts  of  an  Entomologist,  and  can- 
not conceive  how  the  "study  of  bugs,"  as  they  term  it,  will  redound 
to  the  good  of  a  State  or  community.  For  the  benefit  of  such,  let  me 
say,  that  in  his  last  annual  address  the  president  of  our  State  Horti- 
cultural Society,  estimated  the  annual  loss  to  our  State  from  insect 
depredations  at  sixty  million  dollars!  Now,  allowing  this  estimate 
to  be  twice  as  great  as  the  facts  will  warrant,  the  sum  is  j'-et  quite 
enormous.  It  is  not  possible  by  any  preventive  measures  to  save 
the  whole  of  this  immense  ^um,  but  it  is  perfectly  practicable  to 
save  a  large  percentage  of  it,  and  in  this  assertion  I  think  the  follow- 
ing pages  will  bear  me  out.  A  knowledge  of  the  habits  and  trans- 
formations of  insects  frequently  gives  the  clue  to  their  easy  eradica- 
tion and  destruction,  and  enables  the  agriculturist  and  horticulturist 
to  prevent  their  ravages  in  the  future.  It  likewise  enables  them  to 
distinguish  between  their  insect  friends  and  insect  enemies,  and 
guards  them  against  the  impositions  of  the  numerous  quacks  and 
nostrum-venders,  who,  with  high-sounding  words  are  constantly  put- 
ting forth  every  energy  to  sell  their  vile  compositions.  Such  a 
knowledge  of  insects  the  farmer  has  not  time  to  acquire,  for  it  is 
only  obtained  by  an  immense  amount  of  hard  labor  in  the  field  and 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  5 

anxious  deliberation  in  the  closet.    Hence,  the  wisdom  of  having  a 
State  officer  who  can  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  work. 

Fully  aware  that  I  write  for  those  who,  as  a  rule,  are  unversed  in  En- 
tomology, I  have  endeavored  to  treat  of  each  insect  with  as  little  of  the 
nomenclature  of  science  as  is  consistent  with  clearness  of  expression. 
Yet,  as  much  that  is  of  scientific  interest,  such  as  descriptions  of  new 
species,  must  necessarily  be  inserted,  I  have  had  such  descriptions 
printed  in  a  type  of  smaller  size  than  the  text,  so  that  it  can  be 
skipped  if  desirable,  at  the  time  of  reading,  and  easily  referred  to  for 
comparison,  with  specimens  which  one  is  desirous  of  naming.  I  have 
also  endeavored  to  illustrate,  as  far  as  possible,  the  insects  of  which 
this  report  treats,  believing  that  good  illustration  forms  the  basis  of 
successful  teaching  in  a  science  with  which  the  general  husbandman 
is  not  expected  to  be  acquainted ;  for  the  eye  conveys  to  the  mind,  in 
an  instant,  what  the  ear  would  fail  to  do  in  an  hour.  The  practical 
man  cares  little  to  what  genus  or  family  an  insect  belongs,  so  long  as 
he  can  tell  whether  it  be  friend  or  foe.  He  must  become  familiarized 
with  the  insects  about  him  without  having  necessarily  to  overcome 
scientific  detail  and  technicality. 

I  have  made  no  effort  at  a  systematic  arrangement  of  the  insects 
treated  of.  Indeed,  that  were  useless  for  the  purpose  in  view ;  but  in 
order  that  the  reader  may  refer  the  more  readily  to  any  particular, 
insect  which  interests  him,  I  have  separated  them  into  three  series — 
Noxious,  Beneficial  and  Innoxious — and  attached  a  very  full  index. 
For  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  making  a  study  of  Entomology,  I 
have  also  given,  with  each  species,  the  order  and  family  to  which  it 
belongs,  in  parenthesis  under  each  heading. 

So  far  as  possible,  I  have  used  a  common  name  for  each  insect, 
knowing  that  the  scientific  name  is  remembered  with  greater 
difficulty,  and  is,  consequently,  distasteful  to  many.  But  as  popular 
names  are  very  loosely  applied,  and  the  same  name  often  refers  to 
different  insects  in  different  localities,  a  great  deal  of  confusion  would 
ensue  without  the  scientific  name,  which  is,  therefore,  invariably  added 
for  the  most  part  in  parenthesis,  so  that  it  may  be  skipped  without  in- 
terfering in  any  way  with  the  sense  of  the  text. 

The  sign  c?  wherever  used  in  this  report,  is  an  abbreviation  for 
the  word  male,  the  sign  $  for  female  and  the  sigr?  9  for  neuter. 

Wherever  the  illustrations  are  enlarged,  they  are  accompanied  by 
hair-lines,  which  designate  their  natural  size. 

Where  the  measurement  of  an  insect  is  given,  the  dimensions  are 
expressed  in  inches  and  the  fractional  parts  of  an  inch,  0.25,  thus  im- 
plying a  quarter  of  an  inch,  and  1.25  one  inch  and  a  quarter,  etc. 

Many  letters  were  addressed  to  me,  during  the  summer,  inquiring 
as  to  the  value  of  the  new  carbolic  acid,  which  has  been  so  much 
spoken  of.  Having  fully  experimented  with  it  during  the  summer,  I 
am  well  pleased  with  it  as  an  insect  destroyer.  But  a  word  of  warn- 
ing in  its  use  is  necessary.    It  is  also  known  by  the  name  of  cresylic 


6  FIRST  ANNUAL  EEPORT  OF  THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 

acid,  the  diiFerence  between  the  two  being  one  of  purity  only.  Many, 
having  seen  it  recommended,  ordered  the  crude  acid,  and,  using  it — 
no  matter  how  much  diluted — they  found  to  their  sorrow  that  it  killed 
their  plants.  Carbolic  acid  mixes  well  with  alkalies^  hut  not  with 
loater^  and  it  can  only  he  used  as  a  saponaceous  compound.  This  fact 
must  be  borne  in  mind  by  those  who  wish  to  use  it. 

As  I  shall  frequently  have  occasion  to  refer  to  the  "  American 
Entomologist,"  it  is  but  proper  to  say,  that  in  conjunction  with  Mr. 
Benj.  D.  Walsh,  State  Entomologist  of  Illinois,  I  commenced  last 
September,  the  publication  of  that  journal.  It  is  devoted  to  Economic 
Entomology,  and  is  published  monthly,  by  R.  P.  Studley  &  Co.,  of  St. 
Louis,  at  $1,00  per  annum.  AVe  felt  that  pending  the  issuing  of  our 
annual  reports,  something  was  needed,  as  a  more  frequent  means  of 
communication  with  the  people.  The  paper  has  received  the  highest 
encomiums  from  the  press  throughout  the  country,  and  as  an  enter- 
prise has  proved  successful  beyond  our  expectations — evidence  of  the 
great  demand  for,  and  need  of,  the  kind  of  information  which  it  gives. 

As  there  must  necessarily  be  a  limit  to  a  report  of  this  character, 
I  am  compelled  to  defer  till  another  year,  accounts  of  the  Chinch 
Bug,  Eocky  Mountain  Grasshopper,  and  some  other  insects  which  at- 
tracted general  attention  during  the  year,  and  do  so  the  more  willingly, 
that  their  habits  have  been  pretty  fully  given  in  former  publications, 
and  in  the  above  periodical. 

In  conclusion,  I  tender  my  sincere  thanks  to  those  gentlemen, 
throughout  the  country,  who  have  assisted  me  in  one  way  or  another, 
and  especially  to  the  Superintendents  of  the  Pacific,  Iron  Mountain, 
Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph,  and  North  Missouri  Railroads,  for  free  passes 
over  their  respective  routes. 

Respectfully  submitted,  * 

CHARLES  Y.  RILEY, 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Dec.  2d,  1868.  State  Entomologist. 


NOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


IFig.  1.] 


THE  BARK-LICE  OF  THE  APPLE-TREE. 

(Homoptera,  CoccidsB.) 

There  are  two  species  of  Bark-lice  that  attack  the 
Apple-tree  in  the  United  States,  which  I  will  briefly 
describe. 

The  first,  which  is  a  native  North  American  insect, 
is  now  known  as  Harris's  Bark-louse  {Aspidiotus  liar- 
rieii,  Walsh.)  The  color  of  the  scale  is  dirty  white, 
and  its  form  is  irregular,  being  usually  egg-shaped ; 
but,  however  variable  in  outline,  it  is  always  quite 
flat  and  causes  the  infested  tree  to  wear  the  appear- 
ance of  Figure  1 ;  while  the  minute  eggs  which  are 
found  under  it  in  winter  time  are  invariably  blood  red 
or  lake-red.  This  species  has  scarcely  ever  been 
known  to  increase  sufficiently'-  to  do  material  damage, 
for  the  reason  doubtless  that  there  have,  hitherto,  al- 
ways been  natural  enemies  and  parasites  enough  to  keep  it  in  due 
bounds.  Though  I  have  not  witnessed  it  in  Missouri  myself,  I  am  in- 
formed by  several  persons  that  it  occurs  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
State,  and  a  communication  from  R.  B.  Palmer,  of  Hartville,  Wright 
county,  published  in  the  Rural  World,  of  October  15, 1866,  and  stating 
that  the  lice  are  destroying  the  best  apple  orchards  in  that  neighbor- 
hood, evidently  refers  to  this  species. 

The  second  species,  which  is  known  as  the  Oyster-shell  Bark-louse 
(Aspidiotus  GoncTiiformis,  Gm^lin),  is  by  no  means  so  harmless 
however,  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  pernicious  and  destructive  insects, 
"which  the  apple-grower  in  the  Northern  States  has  to  contend  with. 
This  species  presents  the  appearance  of  Figure  2,  and  may  always  be 
distinguished  from  the  former  by  having  a  very  uniform  muscle- 
shaped  scale  of  an  ash-gray  color  (the  identical  color  of  the  bark), 
and  by  these  scales  containing,  in  the  winter  time,  not  red,  but  pure 
white  colored  eggs. 


FIRST   ANNUAL  EEPOET   OF 


There  is  scarce! j--  an  apple-orchard  in  Northern  Illinois,  in  Iowa 
or  in  Wisconsin,  that  has  not  suflered  more  or  less  from  its  attacks, 
[Fig-  20  and  many  an  one  has  been  slowly  but  surely  bled  to  death 
by  this  tiny  sap-sucker.  It  was  introduced  into  the  Eastern 
States  more  than  seventy  years  ag:o  irom  Europe,  and  had 
already  reached  as  far  west  as  Wisconsin  in  1840,  from 
whence  it  spread  at  a  most  alarming  rate,  throughout 
the  districts  bordering  on  Lake  Michigan.  It  occurs  at  the 
present  time  in  Minnesota  and  Iowa,  but  whether  or  not  it 
extends  westward  beyond  the  Missouri  river,  there  are  no 
data  to  show.  Its  extension  southward  is  undoubtedly  lim- 
ited, for  though  so  abundant  in  the  northern  half  of  Illinois, 
observation  has  clearly  proved  that  it  cannot  exist  in  the 
southern  half  of  the  same  State.  I  have  also  experimen- 
tally proved  that  it  cannot  exist  in  the  latitude  of  St. 
Louis,  the  experiment  being  made  in  the  following  man- 
ner: On  the  12th  of  May  last,  I  received  some  scales 
from  Jesse  Hodgson,  of  Panola,  in  Woodford  county,  Illinois,  the 
eggs  under  which  were  at  that  time  hatching.  Upon  fastening  the 
bark  containing  these  scales  to  the  twigs  of  a  living  apple-tree,  that 
being  in  a  position  where  I  could  easily  watch  them,  the  young  bark- 
lice  crawled  actively  over  these  living  twigs,  and  soon  fastened  them- 
selves, as  is  their  wont,  around  the  buds.  They  soon  began  to  secrete 
the  waxy  fibres,  shown  at  Figure  3,  3,  and  in  time  assumed  the  white 
appearance  of  the  first  scale,  which  has  been  very  aptly  termed  the 
larval  scale  by  Mr.  Walsh.  But  the  growth  at  this  point  was  arrested 
and  they  all  soon  afterwards  died.  As  there  were  three  twigs  thickly 
covered,  and  as  I  could  discover  no  parasites  or  cannibals  of  any  kind, 
it  is  to  my  mind  conclusive  that  this  bark-louse  cannot  exist  further 
SOUTH  in  MISSOURI  THAN  ST.  LOUIS.  The  experience  of  others  is  to  the 
same  effect,  for  Dr.  Morse  informs  me  that  certain  apple  trees  which 
he  procured  from  the  North,  and  which  he  planted  at  Kirkwood,  St. 
Louis  county,  some  years  ago,  though  covered  at  that  time  with  these 
bark-lice,  are  now  entirely  free  of  them ;  and  Mr.  Wm.  Muir,  of  Fox 
Creek,  in  the  same  county,  has  had  a  similar  experience  with  trees 
which  he  imported  several  years  ago  from  Burrell  &  Co.,  of  Lockport, 
N.  Y.,  and  which  at  the  time  of  their  receipt  were  very  badly  infested. 
The  fruit-growers  of  Southern  Missouri,  have  therefore  little  to 
fear  from  this  Oyster-shell  Bark-louse,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  it 
would  die  out  in  the  country  considerably  north  of  St.  Louis,  if  im- 
ported there ;  but,  as  it  exists  and  flourishes  near  the  southern  border 
of  Iowa,  and  extends,  in  Illinois,  below  our  northern  boundary,  there 
is  eveiy  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  flourish  in  the  extreme  northern 
counties  of  our  State  if  once  introduced  there.  Now,  up  to  the  present 
time,  it  has  not  made  its  appearance,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  in  any  of 
the  orchards  in  that  part  of  Missouri,  and  it  seems-  that,  as  a  State, 
we  are  entirely  exempt  from  this  most  grievous  orchard  pest.    In  or- 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  » 

der  to  definitely  decide  this  matter  I  took  particular  pains,  while  at 
Hannibal  during  the  summer,  to  inquire  of  the  old  fruit  men  there  on 
this  point,  and  even  John  Fry,  one  of  the  oldest  settlers,  has  never 
heard  of  its  appearance  in  that  vicinity.  The  responses  from  numer- 
ous letters  that  were  sent,  with  the  same  query,  to  men  living  in  other 
northern  parts  of  the  State,  are  to  the  same  effect.  Believing  there- 
fore, that  this  insect  can  flourish  in  our  extreme  northern  counties  if 
once  introduced  there,  and  that  at  present  the  fruit-growers  of  that 
region  are  exempt  from  it,  I  cannot  too  strongly  urge  them  to  hold 
the  vantage  ground  they  now  have.  Let  every  man  therefore  xoTio 
reads  tJils  report^  andiofio  contemplates  planting  an  apple  orchard  in 
Korth  Missouri,  in  duty  to  himself  and  to  his  neighbors,  sulject  every 
young  tree  which  he  receives  from  northern  or  eastern  nurseries,  to 
a  rigorous  insj^ection ;  and  if  any  he  found  infested,  let  them  he 
thoroughly  cleansed  before  planting.  By  this  means  alone,  can  we 
hope  to  retain  that  immunity,  lohich  we  have  so  far  enjoyed  ! 

It  should  indeed  be  a  maxim  with  fruit  growers  to  inspect  all 
young  trees  received  from  a  distance ;  for  many  of  our  very  worst 
insect  foes,  such  as  the  Canker-worm,  Root-louse,  etc.,  are  undoubtedly 
transported  from  one  place  to  another,  principally  on  nursery  stock. 
In  order  that  the  Oyster-shell  Bark-louse  may  be  at  once  recognized 
and  thoroughly  understood,  I  will  proceed  with  its  history  : 

During  the  summer  of  1867,  three  independent  observers  were 
closely  studying  the  habits  of  this  insect  in  Northern  Illinois,  unbe- 
known to  each  other,  namely:  Dr.  H.  Shimer,  at  Mount  Carroll ;  Benj^ 
D.  Walsh,  at  Rock  Island,  and  myself,  at  Chicago.  Up  to  this  time, 
though  it  had  frequently  been  treated  of,  yet  much  that  was  recorded 
of  its  history  was  mere  conjecture.  For  instance,  Harris  states  that 
there  are  two  broods  each  year,  while  Fitch  assures  us  that  the  scales 
are  the  bodies  of  the  gravid  females,  covering  and  protecting  their 
eggs  ;  neither  of  which  is  the  case. 

The  gist  of  Dr.  Shimer's  observations  which  were  recorded  in  a 
paper  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Entomological 
Society,  (Vol.  1,  No.  4)  are,  1st — that  he  discovered  that  the  tarsal 
joint  of  the  newly  hatched  larva,  which  is  very  small,  possesses  no 
claw,  but  is  furnished  at  the  extremity  with  four  fleshy  hair-like  pro- 
cesses upon  which  the  young  louse  walks,  and  which  he  C3il\s  digituli,' 
2d — that  the  scale  is  constructed  by  the  insect,  and  consists  of  the 
moulted  skins  of  the  louse,  soldered  together  by  some  secretion  which 
he  believes  to  be  the  excrement.  In  these  characteristics,  he  finds 
sufficient  grounds  for  separating  this  insect  from  the  Bark-louse  fam- 
ily (Coccid^e)  to  which  it  has  been  referred  by  LinnaBus,  Goefi'roy,  Fab- 
ricius,  Burmeister,  Reaumur,  Curtis,  Westwood,  and  many  other  au- 
thors, and  erects  a  new  family  (Lepidosapiiid^e),  and  a  new  genus 
(Z'pidosaphes),  to  contain  it.  He  furthermore  takes  it  upon  himself 
to  deny  what  all  these  authors  have  insisted  upon,  viz: — that  the  loss 
of  members,  or  the   change  from  the  perfect  and  active  larval  forni 


10 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


represented  at  Figure  3,  3,  to  the  motionless  and  memberless  forms 
shown  at  5  and  6  of  the  same  figure,  is  an  evidence  of  the  degenera- 
tion or  degradation  in  this  insect  as  it  approaches  the  imago  state. 

Mr.  Walsh,  whose  observations  are  recorded  in  his  First  Annual 
Report,  as  Acting  State  Entomologist  of  Illinois,  found  nothing  to  in- 
duce him  to  separate  this  insect  from  the  old  genus  Aspidiotus  in  the 
Bark-louse  family,  to  which  it  had  hitherto  been  referred.  He  also 
showed  that  there  were  three  distinct  growths  of  the  scale,  differing 
from  each  other  in  size  and  color,  which  he  named  respectively  the 
''larval  scale,''  ''medial  scale"  d.nd.'' anal  saokP  He  also  inclined 
to  believe  that  both  the  "medial  scale"  and  "  anal  sack"  were  formed 
"by  the  anal  surface  of  the  original  young  larva  being  at  two  succes- 
sive periods  abnormally  dilated  and  extended  backwards,  in  the  form 
of  a  sack  closed  at  tip;  and  that,  after  this  process  is  accomplished, 
the  insect  always  moults  or  sloughs  off  the  whole  of  the  external 
scale."  As  to  the  formation  of  the  "  larval  scale"  he  offers  no  expla- 
nation. 

My  own  observations  will  be  found  in  the  "  Report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Entomology,"  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Illinois 
State  Horticultural  Society  for  1867— pp.  109-112.  Having  had  no  op- 
portunity of  continuing  them  the  past  summer,  and  as  they  will  con- 
vey a  good  idea  of  this  insect's  mode  of  growth,  I  repeat  them  in  part. 

[Fig.  3*.] 


The  young  lice  usually  leave  the  scales  during  the  first  week  in 
June.  Prior  to  their  hatching,  the  eggs  which  were  previously  snow- 
white,  become  yellowish,  and  if  the  weather  turn  cool,  immediately 
after  hatching,  they  will  remain  for  two  or  three  days  under  the  scales 
before  dispersing  over  the  tree.  The  following  notes  as  before  stated, 
were  made  in  Cook  County,  Illinois. 

June  6th.— Most  of  the  eggs  are  hatched,  but  the  young  have  not 
yet  left  the  scales. 


1pr,»-t>,'  1  n^'""®'?^^'"-^™^""'^*^^'  the  hair  lines  at  their  sides  approximating  the  natural 
nTtfrntlP,  o-nf  ^irr^'^o"'".'?^  '''^  scarcely  .01.  2,  larva,  as  it  appears  when  running  over  the  twigs- 
Loond  nWt  it  'fi  A  I'^PPearance  soon  after  becoming  fixed.  4,  appearance  of  scale  after  the 
louse tvenhnvipT'*^,;  H  n""  °*  '°''''  ^^''^^'■^^  '''^'')  ^«°°  ^^'^  l^^'ng  ^^^  meml>ers.  6,  form  of 
louse  a,  uMo  ^'^  ''i"'^  S'-own  and  just  about  to  deposit.  7,  fully  formed  scale,  containing 
iagjoints    ^^  underside,  when  raised.     S,  highly  magnified  antenna  of  larva,  show- 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  11 

June  9th.— The  past  two  days  have  been  exceedingly  warm,  the 
thermometer  rising  above  90  degrees  F.  in  tne  shade,  and  the  young 
lice  are  nmning  all  over  the  twigs. 

June  11th. — They  have  all  become  fixed,  having  gathered  in  the 
greatest  numbers  around  the  base  of  the  lateral  shoots  of  the  termi- 
nal twigs. 

June  12th. — A  white,  waxy  secretion  commences  to  issue  from  the 
body,  in  the  shape  of  very  fine,  delicate  threads  (see  Fig.  3,  3). 

June  l^2d. — They  have  increased  materially  in  size,  the  waxy  secre- 
tion vanishing  soon  after  the  last  date,  leaving  what  appears  to  be  the 
body,  of  a  yellowish  brown  color,  though  in  reality  the  body  is  under- 
neath and  separate,  and  has  lost  all  trace  of  members. 

July  1st. — Though  watched  every  day,  there  is  no  perceptible 
change  since  the  22d  of  June. 

July  2d. — They  are  now  0.03  long,  or  three  times  as  large  as  when 
hatched,  and  a  thin,  waxy  secretion  commences  to  appear  at  the  pos- 
terior end. 

July  6th. — This  secretion  has  increased  rapidly,  and  taken  on  a 
somewhat  oval  form,  with  usually  a  slight  cut  or  depression  posterior- 
ly. It  appears  quite  distinct  Irom  the  original  yellowish-brown  por- 
tion, and  is  duller,  or  of  a  more  grayish  color.  On  raising  it  carefully, 
the  louse  is  seen  underneath,  yellowish,  of  a  flattened  form,  the  ante- 
rior tapering  more  than  the  posterior  portion,  which  latter  is  always 
distinguished  by  having  a  patch  of  bright  reddish-brown  (see  Fig.  3,  5). 
Though  from  analogy  it  must  have  a  beak  of  some  kind,  it  is  so  ex- 
ceedingly  fine  and  fragile  that  I  have  never  been  able  perceive  it. 

July  10th,— There  seems  to  be  another  pause  in  the  growth,  the 
scale  presenting  the  appearance  of  Figure  3,  4. 

July  12th. — A  third  plate  or  secretion  has  commenced  from  the 
posterior  portion. 

July  15th. — This  last  plate  enlarges  rapidly,  and  is  the  exact  color 
of  the  bark. 

July  20th. — The  three  plates  are  at  present  readily  distinguished ; 
the  last,  which  is  considerably  larger  than  the  two  others  together, 
having  usually  taken  a  slight  curve,  which  gives  the  scale  its  charac- 
teristic form. 

August  1st. — Their  growth  is  to  all  appearances  completed,  the 
scale  measuring  0.12,  while  the  louse  measure  but  0.05,  occupying  thus 
about  half  the  space  within.  The  three  different  growths  are  now  not 
readily  distinguished,  though  the  narrow  end  is  always  reddish-brown. 
Oil  lifting  the  scale  the  insect  does  not  fall  out,  being  retained  by  a 
slight  whitish  fringe  extending  from  each  side  of  the  scale  (see 
Fig.  3,  7). 

August  12th. — Some  of  them  have  commenced  to  deposit  eggs. 

August  28th. — The  eggs  are  now,  apparently,  all  deposited,  and  I 
have  watched  with  interest,  as  the  deposition  went  on,  the  body  of  the 
parent  louse  shrinking  day  by  day,  instead  of  extending  and  becoming 


12  FIRST   ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

gravid,  until  it  is  now  a  mere  atom  at  the  anterior  or  narrow  end  of 
the  scale,  in  a  few  days  scarcely  to  be  noticed  at  all. 

The  oyster-shell  bark-louse  produces  but  one  brood  annually,  and 
these  eggs,  therefore,  remain  under  the  scales  for  more  than  nine 
months  of  the  year,  subjected  alike  to  the  continuous  warmth  of  the 
fall  months,  and  to  the  severe  frosts  of  winter ;  freezing  and  thawing 
again  and  again,  without  their  vitality  being  in  the  least  impaired.  In 
order  to  show  the  conclusions  which  I  came  to,  after  the  above  obser- 
vations, I  will,  in  a  measure  repeat  them. 

All  writers  on  this  Bark-louse,  copying  after  Fitch  and  others,  tell 
you  that  the  scale  you  see  on  your  trees  is  the  gravid  body  of  the 
female  insect.  Now,  though  for  aught  I  know  the  body  proper  of  the 
female  may,  in  some  Coccidan  species,  extend  and  cover  the  eggs  she 
deposits,  it  is  no  such  thing  in  this  instance ;  and  I  am  prepared  to 
affirm  that  the  scale  is  no  more  the  insect's  gravid  body  than  is  the 
empty  muscle  shell  the  distended  outer  membrane  of  the  muscle,  or 
the  oyster  shell  that  of  the  oyster. 

How  this  scale  is  formed  I  do  not  profess  to  have  discovered. 
With  regard  to  our  native  white  species,  already  referred  to  (p.  7),  Mr. 
Walsh,  in  the  Practical  Entomologist  for  December  last,  refutes  Har- 
ris's theorj'-,  namely,  that  it  is  formed  in  the  same  way  as  the  down 
which  exudes  from  other  lice,  and  shows,  with  some  plausibility,  that 
it  may  consist  of  the  cast  off  skins  of  the  insect.  Now,  in  my  own 
humble  opinion,  with  the  imported  species  under  consideration,  I  am 
inclined  to  uphold  Harris,  for  the  following  reasons :  besides  the  fine 
waxy  filaments  which  it  secretes  when  becoming  fixed,  I  have  found 
that,  even  before  these  are  thrown  out,  it  is  covered  with  a  fine,  white 
bloom,  proving  that  it  can  and  does  secrete  from  the  general  surface ; 
having  carefully  lifted  the  scale,  every  day  during  the  growth  of 
the  third  portion  referred  to,  the  louse  has  invariably  been  found  in 
the  same  shape  and  condition,  without  apparent  connection  with  it, 
while  the  scale,  to  all  appearances,  actually  increases  in  bulk  during 
the  time  the  eggs  are  being  deposited.  Furthermore,  the  exuviae  of 
such  a  tiny  insect  would  be  infinitely  thinner  and  more  delicate  than 
is  the  scale,  and  as  the  insections^  especially  of  the  verter,  are  always 
plainly  visible  with  a  glass,  in  the  louse,  we  should  expect  to  see  them 
in  the  scale,  which  is,  however,  perfectly  smooth.  Again,  the  louse 
is  of  the  same  color  throughout  its  growth,  while  at  one  time  the 
three  parts  of  the  scale  are  perceptibly  different  in  this  respect. 
Moreover,  Reaumur  long  ago  (Memoires,  tom.  IV.,  p.  26)  observed  a 
species  occurring  on  the  peach  in  France  to  cast  its  skin  in  flakes, 
much  in  the  manner  as  many  of  our  Dipterous  and  Ilymenopterous 
larvce  are  known  to  do  ;  while  he  also  described  a  species  (pi^.  64,  65, 
ibid.)  occuring  on  the  vine,  which  covered  its  eggs  with  a  white, 
gummy,  cottony  secretion;  and  Mr.  Walsh  himself,  in  the  February 
number  of  the  little  monthly  already  referred  to,  p.  57,  si^eaking  of  a 
species  occurring  on  the  under  surface  of  the  leaves   of  the   OIqq, 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  13 

fi^agrans^  shows  how  in  that  species  the  "scale"  is  not  formed  of 
the  lifeless  body  of  the  female,  but  is  a  distinct  integument,  con- 
structed by  the  female  to  protect  herself  and  her  eggs,  and  probably 
secreted  from  the  general,  surface  of  the  body. 

However,  I  believe  that  the  entomologist  will  have  about  as  diffi- 
cult a  task  to  ascertain  its  real  mode  of  growth  as  would  the  physiolo- 
gist to  learn  how  the  flesh  on  your  fingers  acquires  its  natural  form. 
We  might  with  equal  reason  try  to  learn  why  and  how  the  thousand 
different  excrescences  and  galls  caused  by  insects  are  formed !    Why 
is  it  that  the  larva  hatching  from  an  egg  deposited  on  a  rose  leaf  by 
a  little  four-winged  fly,  the  Rhodltes  ignota  of  Osten  Sacken,  causes 
a  peculiar  growth  or  gall  in  the  form  of  a  mangel-wurzel,  or  beet  seed^ 
to  surround  it,  while  that  of  a  similar  fly,  belonging  to  the  very  same 
genus — the  Rhodltes  radicum  of  Osten  Sacken — hatched  from  eggs 
deposited  in  the  root  of  the  same  plant,  causes  an  entirely  diilerent 
gall?    Why  is  it  that  the  puncture  of  a  little  yellow  louse,  Pemj^hi- 
gus  (?)  vitifoUcB,  Fitch  (or  as  Henry  Shimer,  of  Mt.  Carroll,  would 
have  it,  Baldylosphmra  vitifohcs),  by  puncturing  a  grape  leaf,  causes 
an  unnatural  growth  to  surround  and  entomb  it  in  the  shape  of  the  little 
green  globular  galls  of  different  sizes,so  common  on  Clinton  grape  vines, 
while  the  same  sized  puncture  of  another  louse  (Aphis  viiis,  Scopoli) 
produces  no  such  effect  ?    Why,  again,  does  a  little  Lepidopterous 
larva,  often  found  in  the  golden  rod  (the  larva  of  Gelechia  gallaesoli- 
daglms,  described  in  a  future  chapter  of  this  report),  produce  an 
elongated  hollow  gall,  while  a  Dipterous  larva  ( Try])eta  soUdaginis^ 
Fitch),  in  a  neighboring  stalk  produces  one  that  is  round  and  solid? 
Or,  lastly,  why  should  the  suction  of  different  species  of    Dipterous 
larvae  ( CeGidomyice)^  produce  the  wonderful  galls  found  on  our  wil- 
lows, causing  in  many  instances  not  only  a  total  change  in  the  texture 
of  the  leaf,  but  also  in  its  mode  of  growth? 

To  me  the  formation  of  our  Bark-louse  scale  appears  somewhat  an- 
alagous  to  all  of  these,  and  a  thousand  other  such  phenomena  known 
to  science  ;  and  in  answering  how  such  growths,  peculiar  to  each  spe- 
cies, are  formed,  or  why  each  is  so  constant  in  its  character,  I  can  only 
say  that  it  is  their  nature  ;  or,  with  Devere,  "that  knowledge  of  first 
causes  belongs  to  Him  alone,  who  allows  the  eye  of  man  to  see  final 
causes  only."  The  more  we  endeavor  to  study  the  why  and  the 
wherefore  of  these  things  the  more  the  mind  is  filled  with  the  idea  of 
Infinity,  and  escaping  from  all  visible  impressions  of  space  and  time 
rises  to  sublimest  contemplation  of  the  Creator. 

The  growth  of  the  scale  under  consideration,  to  my  mind,  depends 
no  more  on  the  will  of  the  louse  underneath  it  than  does  the  sponge 
on  that  of  the  slimy,  jelly-like  creature  which  secretes  it,  or  the  coral 
on  that  of  its  polype;  or,  to  use  a  more  patent  illustration,  than  the 
growth  of  our  bones,  though  secreted  from  our  organs,  depends  on  our 
will. 

By  carefully  lifting  one  of  these  scales  during  the  months  of  July 


14  FIRST  ANNUAL  EEPORT   OP 

and  August,  any  of  you  may  find  the  true  louse  underneath,  occupy- 
ing but  a  i)ortion  of,  and  being  quite  separate  from  it. 

From  analogy  we  may  presume  that  there  are  males  as  well  as 
females  of  this  species,  since  winged  males  are  known  to  occur  in  the 
genus  Aspidiotus.,  and  it  has  been  my  great  aim  and  hope  to  discover 
this  gentleman.  Though  an  extremely  small  percentage  of  the  scales 
may  generally  be  found  dwarfed  and  empty  during  the  first  days  of 
August,  suggesting  that  a  male  may  have  escaped,  yet  as  likely  as  not 
these  may  have  been  killed  by  some  cause  or  other.  In  the  latter 
part  of  June  I  counted  five  hundred  scales  on  a  single  twig,  and 
marked  them  to  prevent  mistake  or  confusion  in  recognizing  them 
again.  After  watching  them  steadily,  and  carefully  lifting  each  one 
on  the  28th  of  August,  they  all,  with  the  exception  of  two,  were  found 
to  contain  eggs.  The  same  average  would  doubtless  have  been  found 
over  the  whole  tree  ;  and  from  this  fact  I  am  constrained  to  believe 
that  as  a  rule  no  males  appear,  and  that  if  there  be  exceptions  where 
they  do  occur,  they  are  in  such  proportion  as  to  be  of  little  avail.  Mr. 
Shimer,  in  speaking  of  the  Clinton  grape  gall,  already  alluded  to^ 
states  that  he  opened  thousands  of  them  before  he  found  a  male  ;  and 
it  is  difficult  to  conceive  what  efiect  a  single  delicate  male,  shut  up 
in  a  gall,  could  have  on  the  thousands  of  others  not  dignified  by  his 
presence.  When  we  reflect  on  the  abnormities  occurring  among  our 
plant-lice,  I  see  no  reason  why  our  bark-lice  should  not  be  herma- 
phrodite as  a  rule,  and  yet  occasionally  produce  males.  They  are  still 
lower  in  the  scale  of  Nature  than  the  plant-lice,  and  one  of  them — the 
celebrated  Cochineal — puzzled  naturalists  a  long  time  as  to  whether 
it  was  a  plant  or  an  animal.  There  is  in  fact  so  much  of  the  anoma- 
lous about  this  family  that  it  furnishes  a  rich  and  interesting  field 
of  study. 

The  observations  of  both,  Mr.  Shimer,  Mr.  Walsh,  and  myself 
agreed  as  to  the  time  of  hatching ;  as  to  the  mode  of  growth  of  the 
scale,  and  as  to  finding  no  females  ;  but  as  to  the  process  by  which 
the  scale  was  formed  there  was  difi'erence  of  opinion.  The  reason,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  obvious  enough :  in  attempting  to  elucidate  the  pro- 
blem we  reach  beyond  the  limits  of  our  power  of  perception  into  the 
realms  of  conjecture.  It  is  easy  enough  to  watch  the  mode  of  growth 
of  an  oak-apple,  but  it  is  not  such  an  easy  matter  to  ascertain  the 
reason  why  the  kind  which  occurs  on  the  red  oak  (produced  by  Cynips 
quercus-inanis)  should  form  inside  with  radiating  spokes  from  a  com- 
mon central  cell ;  while  that  on  the  black  oak  (produced  by  Cynips^ 
quercus-spongHica)  should  form  inside  with  a  dense  spongy  substance 
around  a  similar  central  cell.  Mr.  Shimer  may,  in  part,  be  right  in 
stating  that  the  larval  scale  is  formed  by  the  young  louse  shedding  its 
skin;  but  the  extremely  fine  skin  alone  would  not  form  such  a 
scale,  and  he  strangely  overlooks  the  wax-like  filaments  secreted 
from  the  general  surface  of  the  body  as  well  as  the  peculiar  dis- 
tinction in  the  growth  of  the  "medial"  and  "anal"  sacks.    That  these 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  15 

two  last  scales  are  constructed  hj  the  louse,  of  its  own  cast  skins  and 
some  excrementitious  secretion,  as  be  suggests,  is  also  made  ex- 
tremely doubtful,  from  tbe  simple  fact  that  you  may  raise  them  every- 
day of  their  growth  and  find  the  louse  underneath,  entirely  free  and 
separate.  But  after  all,  though  of  great  scientific  interest  this  matter  is 
of  no  practical  importance  whatever,  for  as  we  shall  see  hereafter 
the  great  point  to  be  borne  in  mind,  in  a  practical  light,  is  the  time 
of  hatching  of  the  egg. 

As  the  female  Bark-louse  is  only  capable  of  motion  for  a  period 
of  from  two  to  three  days  at  the  most,  after  which  time  she  becomes 
as  permanently  fixed  for  the  rest  of  her  life  as  is  the  tree  on  which  she 
is  fastened;  and  as  the  winged  males  (even  if  they  ever  exist)  could 
not  assist  in  the  spread  of  the  species,  it  may  puzzle  some  to  divine 
how  this  insect  spreads  from  tree  to  tree  and  place  to  place.  That  it 
is  transported  to  distant  places,  mainly  on  young  trees,  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  and  there  are  various  ways  in  which  it  can  spread  from 
tree  to  tree  in  the  same  orchard,  though  it  can  only  thus  spread  dur- 
ing the  few  days  of  its  active  larval  state.  Mr.  Walsh  believes  that 
the  only  way,  as  a  general  rule,  that  it  can  spread  from  tree  to  tree, 
when  the  boughs  of  those  trees  do  not  absolutely  interlock,  is  by  a 
few  of  these  active  young  larvre,  crawling  accidentally  on  to  the  legs 
of  some  bird,  that  chances  to  light  on  one  tree  and  afterwards  flies  to 
another,  and  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  believes  this  Bark- 
louse  would  soon  cease  to  exist,  if  all  the  birds  in  the  world  were 
killed  off  (Kep.  p.  41).  My  friend  Walsh  seems  to  have  a  special 
grudge  against  the  birds,  and  it  is  hard  to  imagine  how  he  could  make 
such  a  statement,  in  face  of  the  fact  that  where  there  is  one  bird, 
there  are  a  hundred  insects  roaming  constantly  from  tree  to  tree,  that 
are  just  as  capable  of  giving  the  young  lice  a  lift.  Moreover  the 
specific  gravity  of  the  young  louse  is  so  slight  that  it  almost  floats  in 
the  air,  and  is  undoubtedly  aided  in  spreading  by  the  winds  ;  while  on 
a  tree  very  thickly  covered  with  old  scales,  its  traveling  propensities 
are  sufficiently  developed  to  cause  it  to  run  down  the  trunk  of  the 
tree  and  even  over  tlie  ground^  and  as  it  travels  at  the  rate  of  two  or 
three  inches  per  minute,  it  could  manage  to  measure  several  rods  with 
its  microscopic  legs,  in  the  course  of  its  active  state. 

Though  essentially  belonging  to  the  apple  tree,  this  Muscle- 
shaped  bark-louse  is  not  unfrequently  found  both  upon  the  Currant, 
the  Plum  and  the  Pear.  I  have  seen  the  scales  fully  developed  and 
bearing  healthy  eggs  on  the  fruit  of  the  White  Doyenne  pear,  of  the 
Transcendent  crab,  and  of  the  wild  ^\\xm  {Primus  A7nericana)^N\\icb. 
have  been  sent  to  me  by  Mr.  T.  D.  Plumb,  of  the  State  Journal,  Madi- 
son, Wisconsin;  and,  though  on  the  hard  bark  of  a  tree,  we  cannot 
judge  of  the  amount  of  sap  they  absorb,  it  is  quite  apparent  on  these 
soft  fruits,  for  each  scale  causes  a  considerable  depression  from  the 
general  surface.    I  have  also  received  twigs  of  the  Persian  lilac  from 


16  PIKST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

F.  Starr,  of  Alton,  Illinois,  covered  with  a  species,  which,  if  not  the 
same,  is  exceedingly  like  it. 

Natural  Eemedies. — It  was  last  year  simultaneously  discovered 
by  Mr.  Walsh  and  Mr.  Shimer,  that  a  species  of  mite  (Acajncs  family) 
preyed  unmercifully  on  the  louse  as  well  as  on  its  eggs.  This  mite 
was  described  by  Mr.  Shimer  as  Acarus  malus  in  the  paper  already 
referred  to,  and  it  appears  that  it  greatly  resembles  the  young  bark- 
lice.  Mites  are  not  true  insects,  but  belong  to  the  same  class  {Araeh- 
nida)  to  which  our  spiders  belong,  and  although  the  species  are  nu- 
merous— some  causing  galls  on  plants,  some  living  externally  on 
vegetable  substances  and  seeds,  either  in  a  sound  or  rotten  condilion, 
others  devouring  animal  substances,  both  dead  and  living,  wi;Ile 
others  again  are  parasitic  on  certain  animals — yet  they  all  are  readily 
distinguished  in  the  perfect  state  from  true  insects  by  having  four 
pairs  of  legs,  and  by  the  head  and  thorax  being  soldered  in  one  piece 
without  any  joint  whatever.  Some  of  them,  in  the  larval  state,  have 
hut  <=iix  legs,  thus  still  more  closely  mimicking  the  young  bark-lice, 
but  they  all  acquire  eight  in  the  full  grov/n  state.  This  mite,  so  insig- 
nificant that  in  the  larval  state  it  can  only  be  noticed  by  careful 
watching  with  a  pocket-lens,  has,  doubtless,  done  more  to  save  the 
apple  trees  in  the  Northern  States  than  anyone  thing  else;  audits 
existence  explains  the  gradual  decrease  of  the  Bark-louse  that  is 
known  to  have  occurred  in  many  orchards,  and  also  accounts  for  its 
entire  extermination  on  certain  trees. 

The  next  most  efficient  aid  we  have  is  the  Twice-stabbed 
lady-bird  ( Chilocorus  hivuhienis,  Muls.)    This  good  friend 
is  readily  recognized  by  its  polished  black  color,  and  the 
blood-red  spot  on  each  wing-case.    It  is  represented  magni- 
fied atFigure4,  the  hair  line  at  the  side  showing  the  natural 
length.    Its  larva  (Fig.  5)  is  a  dark  gray  prickly  affair,  and  is  extreme- 
Fig.  5.  ly   active   and  voracious.    In   changing  to   pupa,   the 
.  iHH^.       larval  skin   splits  open  on  the  back,  but  the  naked 
3  pupa,  which  is  of  the  color  of  burnt-umber  with  lighter 
-^    ^s^^        '    sides,  remains  within  it  as  if  for  protection.   In  this  latter 
state  these  ladj^-birds  may  often  be  found  fastened  in  clusters  of  from 
six  to  twenty  on  apple  trees  affected  with  either  kind  of  bark-louse, 
and  they  should  invariably  be  protected.    It  is  astonishing  how  rapid- 
ly they  will  cleanse  a  tree  from  its  vermin,  and  there  is  no  better  way 
of  getting  rid  of  bark-lice  than  by  introducing  a  few  of  these  little 
friends  onto  the  lousy  tree. 

Artificial  Eemedies. — These  may  be  summed  up  in  a  very  few 
words,  and  consist,  for  the  most  part,  in  prevention,  and  I  again  urge 
a  strict  examination  of  every  young  tree  before  it  is  planted.  If  an 
orchard  is  once  attacked  before  its  owner  is  aware  of  it,  much  could 
be  done  on  young  tress  by  scraping  the  scales  off  in  winter,  but  on 
large  trees  where  it  is  difficult  to  reach  all  the  terminal  twigs,  this 
method  becomes  altogether  impracticable,  and  it  will  avail  but  little 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  "  17 

to  cleanse  the  trunk  alone,  as  most  of  the  scales  containing  living  eggs 
will  be  found  on  the  terminal  branches.  Alkaline  washes,  and  all 
other  washes,  except  those  of  an  oily  nature,  such  as  petroleum  or 
kerosene,  are  of  no  avail  when  applied  to  the  scales,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  they  do  not  penetrate  and  reach  tlie  eggs  which  are  so 
well  protected  by  these  scales ;  and  it  is  very  doubttul  whether  any 
solution  can  be  used  that  is  sufficiently  oily  to  penetrate  the  scales 
and  kill  the  eggs  without  injuring  the  tree,  especially  while  the  sap  of 
the  tree  is  inactive.  Hence,  this  Bark-louse  can  only  be  successfully 
fought  at  the  time  the  eggs  are  hatching,  and  the  young  lice  ar.e  crawl- 
ing over  the  limbs.  Tlie  time  of  year  in  which  this  occurs  has  already 
been  indicated,  and  the  trees  should  be  closely  watched  during  the 
last  days  of  May  and  the  first  days  of  June,  for,  without  close  scrutiny^, 
they  will  not  be  observed,  appearing  simply  like  very  minute,  white, 
moving  specks.  While  the  young  larvae  are  thus  crawling  over  the 
tree,  they  are  so  tender  that  they  can  be  readily  destroyed  by  simply 
scrubbing  the  limbs  with  a  stiff  brush.  It  it  quite  evident,  however, 
that  any  remedy,  to  become  practicable  on  a  large  scale,  so  as  to 
rapidly  and  effectually  reach  every  limb  of  the  tree,  both  large  and 
small,  must  be  applied  by  a  syringe  or  by  means  of  fumigation,  and 
that  whatever  be  applied,  it  must  kill  the  lice  without  injuring  the 
foliage  or  fruit,  as  the  young  apples  are  generally  as  large  as  a  good 
sized  pea  by  the  time  the  lice  hatch.  Fumigation  has  not  yet  been 
sufficiently  tried  to  enable  us  to  judge  of  its  merits.  A  correspondent 
of  the  Prairie  Farmer^  in  recommending  brimstone,  gives  the  follow- 
ing as  his  plan  of  using  it:  "  My  plan  is  to  cover  the  entire  tree  with 
cloth,  so  that  there  are  no  holes  to  let  out  the  smoke  ;  take  an  iron 
dish — a  frying  pan  with  a  handle,  if  you  please — put  in  about  one 
pound  of  roll  brimstone  (not  sulphur),  heat  a  chunk  of  iron  red  hot — 
say  a  clock  weight ;  drop  the  iron  upon  the  brimstone,  and  put  it  un- 
der the  tent  cloth,  where  it  should  remain  long  enough  to  fairly 
smudge  the  whole  tree.  More  brimstone  can  be  added,  and  the  iron 
repeated  as  often  as  desired,  probably  five  minutes  to  a  tree  would  be 
sufficient,  more  would  do  no  harm.  The  cloth  can  be  easily  taken  off 
and  put  on  by  two  operators,  each  with  a  light  pole  with  a  spike  in 
the  end.  The  one  pound  of  brimstone  will  burn  about  an  hour."  Hav- 
ing had  no  bark  lice  on  which  to  try  the  above  experiment,  I  wrote  to 
the  party  recommending  it,  and  as  I  received  no  answer,  the  experi- 
ment probably  failed  or  was  never  tried.  The  brimstone  would  doubt- 
less injure  the  tree. 

Mr.  A.  K.  Whitney,  of  Franklin  Grove,  Lee  county,  Illinois,  whose 
apple  trees  have  been  troubled  more  or  less  with  bark-lice,  found  that 
an  application  of  sheep  manure  around  the  trees,  had  a  beneficial 
effect  in  checking  the  pests,  and  he  attributes  the  result  to  the  am- 
monia arising  from  the  manure.  With  regard  to  washes,  to  be  used 
with  a  syringe,  the  late  Dr.  Jno.  A.  Kennicott  used  1  lb.  of  sal  soda  to- 
one  gallon  of  water  with  good  effect;  it  is  be&t  used  by  heating. to 

2   K    S   E  . 


18  First  annual  eeport  os* 

redness  in  an  iron  pot  and  then  dissolving  it  in  tlie  water.  Mr.  E.  G, 
Mygatt,  of  Eichmond,  McHenrj'-  county,  Illinois,  has  experimented 
with  this  insect  for  over  20  years  with  the  following  result:  Brine  (2 
quarts  salt  to  8  of  water)  kills  the  lice,  but  also  the  foliage  and  fruit. 
Tobacco  water  (strong  decoction)  neither  injures  the  foliage  nor  af- 
fects the  lice.  A  solution  of  cobalt  kills  the  lice,  but  takes  the  fo- 
liage also.  Weak  lye  kills  the  lice,  but  also  somewhat  aliects  the 
leaves.  Lime  water  kills  about  half  the  lice,  and  affects  the  leaves  a 
little.  Finally,  quassia,  boiled  in  proportion  of  1  pound  to  3  gallons 
of  water,  though  well  known  to  be  effectual  for  the  common  plant- 
lice,  has  no  effect  on  these  coccids.  In  short,  we  have  abundant  proof 
that  neither  tobacco-water  nor  strong  alkaline  washes  have  any  effect 
on  these  young  lice,  though  a  strong  solution  of  soap  will  kill  them, 
and  my  experience  the  past  season,  with  cresylic  acid  soap  in  other 
directions,  leads  me  to  strongly  recommend  it  tor  this  purpose.  It 
Tvill  sometimes  be  necessary  to  repeat  the  wash,  as  the  lice  do  not  all 
hatch  out  the  same  day,  though  the  period  of  hatching  seldom  extends 
over  three  days. 

From  the  foregoing  it  is  obvious  that  bark-lice  can  only  be  suc- 
cessfully fought  during  three  or  four  days  of  the  year :  how  absurd 
and  ridiculous  then,  are  all  the  patent  nostrums  and  compounds  which 
are  continuously  offered  to  the  public  as  perfect  "  bark-lice  extin- 
guishers," and  which  never  mention  this  most  important  fact.  May 
this  insight  into  the  history  of  the  Apple-tree  Bark-lice,  prevent 
many  a  man  from  being  swindled  out  of  his  time  and  money  by  these 
impostors ! 


THE  PERIODICAL  CICADA. 

(Homoptera  Cicadidee.) 
SEVENTEEN  AND  THIRTEEN  YEAR  BROODS. 

The  year  1868  will  long  be  remembered  in  the  annals  of  insect 
life,  as  one  of  peculiar  interest,  from  the  fact  that  this  singular  Cicada^ 
(Cicada  septemdecim^  Linn.)  popularly  known  as  the  "  17-year  locust," 
made  its  appearance  very  generally  over  the  United  States. 

The  metamorphoses  of  insects,  their  instructive  industry,  their 
quarrels  and  their  instincts,  afford  abundant  food  for  our  love  of  the 
marvelous;  but  few  of  them  can  claim  such  a  singular  history  as  can 
our  Periodical  Cicada.  We  are  moved  to  admiration  in  contemplat- 
ing the  fact  that  an  insect,  after  living  for  17  long  years  in  the  bowels 
of  the  earth,  should  at  last  change  its  sluggish,  creeping  and  worm- 
like  form,  and,  endowed  with  the  power  of  flight,  ascend  from  its 
earthy  retreat  to  become  a  denizen  of  the  air  and  to  enjoy  the  full 
glory  of  the  Sun.    But  our  wonder  increases  when  we  reflect  that  this 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  19 

same  insect  has  appeared  in  some  part  or  other  of  the  United  States 
at  regular  intervals  of  17  years,  for  centuries,  aye!  for  ages  in  the  past. 
Long  ere  Columbus  trod  on  American  soil  this  lowly  insect  must  have 
appeared  regularly  at  its  appointed  time.  It  must  have  filled  the 
woods  with  its  rattling  song,  when  none  but  wild  beasts  and  savages 
were  present  to  hear  it.  To  me  there  is  something  beautiful  in  the 
idea  that  through  its  periodicity  we  are  enabled  with  tolerable  cer- 
tainty to  go  back  in  thought,  for  centuries  in  the  past,  to  a  particular 
month  of  a  particular  year,  when  the  woods  resounded  with  its  song 
in  the  same  manner  as  they  did  last  summer ;  for  so  regularly  do  the 
different  broods  appear,  that  one  is  perfectly  warranted  in  the  assump- 
tion, that  in  the  month  of  June,  in  the  year  1738,  for  instance,  130 
years  ago — they  appeared  in  the  southern  part  of  Missouri,  and  that 
6  years  previously  they  had  appeared  in  the  northwestern  corner  of 
the  same  State. 

Though  so  much  had  hitherto  been  written  about  this  Cicada,  yet 
some  of  the  most  interesting  facts  with  regard  to  it  were  unknown  till 
the  past  season.  A  very  complete  article  on  the  subject  was  publisheft''*"^ 
in  the  December  number  of  the  American  Entomologist,  which  I  shalt 
for  the  most  part  repeat,  and  render  more  complete  by  the  additioa 
of  some  facts  as  to  their  distribution,  which  were  contained  in  some 
unpublished  manuscript  of  the  late  Dr.  Gideon  B.  Smith,  of  Balti- 
more, Md.,  and  which  were  comunnicated  to  me  through  the  kindness 
of  Dr.  J.  G.  Morris  of  the  same  city. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  discover  that  besides  the  17-year  broods, 
the  appearance  of  one  of  which  was  recorded  as  long  ago  as  16-£o,. 
there  are  also  13-year  broads  ;*  and  that,  though  both  sometimes  occur 
in  the  same  States,  yet,  in  general  terms,  the  17-year  broods  may  Ije 
said  to  belong  to  the  Northern,  and  the  13-year  broods  to  the  Soutliei"] 
States,  the  dividing  line  being  about  latitude  38°,  though  in  some 
places  the  17-year  brood  extends  below  this  line,  while  in  Illinois  the 
13-year  brood  runs  up  considerably  beyond  it  It  was  also  exceeding- 
ly gratifying  to  find,  four  months  after  I  had  published  this  fact,  that 
the  same  discovery  had  been  made  years  before  by  Dr.  Smith,  though 
it  had  never  been  given  to  the  world. 

It  so  happened  that  one  of  the  largest  17-year  broods,  together 
with  one  of  the  largest  13-year  broods,  appeared  simultaneously  in. 
the  summer  of  1868.  Such  an  event,  so  far  as  regards  these  two  par- 
ticular broods,  has  not  taken  place  since  the  year  1617,  nor  will  it  take 
place  again  till  the  year  2089. 

There  are  absolutely  no  perceptible  specific  differences  between 

'  the  17-year  and  the  13-year  broods,  other  than  in  the  time  of  maturing ; 

but  whether  or  not,  scientifically  speaking,  they  are  to  be  considered 

as  specifically  distinct,  the  13-year  brood  may,  for  convenience  sake, 

be  called  Cicada  z!?W6(J2'w,  in  contradistinction  to  Cic-ada  septemdecim^ 

*  See  Journal  of  Agricultare,  St.  Louis,  June  13,  1868;  in  which  appeared  the  first  account 
«ver  published  of  suck  *  brood. 


20 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


the  17  yaar  brood.  Mr.  Walsh  informs  me  that  Charles  Darwin,  Prof. 
Asa  Gray,  and  Dr.  Hooker  all  agree  in  the  belief  that  the  17-year  and 
the  13-year  forms  ought  not  to  be  ranked  as  distinct  species,  unless 
other  differences  besides  the  period  of  development  could  be  discover- 
ed, the  mere  rarity  of  variability  in  such  a  point  not  being  sufficient, 

TWO   DISTINCT  FORMS. 

It  is  not  a  little  singular,  also,  that  two  distinct  forms  occur  in 
both  broods— a  large  one  and  a  small  one — the  former  by  far  more 
numerous  than  the  latter.  This  fact  has  been  obsei*vei  in  past  years, 
and  was  noticed  the  present  year  by  independent  observers  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country.*  Indeed,  it  was  observed  by  Dr.  Hildreth, 
of  Marietta,  Ohio,  as  far  back  as  1830  (vide  Silliman's  Journal  XVIII,. 
p.  47).  The  truer  Cicada  sepievidecim  of  Linnaeus  (Fig.  6  A^  ventral 
view  of  male),  as  described  by  Harris  and  Fitch,  occurs  in  the  great- 
est numbers,  both  in  the  17  and  13-year  broods.  It  will  measure,  on  an 
average,  one  and  a  half  inches  from  the  head  to  tip  of  the  closed 
jings,  and  almost  always  expands  over  three  inches.  The  whole 
fnder  siae  of  the  abdomen  is  of  a  dull  orange-brown  color,  and  in 

[Fig  6.] 


the  male  more  especially,  four  or  five  of  the  segments  are  edged  with 
the  same  color  on  the  back. 

The  other  form  (Fig.  6  B,  ventral  view  of  male)  is  not,  on  an  aver- 
age, much  more  than  two-thirds  as  large,  and  usually  lacks  entirely  the 
dull  orange  abdominal  marks,  though  there  is  sometimes  a  faint  trace  of 
them  on  the  edges  of  the  segments  beneath.  This  small  form  was  describ- 
ed in  1851,  by  Dr.  J.  C.  Fisher,  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  "  Philadelphia 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,"  Vol.  V,  pp.  272-3,  as  a  new  species  of 

*  1.  Mr.  v.  T.  Chambers,  in  the  August  number  of  the  "American  Naturalist/'  p.  332', 
is  said  to  point  out  gome  variation  in  color  from  those  described  by  Dr.  Fitch. 

2.  Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon  favored  me  with  specimens  of  both  species  from  Lancaster  county. 
Pa.,  accompanied  with  the  following:  "I  am  justified,  I  think,  in  concluding  these  are  two  dis- 
tinct species.  They  are  difl'erent  in  size  and  coloration,  produce  entirely  different  stridulation, 
do  not  cohabit  indiscriminately,"  etc. 

3.  The  correspondent  to  the  Departintnt  of  Agriculture  (July  Rep.)  from  Hematite,  Mo., 
says:  "There  are  two  species,  one  (both  ui.ilp  and  female)  about  twice  the  size  of  the  other, 
and  differing'  greatly,  also,  in  their  cries  and  actions." 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  21 

Cicada,  hitherto  confounded  with  septemdeeiin^  and  was  x\2iva.e^  Cicada 
cassinlL  His  description  was  followed  by  a  note  from  Mr.  John  Cas- 
sin,  in  which  he  states  that  the  two  forms  show  no  disposition  to  asso- 
ciate together,  and  produce  very  different  cries.  The  fact  of  the  very 
great  difference  in  the  song  of  the  mules  has  been  fully  confirmed  by 
the  observations  of  M.  C.  Hill,  of  Northeast  Ohio,  who  likewise  found 
that  the  small  form  is  very  much  less  numerous  than  the  large  one. 

The  truest  test  of  the  specific  distinction  of  these  two  forms  lies 
in  the  comparative  shape  of  the  male  genital  hooks,  and  on  submit- 
ting specimens  of  both  forms  to  Dr.  H.  Hagen,  of  Cambridge,  Mass., 
formerly  of  Koenigsburg,  Prussia,  he  very  kindly  furnished  the  draw- 
ings (?,  (?,  €,  and  /",  in  Figure  6,  which  show  the  male  genital  hooks  of  both. 
That  oi%e2)temd€cim  is  represented  on  the  outside  at  (?,  on  the  inside  at 
d  ;  and  that  of  casslnii  on  the  outside  at  ^,  and  on  the  inside  at  f. 

By  these  figures,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  are  sufficient  differ- 
ences to  separate  the  two  forms  as  distinct ;  but  while  the  hooks  of 
the  large  kind  f^eptemd&cim)  are  quite  constant  in  their  appearances 
those  of  the  smaller  kind  (Gassinii)  are  variable,  and  in  some  few 
specimens  are  undistinguishable  from  those  of  the  large  kind.  This 
circumstance,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  the  small  kind  regularly  oc- 
curs with  both  the  17  and  13-year  broods,  would  indicate  it  to  be  a 
dimorphous  form  of  the  larger,  or  true  periodical  species;  especially 
when  we  consider  that  dimorphism  and  heteromorphism  are  not  un- 
common among  the  true  Bugs  (Hemiptera).  Mr.  P.  R.  Uhler,  of  Bal- 
timore, Md.,  who  has  given  this  order  of  insects  particular  attention,  in-, 
forms  me  that  he  is  not  fully  satisfied  of  the  specific  distinctness  of 
C.  cassinii  ;  but  Dr.  Hagen  thinks  there  is  no  possible  doubt  of  its 
being  distinct,  for  the  simple  reasons,  as  he  states,  that  dimorphism 
occurs  oi\\j  in  one  sex,  while  here  both  sexes  are  involved;  that 
cassinii  appears  later,  makes  a  different,  noise,  has  different  colors 
and  was  never  seen  to  copulate  with  i^])temdecim.  To  use  Dr.  Ha- 
gen's  own  words,  "  what  more  is  needed  to  make  a  distinct  species  , 
if  one  kind  of  Cica/la  requires  17  years  to  undergo  its  transformations, 
why  not  a  second  kind  ?"  I  find  among  a  great  number  of  specimen, 
whicii  I  have  examined,  that  not  only  do  the  hook^oi  cassinii  V2irj^ 
but  the  other  characters  that  have  been  mentioned  as  belonging  to 
it,  are  variable,  there  being  j)erfectly  intermediate  grades  between  its 
extreme  type  and  that  of  ^ptemdecim.  Again,  on  the  supposition 
that  it  is  a  distinct  species,  the  chances  are  extremely  small,  of  its  is- 
suing together  with"septemde6i7n  in  the  same  year  in  the  many  differ- 
ent localities  hereafter  mentioned.  Therefore,  though  it  will  be  con- 
venient to  use  the  two  names,  1  think  the  two  forms  should  not  be 
ranked  as  distinct.  But  the  discussion  of  the  subject  would  involve 
the  general  problem  of  specific  character. 

The  large  species  has  been  observed  to  make  its  appearance  from 
eight  to  ten  days  earlier  than  the  small  species  (cassinii),  and  there 
is  not  a  single  specimen  of  the  latter,  among  a  number  of  the  13-year 


22  FIRST  ANJTUAL  REPORT  OF 

brood  (tredecim)  that  I  captured  in  May,  though  I  took  a  few  speci- 
mens afterwards. 

THE    SEASON   OF   THEIR   APPEARANCE   AND  DISAPPEARANCE 

differs  somewhat  with  the  latitude,  though  not  so  materially  as  one 
might  suppose.  According  to  the  records,  they  appeared  the  past  season 
earlier  in  the  South  than  in  the  North ;  but  the  last  half  of  May  can  be 
set  down  as  the  period  during  which  they  emerge  from  the  ground,  in 
any  part  of  the  country,  vfhile  they  generally  leave  by  the  -ith  of  July. 
In  St.  Louis  county  the  past  season  they  commenced  issuing  on  the  22d  of 
May,  and  by  the  2Sth  of  the  same  month,  the  woods  resounded  with 
the  rattling  concourse  of  the  perfect  insect.  As  is  the  case  with  a 
great  many  other  insects,  the  males  make  their  appearance  several 
days  before  the  females,  and  also  disappear  sooner.  Hence  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  Cicacia  season,  though  the  woods  are  still  full  of  fe- 
males, the  song  of  but  very  few  males  will  be  heard. 

That  circumstances  favorable  or  otherwise  may  accelerate  or  re- 
tard their  devolopment,  was  accidently  proven,  the  past  season,  by 
Dr.  E.  S.  Hull,  of  Alton,  Illinois ;  as  by  constructing  underground 
flues,  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  vegetables,  he  also  caused  the  Cica- 
das to  issue  as  early  as  the  20th  of  March,  and  at  consecutive  periods 
afterwards,  till  May,  though  strange  to  say  these  premature  individ- 
uals did  not  sing.  They  frequently  appear  in  small  numbers,  and  more 
rarely  in  large  numbers,  the  year  before  or  the  year  after  their  proper 
period.  This  is  more  especially  the  case  with  the  13-year  brood.  Thus 
in  Madison  county  in  Illinois,  and  in  Daviess  and  Clark  counties  m 
Missouri,  there  were  in  1854  a  few  precursors  to  the  true  1855  brood. 
They  were  also  observed  in  Madison  county,  Illinois,  in  1867 ;  while 
''^  L.  W."  writing  from  Guntersville,  Alabama,  to  the  Country  Gen- 
tlanen  of  June  25. 1868,  says,  "some  call  them  14-year  locusts."  Other 
such  cases  will  be  noticed  hereafter. 

THEIR  NATURAL  HISTORY    AND   TRANSFORMATIONS 

have  been  sufficiently  described  in  the  standard  works  of  both  Harris 
and  Fitch,  audit  is  only  necessary  to  mention  a  few  facts  not  recorded 
by  them. 

Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  who  has  himself  witnessed 
four  of  their  periodical  visits,  at  intervals  of  17  years,  discovered  the 
following  very  ingenious  provision  which  the  pupas  (Fig.  7, «)  made  the 
past  season,  in  localities  that  were  low  or  flat,  and  in  which  the  drain- 
age was  imperfect.  He  says :  "  We  had  a  series  of  heavy  rains  here 
about  the  time  of  their  first  appearance,  and  in  such  places  and  un- 
der such  circumstances,  the  pupas  would  continue  their  galleries 
Irom  four  to  six  inches  above  ground  (Fig.  8,  a  full  vieWj  6  sectional 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 

[Fig.  7.3 


view),  leaving  an  orifice  of  egress  even  with  the  surface  (Fig.  8,  e). — 
In  the  upper  end  of  these  chambers  the  pupas  would  be  found  await- 
ing their  approaching  time  of  change  (Fig.  8,  c).  They  would  then  back 
Fig-  8-]  down  to  below  the  level   of   the 

earth,  as  at  ^Z,  and  issuing  forth  from 
the  orifice,  would  attach  themselves 
to  the  first  object  at  hand  and  un- 
dergo their  transformations  in  the 
usual  manner."  Mr.  Rathvon kindly 
furnished  me  with  one  of  these 
elevated  chambers,  from  which  the 
above  drawings  were  taken.  It  mea- 
sured about  four  inches  in  length, 
with  a  diameter  on  the  inside  of  five- 
eighths  of  an  inch,  and  on  the 
outside  of  about  one  and  a  quarter 
inches.  It  was  slightly  bent  at  the 
top  and  sufficiently  hard  to  carry  through  the  mail  without  breaking. 
The  inside  was  roughened  with  the  imprints  of  the  spines  with  which 
tlie  fore  legs  of  the  builder  are  armed.  In  a  field  that  was  being 
ploughed  near  St.  Louis,  about  the  time  of  their  ascent,  I  found 
that  single,  straight  or  bent  chambers  were  the  most  common,  though 
there  were  sometimes  several  branching  near  the  surface  from  a  main 
chamber  below,  each  of  the  branches  containing  a  pupa.  The  same 
observations  have  been  made  by  other  parties.  These  holes  are  cy- 
lindrical and  are  evidently  made  by  oppressing  the  earth  on  all  sides 
and  throwing  the  refuse  to  the  bottom,  which  must  be  quite  a  feat 
when  they  penetrate  hard  roads  or  come  up  between  two  rocks  as 
they  frequently  do. 


24  FIEST  ANNUAL   REPOET   OP 

The  larv£B  are  frequently  found  at  a  great  depth,  nothwithstand- 
ing  its  denial.  Thus  Mr.  Henry  Sadorus  of  Port  Byron,  Illinois,  who 
built  a  house  in  1853,  found  that  they  came  up  through  the  bottom  of 
his  cellar  in  1854,  the  cellar  being  over  five  leet  deep,  and  Mr.  F.  Guy 
of  Sulphur  Springs  informed  me  that  he  had  found  them  at  a  depth  of 
ten  feet  below  the  surface. 

When  ready  to  transform  they  invariably  attach  themselves  to 
some  object,  and,  alter  the  fly  has  evolved,  the  pupa  skin  is  left  still 
adhering,  as  shown  at  Figure  7  h.  The  operation  of  emerging  from 
the  pupa  most  generally  takes  place  between  the  hours  of  6  and  9  p. 
M.;  and  ten  minutes  after  the  pupa  skin  bursts  on  the  back  the  Cicada 
will  have  entirely  freed  itself  from  it.  Immediately  after  leaving  the 
pupa  skin,  the  body  is  soft  and  white,  with  the  exception  of  a  black 
patch  on  the  prothorax.  The  wings  are  developed  in  less  than  an 
hour,  but  the  natural  colors  of  the  body  are  not  acquired  till  several 
hours  have  elapsed.  These  recently  developed  Cicadas  are  somewhat 
dull  for  a  day  or  so  after  transforming,  but  soon  become  more  active, 
both  in  flight  and  song,  as  their  muscles  harden.  For  those  who  are 
not  informed  of  the  fact,  I  will  state  that  the  males  alone  are  capa- 
ble of  "  singing,"  and  that  they  are  true  ventriloquists,  their  rattling 
noise  being  produced  by  a  system  of  muscles  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
body,  which  work  on  the  drums  under  the  wings,  shown  in  Figure  6, 
at  ffff,hj  alternately  tightening  and  loosening  them.  The  general  noise, 
on  approaching  the  infested  woods,  is  a  compromise  between  that  of  a 
distant  threshing  machine  and  a  distant  frog  pond.  That  which  they 
make  when  disturbed  mimics  a  nest  of  young  snakes  or  young  birds 
under  similar  circumstances — a  sort  of  scream.  They  can  also  pro- 
duce a  chirp  somewhat  like  that  of  a  cricket's,  and  a  very  loud  shrill 
screech,  prolonged  for  fifteen  or  twenty  seconds,  and  gradually  in- 
creasing in  force  and  then  decreasing. 

After  pairing,  the  females  deposit  their  eggs  in  the  twigs  of  diff"er- 
ent  trees ;  and  though  for  this  purpose  they  seem  to  prefer  the  oaks 
and  the  hickories,  they  oviposit  in  almost  every  kind  of  deciduous 
tree,  and  even  in  herbaceous  plants,  and  in  evergreens.  We  have  seen 
their  eggs  in  the  Chestnut,  Locust,  Willow  and  Cottonwood,  in  peach 
twigs  of  not  more  than  ^  inch  diameter,  and  also  in  the  stems  of  the 
common  Eupatoriura,  while  R.  H.  Warder,  of  Cleves,  Ohio,  has  found 
them  in  the  following  evergreens :  Thuja  occidentalis,  Juniperus  vir- 
giniana  and  Abies  canadensis,  but  was  unable  to  find  any  traces  of 
their  work  in  either  of  our  common  pines — Pinus  Austriaca,  P.  strobus 
or  P.  sylvestris. 

Dr.  Harris  (Lij.  Ins.  p.  212)  has  well  described  the  mode  of  depos- 
iting, and  it  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  the  female  always  saws  with 
her  head  upwards,  i.  e.  towards  the  terminal  part  of  the  branch,  ex- 
cept when  she  comes  in  contact  with  a  side  shoot,  when,  instead  of 


Tl^   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


25 


=•  ^;1  shifting  a  little  to   one  side,  she  reverses  her  position,^  ^-^ 
01  and  makes  two  punctures  in  an  opposite  direction  to  the 
■i  rest  and  thus  fills  up  the  straic;ht  row  close  to  the  base 


f^' 


of  the  side  shoot.  The  eggs  (Fig.  7  e)  are  of  a  pearl 
,.  white  color,  one-twelfth  of  an  inch  long,  and  taper  to 
^  an  obtuse  point  at  each  end.  They  are  deposited  in 
vif  pairs,  but  separated  by  a  strip  of  wood,  which  is  wider 
11^  —and  thus  causes  the  eggs  to  be  I'urther  apart— at  the 
bottom  of  the  grooves  than  at  their  commencement. 
The  punctured  twigs  bear  the  appearance  of  Figure  9, 
and  frequently  break  off  and  die,  though  the  great  ma- 
jority remain  green  and  recover  from  their  wounds.  In- 
deed, there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  eggs  sel- 
dom hatch  in  those  twigs  which  break  off  and  become^ 
dry,  but  that  the  lite  and  moisture  of  the  twig  is  es- 
sential to  their  life  and  development  of  the  egg,  for  the  eggs 
noticeably  larger  just  before  hatching  than  when  first  depos- 
ited, showing  that  they  are,  to  a  certain  extent,  nourished  by  the  liv- 
ing wood,  as  is  the  case  with  those  of  many  Saw-flies.  Mr.  Rathvon 
has  also  recorded  the  fact  that  the  Cicada  eggs  are  always  shriveled 
in  twigs  that  are  amputated  by  the  Oak-pruner  (Sie>wcorus  villosus^ 
Fabr.)    In  the  healing  of  the  punctured  parts  a  knot  usually  forms 


are 


wounds  had  so  well  healed  on  the  outside,  the  grooves  inside  were 
not  filled  up,  but  still  contained  the  minute  glistening  egg-shells,  from 
which  the  young  larv«3  had  escaped  six  years  before. 

The  eggs  hatch  between  the  20th  of  July  and  the  1st  of  August 
or  in  about  six  weeks  after  being  deposit- 
ed. The  newly  hatched  larva  (Fig.  11) 
differs  considerably  from  the  full  grown 
larva,  but  principally  in  having  much^ 
longer  and  distinctly  8-jointed  antennae.* 
It  is  quite  active,  and  moves  its  antennre 
as  dexterously  and  as  rapidly  as  does  an  ant.  As  soon  as  it  has  extri- 
cated itself  from  an  exceedingly  fine  membrane,  which  still  envelops 
it  after  it  has  left  the  egg,t  our  little  Cicada  drops  deliberately  to  the 
ground;  its  specific  gravity  being  so  insignificant,  that  it  falls  through 
the  air  as  gently  and  as  softly  as  does  a  feather. 

The  cross  veins  near  the  tip  end  of  the  upper  wings  of  the  Peri- 
odical Cicada  form  a  dusky  zig-zag  mark  in  the  shape  of  a  W.  Some 
ignorant  persons  are  silly  enough  to  believe  that  this  mark  portends 

«There  is  frequently  a  ninth  joint  partly  developed. 

fAll  young  GraFshoppers  and  Katydids  that  I  have  ever  hatched  were  invariably  enveloped  in 
a  like  membrane  after  leaving  the  egg,  and  until  this  is  thrown  off  the  young  insect  is  awkward  in 
its  motions.  In  the  case  of  the  young  Cicada,  these  fine  membranes  are  usually  left  attached  to 
the  roughened  orifice  of  their  nidus,  and  thus  form,  together,  a  white  glistening  bunch. 


26  FIRST  ANNUAL  EEPORT  OP 

war.  It  occurs  alike,  though  not  to  such  a  marked  degree,  on  all 
other  Cicadas,  and  if  people  must  have  an  omen  let  them  rather  take 
the  two  AV's  for  warm  weat^ei\  and  it  will  not  be  likely  to  disappoint 
them. 

ENEMIES  OF  THE  CICADA. 

Upon  leaving:  the  ground  to  transform,  the  pupae  are  attacked 
by  diiTerent  quadrupeds,  by  birds,  by  cannibal  insects,  such  as 
Ground-beetles,  Dragon-flies,  Soldier-bugs,  etc.;  while  hogs  and 
poultry  of  all  kinds  greedily  feast  upon  them.  In  the  perfect  fly 
state  they  are  attacked  by  at  least  one  insect  parasite ;  for  dip- 
terous maggots  (the  larvas,  probably,  of  some  Tachina  fly)  may  oc- 
casionally be  found  in  their  bodies.  In  this  state  they  are  also  often 
attacked  by  a  peculiar  fungus,  which  was  first  described  by  Dr.  Leidy, 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 
for  1851.  Dr.  W.  D.  Hartman,  of  Westchester,  Pa.,  speaking  of  the 
occurrence  of  this  fungus,  in  1851,  says  :  "The  posterior  part  of  the 
abdomen,  in  a  large  number  of  male  locusts,  was  filled  by  a  greenish 
fungus.  *  *  *  The  abdomen  of  the  infected  males  was  unusually 
inflated,  dry  and  brittle,  and  totally  dead  loJiile  the  insect  vms  yet 
Hying  about.  Upon  breaking  off  the  hind  part  of  the  abdomen,  the 
dust-like  spores  would  fly  as  from  a  small  puff-ball."  One  male  speci- 
men received  the  present  year  from  Pennsylvania  was  affected  by 
the  same,  or  a  similar  fungus,  the  internal  parts  of  the  abdomen  being 
converted  into  what  appeared  to  be  a  brown  mould. 

P.  H.  Warder,  of  Cleves,  Ohio,  in  speaking  of  this  mould  says: 
It  seemed  to  be  a  drying  up  of  the  contents  and  membranes  of  the 
abdomen,  generally  of  a  brown  color,  and  dry  and  brittle.  I  found 
that  in  many  cases  the  male  organs  of  generation  re.mained  so  firmly 
attached  to  the  female  during  copulation  that  the  male  could  only 
disengage  himself  by  breaking  away,  leaving  one  or  two  posterior 
joints  attached  to  the  female,  and  it  is  these  mutilated  males  which  I 
found  affected  by  the  peculiar  fungus  mentioned,  and  therefore  con- 
cluded that  the  "dry  rot"  might  be  the  result  of  the  broken  mem- 
branes. I  never  found  one  thus  affected  in  the  very  early  part  of  their 
season,  and  I  never  found  a  perfect  male  thus  affected.  But  this  is  not 
positive  proof. 

THE   STING  OF  THE  PERIODICAL   CICADA. 

It  is  astonishing  what  a  wide-spread  fear  exists  of  the  Cicada 
on  account  of  its  stinging  powers.  There  is  scarcely  a  paper  in 
the  United  States  but  published  some  account  of  a  "  locust"  sting 
last  summer,  while  unpublished  accounts  were  equally  numerous. 
One  of  the  editors  of  the  St.  Louis  RepnhliGan  was  kind  enough  to 
clip  out  for  me  all  accounts  of  such  stings,  which  he  found  in 
their  numerous  exchanges,  and  the  number  which  had  accumulated, 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


27 


■before  the  end  of  the  "Locust"  season,  was  truly  surprising.  Some 
people  even  denied  themselves  the  pleasure  of  eating  blackberries, 
raspberries  and  other  fruits,  because  they  feared  these  fruits  had 
been  poisoned  by  the  eggs  of  Cicadas ;  while  others  believed  that 
they  i)oisoned  water.  I  have  endeavored  to  trace  up  a  number  of 
these  reports,  but  have  invariably  found  that  they  were  either  false 
or  greatly  exaggerated,  and  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  the 
great  majority  of  such  accounts  owe  their  origin  to  the  fertile  imagin- 
ations of  newspaper  reporters,  who  are  ever  ready  to  create  a  sen- 
sation. Yet,  to  use  a  common  metaphor,  it  is  strange  there  should 
be  so  much  smoke  and  no  fire,  and  I  will  briefly  review  the  only  three 
methods  by  which  such  stinging  can  possibly  be  produced.  At  the 
same  time,  I  give  it  as  my  conviction  that  there  is  but  little  cause  for 
fear,  as  I  have  handled  hundreds  of  them,  and  know  hundreds  of  per- 
sons, including  children,  who  have  done  the  same,  and  yet  have  never 
been  able  myself  to  witness  a  single  case  of  hona  iide  stinging, 

By  Hornets. — There  is  a  very  large  Digger  wasp  {Stizus  grandis^ 
Sa}^),  represented  of  the  natural  size  in  the  accompanying  Figure  12, 

whose  peculiar  habit  it  is 
to  provision  its  nests  with 
Cicadas.  The  burrows  made 
by  this  Digger  wasp,  or 
hornet,  are  about  three  feet 
long,  with  two  or  three  gal- 
leries about  one  foot  long, 
each  terminating  in  a 
chamber  considerably  en- 
larged. The  female  catch- 
es a  Cicada  which  she  stings 
and  paralyzes,  and  drags 
into  one  of  these  chambers ;  and  it  is  not  very  unlikely  that  she  should 
occasionally  alight  on  some  human  being  with  a  Cicada  in  her  grasp, 
and  upon  being  brushed  off,  should  retaliate  by  stinging  the  offender, 
and  then  fly  off",  leaving  the  Cicada  behind,  which,  in  absence  of  the 
hornet,  would  very  naturally  be  accused  of  the  sting.  An  allied  spe- 
cies of  Digger  wasp  (the  Stisus  speoiosus  of  Say)  has  been  actually 
observed,  by  Mr.  Rathvon,  to  carry  off  a  few  belated  individuals  of 
the  Periodical  Cicada ;  but  the  usual  prey  of  both  these  species  is  the 
larger  annual  Cicada  (  C.  pruinosa^  Say),  and  they  both  occur  too  late 
in  the  season  to  be  the  cause  of  all  the  stinging  we  hear  of. 

By  the  Ovipositor.— The  ovipositor  of  the  female  (Fig.  13,  h)  is 
certainly  capable  of  inflicting  a  wound,  but  the  Cicada  is  anything 
but  pugnacious,  and  when  not  in  the  act  of  ovipositing,  this  instru- 
ment is  securely  enclosed  in  its  sheath.  That  this  is  the  stinging  in- 
strument is  rendered  extremely  doubtful,  for  the  following  reasons : 
1st.     AH  the  stinging  we  hear  of  has  been  done  suddenly,  while  tliQ 


28  FIRST   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

insertion  of  the  ovipositor  would  necessarily  be  a  gradual  opera- 
[Fig.  13.]  tion,  requiring  at  least  one  minute  ;  2d,  The  real  function 
of  the  ovipositor  is  to  convey  an  egg  into  the  wound 
which  it  makes,  and  I  have  been  unable  to  trace  a  single 
case  where  eggs  were  found  in  the  flesh.  All  such  ac- 
counts have  proved  to  be  fabrications,  and  the  straightfor- 
ward report  which  Mr.  Y.  T.  Chambers,  of  Covington, 
Ky.,  gave  inthe  August  number  of  the  American  JSfat- 
uralist^  of  a  negro  being  stung  on  the  foot  by  a  Cicada, 
proved,  after  all,  to  be  a  mistake,  for  "Mr.  Winston  did 
not  see  the  insect  with  its  instrument  in  situ  ;"  3d  the 
three  following  facts,  which  are  reliable,  prove  that 
stinging  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  term,  by  this  instrument 
is  almost  impossible  :  First,  Mr.  Wm.  Muir,  associate  editor  of  Col. 
man's  Rural  Worlds  carefully  lifted  a  female  from  off  a  tree,  while 
she  was  yet  in  the  act  of  ovipositing,  and  as  carefully  placed  her  on 
his  little  finger,  holding  it  as  near  as  possible  in  the  same  direction 
and  position  as  the  branch  grew  from  which  she  was  taken.  She 
instinctively  endeavored  to  continue  ovipositing,  and,  holding  firmly 
to  his  finger,  tried  again  and  again  to  insert  the  ovipositor,  but  with- 
out the  least  success,  for  it  could  not  make  the  least  impression  on 
the  soft  and  yielding  flesh,  but  continually  slipped  from  one  side  to 
the  other.  Second,  it  is  recorded  that  Mr.  Peter  A.  Brown,  of  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  himself  inflicted  a  puncture  with  the  ovipositor,  several 
times,  upon  his  hand,  without  experiencing  any  more  pain  than  that 
produced  by  a  prick  of  a  pin  or  any  other  pointed  instrument,  and 
that  no  swelling  ensued.  Third,  Dr.  Hartman,  of  Pennsylvania,  intro- 
duced some  of  the  moisture  from  the  ovipositor  into  an  open  wound 
and  it  caused  no  inflammation  whatever. 

By  the  Beak,  or  Haustellum. — The  beak  (Fig.  13,  a)  is  an  organ 
which  both  sexes  of  the  Cicada  possess,  and  by  which  they  take  their 
nourishment.  I  have  seen  them  insert  it  into  and  extricate  it  from 
the  branches  of  diff"erent  trees,  and  know  that  the  operation  is  quite 
rapid,  and  that  the  instrument  must  be  quite  sharp  and  strong- 
All  the  more  authentic  cases  of  stinging,  indicate  this  to  be 
the  instrument,*  and  it  is  quite  likely  that,  just  as  the  sting 
of  a  bee  will  aflect  some  persons  nigh  unto  death,  and.  have  no  effect 
whatever  on  others,  so  the  puncture  of  the  beak  of  a  Cicada  will  be 
more  serious  with  some  than  wdth  others.    That  there  is  no  poison 

*Mr.  D.  B.  Wier,  of  Lacon,  Ills.,  who  well  knows  the  difference  between  the  male  and  female 
Cicada,  recollects  distinctly,  thai  when  they  were  there  in  1854,  he  was  stung-  in  the  finger  by  tha 
male,  the  sting  not  causing  very  severe  pain. 

Mr.  R.  T.  Parker,  of  St.  James,  Phelps  county.  Mo.,  an  intelligent  fruit  grower,  who  has  given 
Bome  time  to  the  study  of  insects,  informed  me  that  he  was  stung  on  the  neck  by  a  male  Cicada, 
evidently  \vith  the  beak,  and  that  the  sting  was  not  so  painful  as  that  of  a  bee. 

Dr.  M.  M.  Kenzie,  of  Centerville,  Reynolds  county.  Mo.,  has  communicated  the  fact  that 
Frank  Smith,  aged  14  years,  living  on  Ilenpeck,  in  the  lower  jmrt  of  Reynolds  county,  was  stung 
by  a  Cicada  on  the  b.ack  of  the  left  hand.  The  wound  healed  by  first  intention,  and  the  next 
morning  there  was  only  a  black  clot^  about  the  size  of  ajnn's  head,  to  mark  its  place^  with  scarcely 
S.11J  swelling. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  29 

gland  attached  to  this  beak,  is  no  argnment  agamst  its  stinging  power, 
for  several  true  Bugs  are  known  to  produce  severe  stings  by  their 
beaks,  while  the  hairs  and  spines  of  some  caterpillars  have  a  similar 
power. 

THE  INJURY   WHICH    CICADAS    CAUSE    TO    FRUIT    TREES.— REMEDIES. 

While  living  under  ground  they  have  been  accused  of  killing  pear 
trees,  and  more  especially  by  Miss  Margaretta  H.'Morris,  in  accounts 
of  them  published  in  1840.  The  late  Dr.  Smith,  of  Baltimore,  how- 
ever, who  made  extensive  observations,  denied  their  being  capable  of 
such  injury.    He  says: 

"The  larva  obtains  its  food  from  the  small  vegetable  radicals  that 
everywhere  pervade  the  fertile  earth.  It  takes  its  food  from 
the  surface  ot  these  roots,  consisting  of  the  moist  exudation  (like 
animal  perspiration),  for  which  purpose  its  rostrum  or  snout  is  pro- 
vided with  three  exceedingly  delicate  capillaries  or  hairs  which  pro- 
ject from  the  tube  of  the  snout,  and  sweep  over  the  surface,  gathering 
up  the  minute  drops  of  moisture.  This  is  its  only  food.  The  mode  of. 
taking  it  can  be  seen  by  a  good  glass."— /?i  Prairie  Farmer^  Decern- 
her,  1851. 

While  they  can,  if  they  wish,  insert  their  beaks  into  roots,  and 
very  likely  do  so  in  some  cases,  yet  I  incline  to  believe,  that  Dr. 
Smith's  views  are  correct,  for  though  Dr.  Hull,  of  Alton,  Illinois,  has 
often  found  them  firmly  attached  to  different  roots  by  the  legs,  he  has 
never  found  the  beaks  inserted.  The  fact  that  they  will  rise  from 
land  which  has  been  cleared  of  timber,  cultivated,  and  even  built 
upon  for  over  a  dozen  years,  certainly  contravenes  Miss  Morris's 
statement,  while  their  long  subterranean  existence  precludes  the 
necessity  of  rapid  suction.  It  is  also  quite  certain  that  if  they  thus 
killed- trees,  we  should  oftener  hear  of  it,  and  I  have  captured  a 
gigantic  but  unnamed  species  of  Cicada  on  the  plains  of  Colorado, 
50  miles  from  any  tree,  other  than  a  few  scattering  willows. 

In  the  perfect  state,  hovvever,  the  female  is  capable  of  doing  great 
injury  to  trees  by  hacking  up  their  twigs,  in  the  process  of  depositing, 
and  although  their  injury  in  the  forest  is  not  generally  felt,  it  is  a  very 
different  thing  in  our  orchards,  and  especially  in  the  nursery. 

The  following  editorial  from  the  old  Valley  Farmer  of  November, 
1855,  will  show  how  serious  the  injury  may  sometimes  be : 

"We  planted  an  orchard  of  the  best  varieties  of  apple  trees  last 
spring.  We  had  taken  particular  pains,  not  only  in  selecting  the  best 
varieties,  but  in  planting  the  trees,  and  hoped  in  a  few  years  to  par- 
take ot  the  fruit.  But  our  hopes  were  destined  to  be  blasted.  The 
locusts  during  the  summer  destroyed  nearly  all  of  them ;  not  one  in 
six  is  living.  To  look  at  them  one  would  think  that  some  person  had 
been  drawing  the  teeth  of  a  saw  over  the  bark  ol  every  tree." 

It  also  appears  that  in  some  instances  they  injure  trees  by  the 


30  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

insertion  of  their  beaks  for  nourishment,  for  Mr.  Gustaviis  Pauls,  of 
Eureka,  had  a  young  apricot  tree  which  was  so  thoroughly  punctured 
in  this  manner,  that  he  took  a  gallon  of  coajulated  sap  from  it,  and  he 
attributes  the  death  of  some  of  his  trees  to  this  cause.  I  am  con- 
vinced, however,  that  the  injury  done  in  this  manner  is  comparative- 
ly trifling. 

On  the  13th  of  June  I  was  sent  for  by  four  diiTerent  parties  in  St. 
Louis  county,  who  wished  me  to  try  and  save  their  trees  from  the 
ruinous  work  of  these  cicadas,  which  had  by  this  time  began  to  de- 
posit tjlieir  eggs  in  real  earnest.  I  found  that  when  the  wind  was  high 
they  could,  by  its  aid,  be  driven  to  some  extent,  but  that  without  its 
aid  they  could  not  be  driven  at  all;  as  when  started,  they  are  just  as 
likely  to  fly  behind  as  before  you.  I  tried  lye,  whitewash  and  sul- 
phur, air-slacked  lime  and  finally  carbolic  acid,  and  found  that  none 
of  these  mixtures  would  affect  them.  Indeed,  after  experiments  in- 
volving about  §200,  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  no  available  way  of 
entirely  preventing  this  ruinous  work  when  they  once  commence  to 
deposit.  The  nursery  of  Mr,  Stephen  Partridge,  a  few  miles  west  of 
St.  Louis,  which  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  timber,  was  more  se- 
riously injured  than  any  other  which  I  saw,  and  he  lost  many  hundred 
dollars'  worth  of  apple,  peach  and  pear  stock.  They  also  punctured 
his  grape  vines  very  freely,  preferring  the  Clinton  and  Taylor  among 
varieties.  By  having  all  hands  turn  out  early  in  the  morning,  and 
between  six  and  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  while  they  hung  list- 
lessly to  the  branches,  he  succeeded  in  crushing  thousands  of  them, 
and  thus  saved  parts  of  his  nursery  from  total  ruin.  But  it  becomes  a 
hopeless  task  to  try  to  stay  their  disastrous  work  when  once  they  have 
acquired  full  power  of  flight;  though,  while  in  their  feeble  and  help- 
less condition,  as  they  leave  the  ground,  they  can  not  only  be  de- 
stroyed to  far  greater  advantage  by  human  agency,  but  hogs  and 
poultry  of  all  kinds,  eagerly  devour  them.  There  were,  it  is  true, 
many  accounts  afloat  last  summer  of  hogs  being  poisoned  by  them, 
and,  though  it  is  not  impossible  that  one  was  occasionally  killed  by 
over-glutting,*  such  cases  were  very  rare  indeed.  From  the  foregoing, 
the  importance  of  knowing  beforehand  when  to  expect  them  becomes 
apparent,  and  the  following  chronological  table,  will  not  only  prove 
of  great  scientific  interest  but  of  practical  value.  Li  the  greater  part 
of  Missouri,  the  fruit  grower  may  rest  from  all  anxiety  as  to  their  ap- 
pearance for  thirteen  years  to  come,  but  in  the  month  of  May,  1881, 
let  him  look  out  for  them. 

THEIR    CHRONOLOGICAL  HISTORY,  WITH   PREDICTIONS  OF  THE  FUTURE   APPEAR- 
ANCE OF  ALL  WELL  ASCERTAINED  BROODS  THROUGHOUT  THE  COUNTRY. 

As  nothing  had  been  published  up  to  A.  D.  1868,  as  to  the  re- 
gular appearance  of  any  thirteen  j^ear  broods  of  Cicadas,  it  is  not  at 

*  Mr.  F.  R.  Allen,  of  AUenton,  informs  me  that  during  years  when  the  army  worm  {Leucania 
unipunctata,  Haw.)  occurred  in'such  swarms,  hog-s  and  chickens  feasted  on  them  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  former  frequently  died,  while  the  latter  laid  egsjs  in  which  the  parts  naturally  white  would 
be  entirely  green  when  cooked. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  31 

all  surprising  that  errors  were  committed  by  former  writers  on  the 
subject.  In  the  following  chronology  cf  this  insects  periodical  visits, 
everything  heretofore  published  has  been  revised  as  far  as  possible. 
The  mass  of  facts  from  which  the  generalizations  are  made  would  be 
tedious  if  given  in  detail,  and  are  therefore  for  the  most  part  omitted. 
This  chronology  could  not,  of  course,  be  made  complete  from  a  single 
season's  researches,>nd  it  may  even  contain  errors,  but  it  will  remain 
as  a  foundation  for  tuture  work,  and  before  another  seventeen  years 
shall  have  passed  away,  we  may  hope  to  have  this  part  of  the  history 
of  our  curious  Cicadas  completed  and  perfected. 

While  the  discovery  of  the  thirteen  year  broods,  dispelled  much 
of  the  fog  in  which  this  chronology  had  hitherto  been  wrapped,  it  at 
the  same  time,  rendered  a  complete  and  lucid  exposition  of  that 
chronology  extremely  difficult.  The  northern  boundary  line  of  the 
thirteen  year  broods  is  about  latitude  37°,  but  in  Illinois  one  of  them 
ascends  between  two  and  three  degrees  above  this  line,  while  the 
seventeen  year  broods  descend  below  it  in  several  places,  the  two 
broods  sometimes  occupying  the  same  territory.  Two  broods  of  the  same 
kind,  appearing  in  different  years  may  also  overlap  one  another,  as  in 
the  instance  given  in  the  accoilnt  of  brood  XXII  in  Virginia,  where  the 
"locusts"  appear  every  eighth  and  ninth  year.  In  order  to  make  the 
subject  as  clear  as  possible,  and  to  facilitate  references,  I  have  num- 
bered the  diff"erent  broods  of  this  insect  in  accordance  with  the  date 
of  their  future  appearance  from  and  after  the  present  year. 

BROOD  I.—Septemdecim—lSb2,  1869. 

In  the  year  1869,  and  at  intervals  of  seventeen  years  thereafter, 
they  will,  in  all  probability,  appear  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut 
river.  According  to  Dr.  Asa  Fitch  (N.  Y.  Rep.  I,  p.  40),  they  appeared 
there  in  1818  and  iS35,  and  according  to  Dr.  Smith  they  occurred  in 
Franklin,  Bristol  and  Hampshire  counties,  Massachusetts,  in  1767,  '84, 
1801, '18, '35  and '52. 

BROOD  II.— TrededOT— 1856,  1869. 

In  the  year  1869,  being  the  same  as  the  preceding,  they  will  in  all 
probability  appear  in  Georgia,  in  Habersham,  Rabun?  Muscogee, 
Jasper,  Greene,  Washington  and  adjacent  counties,  having  appeared 
there  in  1843  and  1856,  according  to  Dr.  Smith. 

BROOD  llI.~Septemdeci7n~lSbS,  1870. 

In  the  year  1870,  and  at  intervals  of  seventeen  years  thereafter, 
they  will  in  all  probability  appear  in  what  is  known  as  the  "Kreitz 
Creek  Valley"  in  York  county.  Pa.,  and  possibly  in  Vinton  county, 
Ohio,  and  Jo.  Daviess  county.  Ills.  Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon,  of  Lancaster, 
Pa.,  speaking  of  this  brood,  says:  "Lancaster  county  is  bounded  on 
the  southwest  by  the  Susquehanna  river,  dividing  it  from  the  county 


32  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

of  York,  along  the  northeastern  margin  of  which  there  is  a  mountain 
range,  sloping  down  to  the  river.  Along  that  slope  Cicadas  were  abun- 
dant the  present  season  (1868 — Brood  XXII).  But  on  the  southwest 
side  of  the  range,  in  what  is  known  as  the  Kreitz  Creek  Valley,  there 
were  none.  They  appeared  last  in  this  valley  in  1858,  and  previous  to 
that  year  at  intervals  of  seventeen  years  from  time  immemorial." 
Dr.  Smith  records  their  appearance  in  1853,  both  in  Vinton  county, 
Ohio,  and  Jo.  Daviess  county,  Illinois. 

BROOD  IV.—Tredecim—lS57,  1870. 

In  the  year  1870,  being  the  same  as  the  preceding,  they  will  in 
all  probability  appear  in  Jackson,  Gadsden  and  Washington  counties, 
Florida,  having  appeared  there  according  to  Dr.  Smith  in  1841  and  57. 

BROOD  Y .—Septemdeci7n^lS5i,  1871. 

In  the  year  1871,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will 
in  all  probability  appear  around  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  extend- 
ing as  far  east  as  the  middle  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  and  west  an 
unknown  distance  into  Iowa.  Also  in  Walworth  county  and  other  por- 
tions of  Southern  Wisconsin,  and  southward  into  Illinois.  This  brood 
is  equal  to  Dr.  Fitch's  6th.  It  extends  all  over  Northern  Illinois,  and 
as  far  south  as  Edgar  county,  and  its  appearance  in  1837  and  1854  is 
well  and  thoroughly  recorded.  In  Champaign  count}'",  Ills.,  it  over- 
laps Brood  XVIII,  or  the  Southern  Illinois  ti^edecirii  brood,  while  it 
also  interlocks  with  Brood  XIII  {septemdeciin)  in  the  same  county. 

They  will  also  appear  in  the  same  years  in  the  southeast  by  eastern 
part  of  Lancaster  county.  Pa.,  in  what  is  called  the  "  Pequea  Valley," 
having  appeared  there  in  vast  numbers  in  1854. 

The  earliest  known  record  we  have  of  the  appearance  of  period- 
cal  Cicadas,  is  in  Morton's  "Memorial,"  in  which  it  is  stated  that  they 
appeared  at  Plymouth,  Plymouth  county,  Mass.,  in  the  year  1633. — 
Now,  according  to  that  date,  one  might  be  led  to  suppose  that  this  re- 
corded brood  of  Morton's  belonged  to  this  Brood  III,  as  exactly  14 
IDeriods  of  17  years  will  have  elapsed  between  1633  and  1871;  but, 
strange  to  say,  we  have  no  other  records  of  his  brood  than  that  in  the 
"Memorial,"  whereas  there  are  abundant  records  of  their  appearing 
one  year  later  in  the  same  locality,  ever  since  17S7.  There  is  there- 
fore good  reason  to  believe  that  the  visit  recorded  by  Morton  was  a 
premature  one,  and  that  it  was  properly  due  in  1634.  I  have  there- 
fore placed  it  in  Brood  XIII,  and  have  little  doubt  but  that  if  records 
could  be  found,  these  would  prove  the  Cicadas  to  have  appeared  in 
1651,  1668,  1685,  1702,  1719,  1736,  1753,  and  1770,  as  they  did  in  1787, 
1804,  1821, 1838,  and  1855. 

BROOD  VI.— TYefiecim— 1858,  1871. 

In  the  year  1871,  being  the  same  j^ear  as  the  preceding,  and  at  in- 
tervals of  13  years  thereafter,  they  will  in  all  probability  appear  in 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  33 

the  extreme  southwestern  corner  of  Mississippi,  and  in  the  adjoining 
part  of  Louisiana.  Dr.  D.  L.  Phares  of  Newtonia  (near  Woodville), 
Miss.,  says  that  in  1858  they  extended  over  most  of  Wilkinson  and 
part  of  Amite  counties,  Mississippi,  and  East  and  West  Feliciana,  La. 
He  has  himself  witnessed  the  appearance  of  this  brood  during  the 
years  1832, 1845  cind  1858,  while  it  is  distinctly  remembered  by  aged 
people  in  his  neighborhood  as  having  also  appeared  there  in  the  years 
ISOG  and  1819.  Dr.  Smith  gives  their  range  from  the  Mississippi  river, 
east  to  a  ridge  45  miles  from  thft  river  that  divides  the  State,  north 
and  south,  and  north  and  south  to  the  boundaries  of  the  State ;  re- 
cording them  as  occurring  in  1806,  '19,  '32,  '45  and  '58. 

BROOD  YIl.—  rredecim—lS59,  1872. 

In  the  jear  1872,  and  at  intervals  of  13  years  thereafter,  they  will 
in  all  probability  appear  in  Jackson  county  and  around  Cobden  and 
Jonesboro,  in  Union  county,  South  Illinois,  in  Kansas,  Missouri,  Geor- 
gia, Louisiana,  Tennessee  and  Mississippi. 

According  to  Mr.  Paul  Frick  of  Jonesboro,  they  were  in  Union 
county,  Ills.,  in  1858,  and  he  also  thinks  it  was  a  great  year  for  them 
ahout  1832.  Those  ot  1858  were  probably  premature  stragglers  of  the 
18.59  brood,  while  Mr.  Frick  is  most  likely  mistaken  as  to  the  year 
1832,  since  the  Kev.  George  W.  Ferreil  of  Cobden,  Union  county, 
witnessed  their  appearance  at  that  place  in  1833,  and  also  in  1846  and 
1859;  and  Cyrus  Thomas  has  also  recorded  their  appearance  in  1859 
in  the  5th  Rep.  of  the  Ills.  State  Agr.  Soc,  p.  45S*,  while  a  paragraph 
in  the  Baltimore  (Md.)  Sun  of  June  13,  1859  saj^s  "the  locusts  have 
made  their  appearance  in  'Egypt'  in  Southern  Illinois,  and  cover 
woods  and  orchards  in  swarms."  This  brood  not  improbably  extends 
westward  into  Missouri,  for  several  of  the  old  settlers  around  Eureka, 
in  St.  Louis  county,  Mo.,  recollect  it  being  "  locust  year"  about  the 
time  of  its  last  appearance,  while  Mr.  L.  D.  Votaw  of  Eureka,  and 
Wm.  Muir  of  Fox  Creek,  Mo.,  both  believe  it  was  exactly  9  years  ago, 
or  in  the  year  1859.  Dr.  Smith  records  it  in  DeKalb,  Gwinnett  and 
Newton  counties,  Georgia,  in  1S46  and  '59 ;  in  the  northern  part  of 
Tennessee  also,  in  1846  and  '59;  in  the  whole  eastern  i)ortion  of  Miss- 
issippi from  the  ridge  which  is  45  miles  from  the  river,  on  the  west, 
to  the  eastern  boundary,  in  1820,  '33,  '46,  and  '59 ;  in  Carrol  Parish, 
Louisiana,  in  1859 ;  and  in  Philips  county,  Kansas,  in  the  same  year. 

By  referring  to  Brood  XV,  it  will  be  seen  that  in  1846,  or  during 
the  first  year  of  the  Mexican  war,  this  13-year  brood  appeared  simul- 
taneously with  a  17-year  brood  in  western  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio. 

*  If  Mr.  Paul  Frick  is  correct,  the  brood  be  has  witnessed  may  possibly  be  a  detachment  of 
the  Jlississippi  and  Louisiana  Brood  VI ;  in  which  case  the  Cicadas  appear  for  two  consecutive 
years  in  Union  county,  Ills.,  as  they  do  (See  Broods  XIII  andXIV)  in  Central  Ohio,  and  portions. 
of  Northwestern  Missouri. 

3  R   S  E 


31  FIRST  ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

BROOD  Yl'n..—Septe7ndecim—lSo5,  1872. 

In  the  year  1872,  being  the  same  year  as  the  preceding,  and  at  in- 
tervals of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will,  in  all  probability,  appear  in 
the  southeastern  part  of  Massachusetts ;  across  Long  Island ;  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  up  the  Susquehanna  at 
least  as  far  as  to  Carlisle  in  Pennsylvania;  also, in  Kentucky,  at  Kan- 
awha in  Virginia,  and  Gallipolis,  Ohio,  on  the  Ohio  river.  This  is  the 
brood  referred  to  in  Brood  V,  and  which  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve is  the  one  recorded  by  Morton  in  his  "Memorial,"  as  occurring 
in  1633. 

Dr.  Fitch,  in  the  account  of  his  3d  brood  (N.  Y.  Eep.  I,  p.  39),  says : 
"The  third  brood  appears  to  have  the  most  extensive  geographical 
range.  From  the  southeastern  part  of  Massachusetts,  it  extends 
across  Long  Island,  and  along  the  Atlantic  coast  to  Chesapeake  Bay, 
and  up  the  Susquehanna  at  least  as  far  as  to  Carlisle  in  Pennsylvania; 
and  it  probably  reaches  continuously  west  to  the  Ohio,  for  it  occupies 
the  valley  of  that  river  at  Kanawha  in  Virginia,  and  onwards  to  its 
anouth,  and  down  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  probably  to  its  mouth, 
:and  up  its  tributaries,  west,  into  the  Indian  Territory.  This  brood  has 
appeared  the  present  year,  1855,  and  I  have  received  specimens  from 
Lang  Island,  from  South  Illinois,  and-the  Creek  Indian  country  west 
of  Arkansas,"  etc. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  Dr.  Fitch,  in  this  account, 
has  confounded  this  sejjtemdecim  Brood  VIII,  with  the  great  tredecim 
Brood  XVIII,  for  it  so  happened  that  they  both  occurred  simulta- 
neously in  1855,  but  the  exact  dividing  line  of  these  two  broods  is  not 
^o  easily  ascertained.  Certainly,  after  reaching  the  Ohio  river,  the 
<^&ptemdeGV}n  brood  extends  beyond  Gallipolis,  Ohio,  for  Prof.  Potter, 
in  his  "Notes  on  the  Cicada  decern  septiraa,"  records  their  appear- 
ance at  that  place  in  1821 ;  and  Dr.  Smith  records  their  appearance  at 
;Frankfort,  Lexington  and  Flemingsburg,  Kentucky,  in  1838,  and  1855. 
;But  I  strongly  incline  to  believe  that  well  nigh  the  rest  of  the  terri- 
tory mentioned  bj  Dr.  Fitch  was  occupied  by  the  tredecim  brood,  the 
jeasons  for  which  belief  will  be  found  in  the  account  of  brood  XVIII. 

Cicadas  also  appeared  in  Buncombe  and  McDowell  counties.  North 
tCajolina,  in  1855,  but  until  they  appear  there  again  it  will  be  impossi- 
ble to  say,  positively,  whether  they  belong  to  this  septemdecim  Brood 
Till,  or  to  the  tredecim  Brood  XVIII. 

BROOD    lX—Septemdecim—\%hl,   1874. 

la  the  year  1874,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will 
propably  occsar  in  southeast  Nebraska. 

The  occurrence  of  this  brood  was  communicated  to  me  by  Mr. 
Olarke  Irvine,  of  Oregon,  Holt  county.  The  brood  is  most  likely  con- 
fiiied  to  the  eastern  or  timbered  portion  of  the  State,  and  I  judge  it 
to  be  sepiemdeeim^  from  the  fact  that  the  latitude  is  rather  more 
norilierly  than  tredecim  is  known  to  occur. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  35 

BROOD  X— Tre (feci m— 1862,    1875. 

In  the  year  1875,  and  at  intervals  of  13  years  thereafter,  they  will 
most  likely  occur  in  different  parts  of  Texas.  According  to  Dr.  Smith 
they  appeared  in  vast  numbers  in  some  parts  of  Texas  in  1819,  though 
he  was  not  able  to  get  any  particulars. 

BROOD  Xl—Septcmdecim—lSb9,   1876. 

In  the  year  1876,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will 
in  all  probability  appear  in  parts  of  North  Carolina,  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, Illinois  and  Indiana.  According  to  Dr.  Smith  they  appeared 
from  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  to  near  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  1812 
and  1859  ;  in  Rowan,  Davie,  Cabarras  and  Iredell  counties  in  the  same 
Slate  in  1825,  1812  and  1859;  in  the  valley  of  Virginia  as  far  as  the 
Blue  Ridge  on  the  east,  the  Potomac  river  on  the  north,  the  Tennes- 
see and  North  Carolina  lines  on  the  south,  and  for  several  counties 
west,  in  1808, 1812  and  1859  ;  in  the  south  part  of  St.  Mary's  county, 
Maryland,  dividing  the  county  about  midway  east  and  west,  in  1825, 
1812  and  1859;  in  Illinois  about  Alton  in  1812  and  1859;  and  in  Sulli- 
van and  Knox  counties,  Indiana,  in  1812  and  1859. 

BROOD  XU—Scptemdecim—lSiJO,  1877. 

In  the  year  1877,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  in  the  vicinity  of  Schuylerville  and  Fort 
Miller,  in  New  York.  From  thence  along  both  sides  of  the  Hudson  to 
its  mouth,  where  they  extend,  at  least,  to  New  Haven,  in  Connecticut, 
and  west  across  the  north  part  of  New  Jersey  and  into  Pennsylvania. 
Also  in  Dearborn  county,  Indiana;  Kalamazoo,  Michigan;  in  Penn- 
sj^lvania.  North  Carolina,  Virginia  and  JMaryland. 

This  brood  is  recorded  by  Prof.  Potter  as  having  occurred  at 
North  Haven,  Conn.,  in  1721, 1711,  1758,  1792, 1809  and  1826.  It  was 
also  recorded  by  the  same  writer  as  having  occurred  in  1826  in  Mid- 
dlesex county,  N.  J.,  and  by  Dr.  Fitch  as  having  occurred  in  1813 
throughout  the  whole  country  mentioned  above.  In  1860,  again,  it 
was  spoken  of  in  the  old  series  of  the  Prairie  Farmer  (Vol.  22,  p. 
119)  as  having  occurred  that  year  in  New  Jersey,  and  Dr.  Smith  re- 
cords it  throughout  the  whole  State  in  1775,  1792, 1809,  1826  and  1813. 
Mr.  Jas.  Angus,  of  West  Farms,  Westchester  county,  N.  Y.,  has  him- 
self witnessed  its  recurrence  in  the  years  1813  and  I860. 

In  Pennsylvania,  Mr.  Rathvon  found  a  few  individuals  in  1860,  and 
Dr.  Smith  says  it  extends  from  the  Susquehanna  to  the  Delaware  riv- 
er, bounded  hj  Peter's  mountain  on  the  south.  In  Virginia  it  oc- 
curred from  the  south  part  of  Loudon  county  to  the  Roanoke  river, 
and  from  the  Blue  Ridge  to  the  Potomac  in  1826, 1813  and  1860.  In 
Maryland  from  Ann  Arundel  county  to  the  north  part  of  St.  Mary's, 
and  from  ihe  Potomac  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  in  1809,  1826,  1813  and 
1860.    In  Rockingham,  Stokes,  Guilford,  Rowan,  Surrej'-  and  adjacent 


36  FIRST  ANNUAL   EEPORT   OF 

counties,  North  Carplina,  in  1792, 1809,  1826  and  1843.  In  Dearborn 
county,  Indiana,  in  184:3  and  in  1860,  and  in  Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  dur- 
ing the  same  years. 

BROOD  XJII.—Septemdeci7)v—lSGl,  1S78. 

In  the  year  1878,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  along  the  centre  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  all 
along  the  southern  part  of  Iowa,  and  around  St.  Joseph,  in  Buchanan 
count}'',  in  North  Missouri. 

The  records  are  abundant,  of  their  appearance,  in  1814  and  1861, 
all  along  the  southern  border  of  Iowa,  and  in  Mason,  Fulton,  McDon- 
ougli  and  Champaign  counties  in  Central  Illinois.  In  1861  they  also 
occurred  in  Champaign  county,  Central  Ohio,  and  in  Buchanan  county, 
Northwest  Missouri ;  and  this  brood  not  unlikely  occupies,  more  or 
less,  the  whole  strip  of  country  between  these  two  points.  Their  ap- 
pearance in  1861  was  associated  with  the  first  year  of  the  rebellion; 
and  Dr.  Smith  records  this  brood  both  in  Illinois  and  Iowa  in  1814. 

BROOD  XIY .—Septemdccim—lS52,  1879. 

In  the  year  1879,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  in  the  whole  of  western  Missouri,  commenc- 
ing south  about  Johnson  and  Saline  counties,  and  extending  in  a 
northwesterly  direction  to  Lawrence  and  above,  in  Kansas,  south  to 
Arkansas,  and  west  an  unknown  distance  into  Kansas;  also,  in  Cen- 
tral Ohio. 

The  occurrence  of  this  brood  in  1845  and  1862  is  well  remembered 
by  several  of  my  correspondents,  and  is  recorded  by  Dr.  Smith.  At 
St.  Joseph,  in  Buchanan  county.  Mo.,  Cicadas  were  not  bo  thick  in 
1862  as  in  1861.  Had  it  been  the  reverse,  or,  in  other  words,  had  they 
been  more  numerous  in  1862  than  in  1861, 1  should  have  been  inclined 
to  record  the  visit  of  1861  as  but  a  precursor  to  this  Brood  X  ;  but  as 
it  is,  I  believe  the  two  broods  are  distinct,  and  that  they  occur  for  two 
consecutive  years,  both  in  Central  Ohio  and  in  portions  of  Northwest 
Missouri. 

This  brood  has  not  been  traced  further  east,  in  Missouri,  than  Sa- 
line county,  and  yet  a  detachment  of  it  certainly  occurs  in  Ohio,  for 
Mr.  Clarke  Irvine,  of  Oregon,  Holt  county,  Mo.,  well  remembers  their 
occurrence  in  Central  Ohio  in  1845  and  1862.  Though  there  is  no 
knowledge  of  the  appearance  of  this  Brood  XIV  in  Illinois,  yet  the 
fact  of  its  occurring  both  in  Ohio  and  in  North  Missouri,  and  that,  too, 
but  one  year  after  Brood  XIII,  would  indicate  that  there  may  have 
been,  in  times  past,  at  all  events,  if  there  is  not  at  the  present  day,  a 
geographical  connection  between  these  two  broods, 

BROOD  XY.—Septemdecim—186S,  1880. 

In  the  year  1880,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  from  western  Pennsylvania  to  Sciota  river, 


THE  STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  37 

east,  and  down  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  river  as  far  as  Lewis  county,  in 
Virginia. 

This  brood  is  recorded  in  Ohio  as  far  back  as  the  year  1812,  by 
"A.  M.  B.,"  writing  to  the  Chicago  Trihune^  under  date  of  June  22, 
1S6S.  Harris  also  records  its  appearance  in  Ohio  in  1829,  and  they 
were  quite  numerous  in  Coles  county,  in  the  centre  of  the  same  State 
in  1846,  or  during  the  first  year  of  the  Mexican  war,  while  Dr.  Smith  re- 
cords it  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  extending  over  twelve  coun- 
ties, west,  to  the  Sciota  river,  and  to  Sandusky,  on  Lake  Erie,  in  1829, 
'46  and  '63 ;  and  in  Lewis  county,  Virginia,  since  1795.  As  before 
stated  this  brood  occurred  in  Ohio  in  1816,  simultaneously  with  the 
tredeclm  brood  VII  in  South  Illinois.  Dr.  Fitch,  in  his  account  of  his 
5th  brood,  also  records  its  appearance,  and  states  that  it  reached  to 
Louisiana.  But  just  as  the  septeindecim  Brood  VIII  was  confounded 
with  the  great  tredecim  Brood  XVIII  in  1855,  so  this  septemdecim 
Brood  XV  was  doubtless  also  confounded  with  it  in  1829,  for  they  both 
occurred  that  year.  Had  the  western  country  been  as  thickly  settled  in 
1829  as  it  was  in  1855,  the  tredeclm  Brood  XVIII  could  undoubtedly 
have  been  traced  in  Southern  Illinois  and  Missouri,  etc.,  in  the  former 
as  it  was  in  the  latter  year.  This  belief  is  furthermore  greatly. 
strengthened  from  our  having  no  other  record  of  the  appearance  of 
this  septemdecim  brood,  in  Louisiana,  than  Prof.  Potter's  statement 
that  they  appeared  there  in  1829,  whereas  they  have  occurred  there 
since  1829  at  intervals,  not  of  17,  but  of  13  years,  and  were  there  the 
present  year,  1868,  as  will  be  seen  on  referring  to  Brood  XVIII.  The 
dividing  line  of  these  two  broods  (XV  and  XVIII)  is  probably  the 
same  as  with  broods  VIII  and  XVIII. 

BROOD  XVI.— Tredecjjji— 1867,  18S0. 

In  the  year  1880,  being  the  same  as  the  preceding,  they  will,  in 
all  probability,  appear  in  the  north  part  of  Cherokee  county,  Georgia, 
having  appeared  there  according  to  Dr.  Smith  in  1828,  '11,  '54,  and  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Morris,  in  1867.  This  brood  occurred  in  1867  simultane- 
ously with  the  northern  septemdecim  brood  XXI. 

BROOD  '^sNll.— Septemdecim— I'i^i,  1881. 

In  1881,  and  at  intervals  of  17  j'^ears  thereafter,  they  will,  in  all 
probability,  appear  in  Marquette  and  Green  Lake  counties,  in  Wis- 
consin, and  may  also  appear  in  the  western  part  of  North  Carolina, 
and  about  Wheeling,  Virginia;  in  Northeast  Ohio,  and  a  lew  in  Lan- 
caster county,  Pa.,  and  Westchester  county.  New  York. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  tiiey  appeared  in  the  counties 
named  in  Wisconsin  in  1864,  and  fair  evidence  that  they  appeared  that 
year  in  Summit  county,  Northeast  Ohio,  while  straggling  specimens 
were  found  in  the  same  year,  by  Mr.  S.  S.  Kuthvon,  in  Lancaster  coun- 
ty. Pa.,  and  by  Mr.  James  Angus,  in  Westchester  count}-,  N.  Y.  Dr. 
Fitch  also  records  their  appearance  in  18  i7,  or  17  years  i^reviously,  in 


38  FIRST  ANJ5UAL  REPORT   OF 

the  western  part  of  North  Carolina,  and  Dr.  Smith,  in  Wheeling,  Vir- 
ginia, in  1830,  '47  and  YU.  The  distance  between-  the  localities  given 
is  very  great,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  all  these  records  belong  to 
one  and  the  same  brood, 

BROOD  XViri.— Trc(fem— 1868,  1881. 

In  the  year  1881,  and  at  intervals  of  13  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  in  Southern  Illinois,  throughout  Missouri, 
with  the  exception  of  the  northwestern  corner,  in  Louisiana,  Arkan- 
sas, Indian  Territory,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
Georgia,  and  North  and  South  Carolinas. 

Though,  as  already  stated,  I  published  the  first  account  ever  given 
of  the  existence  of  a  13-year  brood,  yet,  besides  the  others  mentioned 
in  this  chronology,  this  particular  brood  has  been  traced  since,  as 
having  occurred  in  the  years  lS16,  '29,  '-12,  '55  and  '68;  and  Mr.  L.  VV. 
Lyon,  at  the  July  (1S6S)  meeting  of  the  Alton,  (Ills.)  Horticultural 
Society,  even  mentioned  its  appearance  in  1803. 

In  Missouri,  it  occurs  more  or  less  throughout  the  whole  State 
with  the  exception  of  the  northwest  corner  that  is  bounded  on  the 
east  by  Grand  river,  and  on  the  south  by  the  Missouri  river.*  The 
southeast  part  of  the  Slate,  wliere  Dr.  Smith  has  recorded  it  since 
1829,  is  most  thickly  occupied.  1  enumerate  those  counties  in  which 
there  is  undoubted  evidence  of  their  appearance  during  the  present 
year  (1868)  viz.:  Audrain,  Bollinger,  Benton,  Clarke,  Chariton,  Calla- 
way, Cooper,  Cole,  Franklin,  Gasconade,  Iron,  Jefferson,  Knox, 
Lewis,  Marion,  Macon,  Morgan,  Moniteau,  Tike,  Phelps,  Pulaski, 
Polk,  Pettis,  Schuyler,  St.  Charles,  St.  Louis,  St.  Francois,  St.  Clair, 
Warren,  and  Washington. 

It  not  improbably  overlaps  some  of  the  territory  occupied  by 
the  septemdeoim  Brood  XiV,  but  1  do  not  think  it  extends  into 
Kansas. 

In  Illinois  it  occurs  more  or  less  throughout  the  whole  southern 
half  of  the  State,  but  more  especially  occupies  the  counties  from  the 
south  part  of  Adams  county  along  the  Mississippi  to  the  Ohio,  up  the 
Ohio  and  Wabash  rivers  to  Edgar  county,  and  then  across  the  centre 
of  the  State,  leaving  sonle  ot  the  central  counties  in  South  Illinois 
unoccupied.  To  be  more  explicit,  I  enumerate  all  the  counties  in 
which  it  undoubtedly  occurred  during  the  present  year  (1808): 
Adains  (south  part,  back  of  Quincy),  Bond,  Clinton  (northwest  corner, 
adja(;ent  to  Madison),  Ciiampaign,  Coles,  Crawlbrd,  Cumberland,  Clay, 
Clark,  Edwards,  Edgarf  (es()ecially  in  the  eastern  part),  Franklin, 
Gallatin, .Hardin,  Hamilton,  Johnson,  Jasper,  Jersej^  Jefferson,  Law- 
rence, McLean  (east  end),  Macon,  Madison,  Marion,  Massac,  Monroe, 

*As  Mr.  Wm.  Raucher,  of  Oregon,  Holt  county,  f=aw  a  few  individuals  in  the  northeast  part 
of  Buchanan  county  in  1855,  it  may  occur  in  siuall  numbers  in  districts  even  north  of  the  Mis- 
souri river. 

f  Edgar  county  also  has  tlie  scptemdecim  Brood  III. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  '  39 

Pike,  Perry,  Piatt,  Pope,  Richland,  Randolph,  Sangamon,  Saline,  St. 
Clair,  Union  (northeast  corner),  Washington,  AVayne,  Wabash,  Wil- 
liamson and  White.  There  were  none  tlie  present  year,  either  at 
Decatur,  in  Macon  county,  or  at  Pana  in  Christian  county;  nor  were 
there  any  at  Bloomington  or  Normal,  in  McLean;  nor  in  Dewitt 
county,  which  lies  south  of  McLean;  nor  in  Spring  Creek,  Iroquois 
county,  which  is  northeast  of  Champaign. 

In  Kentucky,  according  to  Dr.  Smith,  it  occurred  in  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  State,  about  Paducah  and  adjacent  counties  south,  in 
1829,  '42,  and  '55,  and  it  occurred  there  in  1868. 

In  Arkansas,  it  occupied  all  the  northern  counties  in  1842,  '55 
and  '68. 

In  Alabama,  it  occupied  Russell  and  adjacent  counties  on  the 
east  side  of  Black  Warrior  river,  in  1842,  '55  and  '68. 

In  Tennessee,  it  occupied  Davidson,  Montgomery,  Bedford,  Wil- 
liamson, Rutherford  and  adjacent  counties  in  1842,  '55*  and  '68. 

In  North  Carolina,  it  appeared  in  Mecklenburg  county,  in  1829, 
'42,  '55  and  '68. 

In  South  Carolina,  the  Chester  district  and  all  the  adjoining  coun- 
try to  the  Georgia  line,  west,  and  to  the  North  Carolina  line,  north, 
was  occupied  with  it  in  1816,  '29,  '42,  '55  and  'QK 

In  Georgia,  it  has  occurred  in  Cherokee  county  since  the  jeai 
1816. 

In  Louisiana,  it  appeared  in  Morehouse,  Caddo,  Clairborne,  Wash- 
ington and  adjacent  parishes,  in  1855  and  '68. 

It  also  doubtless  occurs  in  Mississippi  and  Indian  Territory,  though 
I  am  unable  to  specify  any  localities. 

BKOOD  XlX.—Sc]}temdecim—lS&5,  1SS2. 

In  the  year  1882,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  in  Monroe,  Livingston,  Madison  and  adjacent 
counties,  and  around  Cayuga  Lake,  in  New  York. 

Mr.  T.  T.  Southwick,  of  Manlius,  Livingston  county,  records  their 
appearance  there  in  1865,  and,  as  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  the 
Prairie  Farmer^  vol.  16,  p.  2,  they  appeared  during  the  same  year 
near  Cayuga  Lake,  while  Dr.  Smith  records  their  appearance  in  1797, 
1814,  '31  and  48. 

BROOD  XS..—Septemdeciin~\^m,  18S3. 

In  the  year  1883,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  in  w^estern  New  York,  western  Pennsyl- 
vania and  eastern  Ohio.  In  the  last  mentioned  State  they  occur  more 
especially  in  Mahoning,  Carroll,  Trumbull,  Columbiana  and  adjacent 
counties,  overlapping,  especially  in  Columbiana  county,  some  of  the 

*  Thougli  they  occurred  in  large  numbers  in  Davidson  county  and  other  portions  of  Tennessee 
in  1855,  and  also  the  present  year,  yet  in  Lawrence  county  they  appeared  in  1856,  instead  of  1855 — 
another  instance  of  a  belated  brood. 


40  '  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

territory  occupied  by  Brood  XV.  In  Pennsylvania,  tliey  occupy 
nearly  all  the  western  counties,  and  thexr  appearance  is  recorded  in 
1832,  '49  and  '6G,  by  Dr.  Fitch  (his  second  brood),  Dr.  Smith,  and  sev- 
eral of  my  correspondents;  the  following  counties  being  enumerated: 
Armstrong,  Clarion,  Jefferson,  Chemung,  Huntingdon,  Cambria,  Indi- 
ana, Butler,  Mercer  and  Beaver. 

BROOD  XXl.—Septemdecim—lSG7,  1884. 

In  the  year  1884,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  probability,  appear  in  certain  parts  of  North  Carolina  and  Cen- 
tral Virginia.  In  1850  and  1867  they  appeared  near  Wilkesboro  N.  C, 
and  were  also  in  Central  Virginia  during  the  last  mentioned  year, 
while  Dr.  Smith  mentions  them  as  occurring  in  Monroe  county,  and 
the  adjacent  territory,  in  Virginia  in  1833  and  1850. 

Dr.  Harris  (Inj.  Insects,  p.  210)  records  their  appearance  at  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard,  Massachusetts,  in  1833,  but  as  I  cannot  learn  that  they 
were  there,  either  in  1850  or  1867, 1  infer  that  Dr.  Harris's  informant 
was  mistaken. 

BROOD  XXII.—Septemdecim^lSC'S,  1885. 

In  the  year  1885,  and  at  intervals  of  17  years  thereafter,  they  will, 
in  all  ]3robability,  ax^pear  on  Long  Island ;  at  Brooklyn,  in  Kings 
county,  and  at  Rochester  in  Monroe  county.  New  York ;  at  Fall  River, 
and  in  the  southeastern  portion  of  Massachusetts  ;  at  Oakland  (Rut- 
land?), Vermont;  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  District  of  Columbia, 
Delaware  and  Virginia;  in  northwestern  Ohio,  in  southeastern  Michi- 
gan, in  Indiana  and  Kentucky. 

This  brood  has  been  well  recorded  in  the  East  in  1715, 1732, 1749, 
1766, 1783, 1800,  1817, 1834,  1S51  and  1868.  It  is  spoken  of  in  "  Haz- 
zard's  Register"  for  1834,  published  in  Philadelphia,  while  Mr.  Rath- 
von  has  himself  witnessed  its  occurrence  during  the  four  latter  years 
in  Lancaster  county,  Pa. 

It  is  the  fourth  brood  of  Dr.  Fitch,  who  only  says  that  it  "reaches 
from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  to  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and 
what  appears  to  be  a  detached  branch  of  it  occurs  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Massachusetts."  He  is  evidently  wrong  as  to  its  occurring  in 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  it  is  strange  that  he  does  not  mention 
its  appearance  in  New  York,  for  Mr.  F.  W.  Collins,  of  Rochester,  in 
that  State,  has  witnessed  four  returns  of  it  tliere,  namely :  in  1817, 
'34,  '51  and  '68,  while  the  Brooklyn  papers  record  its  appearance  there 
the  present  season.  As  these  two  points  in  the  State  are  about  as  far 
apart  as  they  well  can  be,  the  intervening  country  is  probably  more 
or  less  occupied  with  this  brood.  Mr.  H.  Rutherford,  of  Oakland,*  Ver- 
mont, records  their  appearance  in  that  neighborhood  in  1851  and  1868. 

*I  can  find  no  such  post  office  as  Oakland  in  Vermont,  and  incline  to  believe  that  the  Tribune 
compositor  made  Oakland  out  of  Rutland,  and  more  especially  as  Rutland  is  on  the  New  York 
border. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  41 

(N.  Y.  Semi-Weekly  Trihune^3m\Q  27).  He  also  witnessed  them  in 
the  same  place  in  1S55,  and  as  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  Brood 
XVIII,  they  also  occurred  on  Long  Island  and  in  southeastern  Massa- 
chusetts in  that  same  year,  1S55.  Exactly  13  "years  intervening  be- 
tween 1855  and  1S6S,  one  miirht  be  led  to  suppose  that  they  hai  a 
tredeciyn  brood  in  the  East.  But  did  such  a  brood  exist,  it  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  discovered  ere  this,  in  such  old  settled  parts  of  the 
country,  and  all  the  records  go  to  show  that  they  have  nothing  but 
septemdechn  there.  By  referring  to  Brood  VIII,  the  mystery  is  readily 
solved,  for  we  find  that  in  that  part  of  the  country  there  are  two  sep- 
temdecim  broods — the  one  having  last  appeared  in  1855 — the  other 
the  present  year,  1868. 

In  Ohio,  this  brood  occurred  more  or  less  throughout  the  whole 
western  portion  of  the  State,  for  our  correspondents  record  them  as 
having  appeared  in  1868  in  Lucas  and  Hamilton  and  several  interven- 
ing counties.  Mr.  F.  0.  Hill,  of  Yellow  Springs,  in  Green  county, 
Southwest  Ohio,  has  witnessed  their  appearance  in  1834, 1851  and  1868, 
and  they  occurred  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  State  during  the 
three  same  years;  w^hile  the  correspondent  to  the  Department  of  x\g- 
riculture,  from  Toledo,  Northwest  Ohio  (July,  1868,  Monthly  Rep.),  says 
'  it  is  their  9th  recorded  visit  there.  Dr.  Smith  records  it  as  occurring 
around  Cincinnati,  in  Franklin,  Columbiana,  Pike  and  Miami  coun- 
ties. 

In  Indiana,  there  is  reliable  evidence  of  their  appearance,  in  1868, 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  in  Tippecanoe,  Delaware,  Vigo, 
Switzerland,  Hendricks,  Marion,  Dearborn,  Wayne,  Floyd,  Jeflerson 
and  Eiclimond  counties.  The  evidence  seems  to  show  that,  as  in  Ohio, 
throughout  the  State,  they  belong  to  this  septemdecim  Brood  XXII, 
for  Mr.  F.  Guy,  of  Sulphur  Springs,  Mo.,  has  personally  informed  me 
that  they  were  in  Southern  Indiana  in  1851,  and  even  in  Tippecanoe 
county,  on  the  Wabash  river,  where,  from  their  proximity  to  Brood 
XVHI,  one  might  have  inferred  them  to  be  tredecim^  they  are  recorded 
as  appearing  in  1831  and  '51. 

In  Kentucky  they  appeared  around  Louisville.  In  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  Delaware  and  Virginia,  the  territory  occupied  by  this  brood 
is  thus  described  by  Dr.  Smith:  "Beginning  at  Germantown,  Pa.,  to 
the  middle  of  Delaware ;  west  through  the  east  shore  of  Maryland  to 
the  upper  part  of  Ann  Arundel  county;  thence  through  the  District 
of  Columbia  to  Loudon,  West  Virginia,  where  it  MST  laps  over  the 
South  Virginia  district  (see  Brood  XII)  from  the  Potomac  to  Loudon 
county,  some  10  or  12  miles  in  width,  and  in  this  strip  of  territory  Ci- 
cadas appear  every  8th  and  9th  year.  Thence  the  line  extends 
through  the  north  counties  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  to  the  Savage 
mountains,  and  thence  along  the  south  tier  of  counties  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, to  Germantown." 

From  the  above  synoptical  view  it  results  that  there  will,  during 
the  next  17  years,  be  broods  of  the  Periodical  Cicada  somewhere  or 


42 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT    OP 


other  in  the  United  States  in  A.  D.  1869,  '70,  '71,  '72,  '74,  '75,  '76,  '77,  '78, 
'79,  'SO,  '81,  'S2,  '83,  '81  and  '85— or  every  year  but  1873.  It  further  ap- 
pears that  the  number  of  distinct  broods,  appearing  in  distinct  years, 
within  the  following  geographical  districts,  are  as  follows :  In  south- 
ern New  England  4  broods,  years  '69,  '72,  '77  and  '85;  in  New  York  5 
broods,  years '72, '77, '82, '83  and  '85;  in  New  Jersey  2  broods,  years 
'72  and  '77;  in  Pennsylvania  7  broods,  years  '70,  '71,  '72,  '77,  '60,  'b3  and 
85 ;  in  Ohio  7  broods,  years  '72,  '78,  '79,  '80,  81,  '83  and  '85 ;  in  Indiana 
4  broods,  years  '71,  '76,  '77  and  '85 ;  in  Illinois  6  broods,  years  '71,  '72*, 
'76,  '77,  '78  and  '81*,  and  probably  another  in  Jo  Daviess  county, 
year  '70;  in  Wisconsin  2  broods,  years  '71  and  '82;  in  Michigan  2 
broods,  years  '71  and  '85 ;  in  Iowa  2  broods,  years  '71  and  '78;  in  Ne- 
braska 1  brood,  year  '74 ;  in  Kansas  2  broods,  years  '7^*  and  '79  ;  in 
Missouri  4  broods,  years  '72*,  78,  '79  and  '81*  ;  in  Louisiana  and  Mis- 
sissippi 3  broods,  years  '71*,  '72*  and  81*  ;  in  Tennessee  2  broods, 
years  '72*  and  '81*  ;  in  Arkansas,  Indian  Territory  and  Alabama,  1 
brood,  year  '81*;  in  Kentucky  3  broods,  years  '72, '81*  and  85;  in 
Georgia  4  broods,  years  '69*,  '72*,  '^0*  and  '81*  ;  in  South  Carolina  1 
brood,  year  '81*  ;  in  North  Carolina  6  broods,  years  '72?,  '76,  '77,  '81?, 
'81*  and '84;  in  East  and  West  Virginia  5  broods,  years  '72, '77, '80, , 
'81  and  84;  in  Maryland  4  broods,  years  '72,  '76,  77  and  85;  in  District 
of  Columbia  1  brood,  year  '85;  in  Delaware  2  broods,  years  '72  and 
85  ;  in  Florida  1  brood,  year  73*  ;  in  Texas  1  brood,  year75*. 

*  The  broods  marked  (*)  belong  to  the  IS-year  or  tredecim  race  of  the  Periodical  Cicada. 


APPLE-TREE  BORERS. 

(Coleoptera,  CerambicidiB.) 

THE  ROUND-HEADED  APPLE-TREE  BOUER—Saperda  bivittata,  Say. 

[Fig.  14.] 


«/  6  O 

It  is  a  fact  which  has  not  been  disputed  by  any  one  whom  I  have 
queried  on  the  subject,  that  apple  trees  on  our  ridges  are  shorter 
lived  than  those  grown  on  our  lower  lands.  Hitherto  no  particular 
reason  has  been  given  for  this  occurrence,  but  I  think  it  is  mainly  at- 
tributable to  the  workings  of  the  borer  now  under  consideration.    I 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


43 


have  invariably  found  it  more  plentiful  in  trees  growing  on  high  land 
than  in  those  growing  on  low  land,  and  it  has  also  been  my  experi- 
ence that  it  is  worse  in  ploughed  orchards  than  in  those  which  are 
seeded  down  to  grass.    Fifty  years  ago,  large,  thrifty,  long-lived  trees 
were  exceedingly  common,  and  were  obtained  with  comparatively 
little  effort  on  the  part  of  our  ancestors.    They  had  not  the  vast  array 
of  insect  enemies  to  contend  with,  which  at  the  present  day  make    . 
successful  fruit-growing  a  scientihc  pursuit.   This  Apple-tree  borer  was 
entirely  unknown  until  Tliomas  Say  described  it  in  the  year  18:4;  and, 
according  to  Dr.  Fitch,  it  was  not  till  the  year  following  that  its  de- 
structive'^character  became  known  in  the  vicinity  of  Albany,  N.  Y., 
for  the  first  time.    Yet  it  is  a  native  American  insect,  and  has  for  ages 
inhabited  our  indigenous  crabs,  from  which  trees  my  friend,  Mr.  A. 
Bolter,  took  numerous  specimens,  in  the  vicinity  of  Chicago,  ten  years 
ago.    It  also  attacks  the  quince,  mountain  ash,  hawthorn,  pear  and 
the  June-berry.    Few  persons  are  aware  to  what  an  alarming  extent 
this  insect  is  infesting  the  orchards  in  St.  Louis,  Jefferson  and  adjacent 
counties,  and,  for  aught  I  know,  throughout  the  State.    A  tree  be- 
comes unhealthy  and  eventually  dwindles  and  dies,  often  without  the 
owner  having  the  least  suspicion  of  the  true  cause— the  gnawing 
worm  within.    Even  in  the  orchard  of  the  most  worthy  president  of 
our  State  Horticultural  Society,  I  found  one  or  more  large  worms  at 
the  base  of  almost  every  tree  that  I  examined, notwithstanding  he  had 
been  of  the  opinion  that  there  was  not  a  borer  of  this  kind  on  his 

place. 

At  Figure  14,  this  borer  is  represented  in  its  three  stages  of  larva 
(«),  pupa'f^-),  and  perfect  beetle  (c).  The  beetle  may  be  known  by 
the  popular  name  of  the  Two-striped  Saperda,  while  its  larva  is  best 
known  by  the  name  of  the  Round-headed  apple-tree  borer,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  Flat-headed  species,  which- will  be  presently  treat- 
ed of.  .  T  . 

The  average  length  of  the  larva,  when  full-grown,  is  about  one 
inch,  and  the  width  of  the  first  segment  is  not  quite  i  of  an  inch. 
Its  color  is  light  yellow,  with  a  tawny  yellow  spot  of  a  more  horny 
consistency  on  the  first  segment,  which,  under  a  lens,  is  found  to  be 
formed  of  a  mass  of  light  brown  spots.  The  head  is  chestnut-brown 
polished  and  horny,  and  the  jaws  are  deep  black.  The  pupa  is  of 
rather  lighter  color  than  the  larva,  and  has  transverse  rows  of  minute 
teeth  oiAhe  back,  and  a  few  at  the  extremity  of  the  body;  and  the 
perfect  beetle  has  two  longitudinal  white  stripes  between  three  of  a 
light  cinnamon-brown  color.  The  Two-striped  Saperda  makes  its  ap- 
pearance in  the  beetle  state  during  the  months  of  May  and  June,  and 
is  seldom  seen  by  anv  but  the  entomologist  who  makes  a  point  of 
hunting  for  it— from  the  fact  that  it  remains  quietly  hidden  by  day 
and  flies  and  moves  only  by  night.  The  female  deposits  her  eggs  dur- 
ing the  month  of  June,  mostly  at  the  foot  of  the  tree,  and  the  young 
worms  hatch  and  commence  boring  into  the  bark  within  a  fortnight 


44  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OP 

afterwards.  These  young  worms  differ  in  no  essential  from  the  full 
grown  specimens,  except  in  their  very  minute  size  ;  and  they  invari- 
ably live,  for  the  first  year  of  their  lives,  on  the  sap-wood  and  inner 
hark,  excavating  shallow,  flat  cavities  which  are  found  stuff'ed  full  of 
their  sawdust-like  castings.  The  hole  by  which  the  newly  hatched 
worm  penetrated  is  so  very  minute  that  it  frequently  fills  up,  though 
not  till  a  few  grains  of  castings  have  fallen  from  it;  but  the  presence 
of  the  worms  may  be  generally  detected,  especially  in  young  trees, 
from  the  bark,  under  which  they  lie,  becoming  darkened,  and  suffi- 
ciently dry  and  dead  to  contract  and  form  cracks.  Through  these 
cracks,  some  of  the  castings  of  the  worm  generally  protrude,  and  fall 
to  the  ground  in  a  little  heap,  and  this  occurs  more  especially  in 
the  spring  of  the  year,  when,  with  the  rising  sap  ^nd  frequent  rains, 
such  castings  become  swollen  and  augment  in  bulk.  Some  authors 
have  supposed  that  the  worm  makes  these  holes  to  push  out  its  own 
excrement,  and  that  it  is  forced  to  do  this  to  make  room  for  itself;  but, 
though  it  may  sometimes  gnaw  a  hole  for  this  purpose,  such  an  in- 
stance has  never  come  to  my  knowledge,  and  that  it  is  necessary  to 
the  life  of  the  worm  is  simply  a  delusion,  for  there  are  hundreds  of 
boring  insects  which  never  have  recourse  to  such  a  procedure,  and 
this  one  is  frequently  found  below  the  ground,  where  it  cannot  possi- 
bly thus  get  rid  of  its  castings.  It  is  currently  supposed  that  this 
borer  penetrates  into  the  heart  wood  of  the  tree  after  the  first  year  of 
its  existence,  whereas  the  Flat-headed  species  is  supposed  to  remain 
for  the  most  part  immediately  under  the  bark ;  but  I  find  that  on  these 
points  no  rules  can  be  given,  for  the  Flat-headed  species  also  frequent- 
ly penetrates  into  the  solid  heart  wood,  while  the  species  under  con- 
sideration is  frequently  found  in  a  full  grown  state  just  under  the  in- 
ner bark,  or  in  the  sap-wood.  The  usual  course  of  its  life,  however, 
runs  as  follows : 

As  winter  approaches,  the  young  borer  descends  as  near  the 
ground  as  its  burrow  will  allow,  and  doubtless  remain  inactive  till 
the  following  spring.  On  approach  of  the  second  winter  it  is 
about  one-half  grown  and  still  living  on  the  sap-wood;  and  it  is  at 
this  time  that  these  borers  do  the  most  damage,  for  where  there  are 
4  or  5  in  a  single  tree,  they  almost  completely  girdle  it.  In  the  course 
of  the  next  summer  when  it  has  become  about  three-fourths  grown 
it  generally  commences  to  cut  a  cylindrical  passage  upward  into  the 
solid  wood,  and  before  having  finished  its  larval  growth,  it  invariably 
extends  this  passage  right  to  the  bark,  sometimes  cutting  entirely 
through  a  tree  to  the  opposite  side  from  which  it  commenced;  some- 
time turning  back  at  diflerent  angles.  It  then  stuffs  the  upper  end  of 
the  passage  with  sawdust-like  powder,  and  the  lower  part  with  curly 
fibres  of  wood,  after  which  it  rests  from  its  labors.  It  thus  finishes  its 
gnawing  work  during  the  commencement  of  the  3d  winter,  but  re- 
mains motionless  in  the  larval  state  till  the  following  spring  when  it 
casts  ofi"  its  skin  once  more  and  becomes  a  pupa.    After  resting  three 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  45 

weeks  in  the  pupa  state  it  becomes  a  beetle,  with  all  it  members  and 
parts  at  first  soft  and  weak.  These  gradually  harden  and  in  a  fort- 
night more  it  cuts  its  way  through  its  sawdust-like  castings,  and  issues 
from  the  tree  through  a  perfectly  smooth  and  round  hole.  Thus  it  is 
in  the  tree  a  few  days  less  than  three  years,  and  not  merely  two  years 
as  Dr.  Fitch  suggests.  I  have  come  to  this  conclusion  from  having 
frequently  found,  during  the  past  summer,  worms  of  three  distinct 
sizes  in  the  same  orchard,  and  Mr.  D.  B.  Wier  of  Lacon,  Ills.,  had  pre- 
viously published  the  fact*,while  a  correspondent  to  the  Country  Gen- 
tleman of  Albany,  N.  Y.f  who  says  he  has  large  experien>ce  with  this 
borer,  sent  to  the  editors  specimens  of  all  three  sizes,  which  he  calls 
"  this  years,  two  and  three  3^ear  old  worms."  The  individual  from 
which  I  drew  my  figures,  and  which  was  taken  from  a  crab  apple  tree, 
went  into  the  pupa  state  on  the  1-itli  day  of  March  and  became  a  bee- 
tle on  the  15th  of  April ;  but  was  doubtless  forced  into  rapid  develop- 
]nent  by  being  kept  throughout  the  winter  in  a  warm  room. 

Remedies. — From  this  brief  sketch  of  our  Round-headed  borer,  it 
becomes  apparent  that  plugging  the  hole  to  keep  him  in,  is  on  a  par 
with  locking  the  stable  door  to  keep  the  horse  in,  after  he  is  stolen  ; 
even  supposing  there  were  any  philosophy  in  the  plugging  system, 
which  there  is  not.  The  round  smooth  holes  are  an  infalliable  indica- 
tion that  the  borer  has  left,  while  the  plugging  up  of  any  other  holes 
or  cracks  where  the  castings  are  seen,  will  not  affect  the  intruder. 
This  insect  probably  has  some  natural  enemies  belong-ing  to  its  own 
great  class,  and  some  of  our  wood-peckers  doubtless  seek  it  out  from 
its  retreat  and  devour  it;  but  its  enemies  are  certainly  not  sufficiently 
under  our  control,  and  to  grow  healthy  apple  trees,  we  have  to  fight  it 
artificially.  Here  again  prevention  will  be  found  better  than  cure, 
and  a  stitch  in  time  will  not  onl}''  save  nine,  but  fully  ninety-nine. 

Experiments  have  amply  proved  that  alkaline  washes  are  repul- 
sive to  this  insect,  and  the  female  beetle  will  not  lay  her  eggs  on  trees 
protected  by  such  washes.  Keep  the  base  of  every  tree  in  the  or- 
chard free  from  v/eeds  and  trash,  and  apply  soap  to  them  during  the 
month  of  May,  and  they  will  not  likely  be  troubled  with  borers.  For 
this  purpose  soft  soap  or  common  bar  soap  can  be  used.  The  last  is 
perhaps  the  most  convenient  and  the  newer  and  softer  it  is,  the  bet- 
ter. This  borer  confines  himself  almost  entirely  to  the  butt  of  the 
tree,  though  very  rarely  it  is  found  in  the  crotch.  It  is  therefore  only 
necessary  in  soaping,  to  rub  over  the  lower  part  of  the  trunk  and  the 
crotch,  but  it  is  a  very  good  plan  to  lay  a  chunk  of  the  soap  in  the 
principal  crotch,  so  that  it  may  be  washed  down  by  the  rains.  In  case 
these  precautions  have  been  unheeded,  and  the  borer  is  already  at 
work,  many  of  them  may  be  killed  by  cutting  through  the  bark  at  the 
upper  end  of  their  burrows,  and  gradually  pouring  hot  water  into  the 
cuts  so  that  it  will  soak  through  the  castings  and  penetrate  to  the  in- 

'^Prairie  Farmer,  Chicago,  April  20,  1867. 
\ Country  Gentleman,  Sept.  12, 1867. 


46  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

sect.  But  even  where  the  soap  preventive  is  used  in  the  month  of 
May,  it  is  always  advisable  to  examine  the  trees  in  the  fall,  at  which 
time  the  young  worms  that  hatched  through  the  summer  may  be  gen- 
erally detected  and  easily  cut  out  without  injury  to  the  tree.  Par- 
ticular attention  should  also  be  paid  to  any  tree  that  has  been  injured 
or  sui\-scaided,  as  such  trees  are  mostliable  to  be  attacked.  Mr.  Wier 
who  has  had  considerable  experience  with  this  insect,  thus  describes 
bis  method  of  doing  this  work,  in  the  article  already  alluded  to : 

"I  will  suppose  that  I  have  a  young  orchard  of  any  number  of  trees, 
say  a  thousand,  the  second  season  after  planting,  about  the  last  of 
July,  or  during  the  first  halt  of  August,  with  a  common  hoe,  I  take  all 
the  weeds  and  other  trash,  and  about  an  inch  of  soil,  from  the  crown 
of  the  trees ;  then,  any  time  trora  the  first  to  the  middle  of  September, 
with  a  pocket-knife,  examine  carefully  the  stem  of  each  tree ;  the 
borer  can  readily  be  found  by  the  refuse  thrown  out  of  the  hole  made 
on  entering ;  this  refuse  of  a  borer,  of  the  same  season's  growth,  will 
be  about  the  size  of  a  pea,  and,  being  of  a  glutinous  nature,  sticks 
around  the  mouth  of  the  hole,  and  can  rapidly  be  seen  ;  older  ones 
throw  out  coarser  chips  that  fall  to  the  ground.  [As  already  shown 
these  chips  are  not  throM^n  out  by  the  borer,  but  are  forced  out  by 
swelling.]  When  one  is  found,  take  the  knife  and  cut  him  out.  If  an 
orchard  is  carefully  examined  in  this  way  each  year,  there  need  be 
but  few,  if  any  borers  missed,  and  as  they  are  more  easil}^  found  the 
second  tali  of  their  growth,  and  can  have  done  but  little  damage  at 
that  time,  we  would  never  receive  any  serious  injury  from  them. 
Now,  it  is  no  great  task  to  do  this  ;  a  man  will  clear  the  litter  and  soil 
from  around  a  thousand  trees,  in  a  day,  and  can  take  the  borers  out 
in  another  day.  I  will  agree  to  do  both  jobs  carefully  in  one  day's 
time.     A  great  undertaking  is  it  not  ? " 

He  also  has  observed  that  some  varieties  of  the  apple-tree  have  a 
greater  immunity  from  the  attacks  of  this  borer,  than  have  others  ;  on 
account  of  the  young  larva,  when  it  is  first  hatched,  being  drowned 
out  by  the  sap,  but  he  does  not  mention  any  particular  varieties  other 
than  those  that  are  the  "more  vigorous  and  late  growing." 

THE  FLAT-HEADED  APPLE-TREE  BO'R'ER—Chrysobothris/emorata,'Ea.hT. 

(Coleoptera,    Buprestidaj.) 
[Fig.  15.]  ^  [Fig.  16.] 

This  borer  which  is  represented  in  the  larva 
state  at  Figure  15,  may  at  once  be  recognized  by 
its  anterior  end  being  enormously  enlarged  and 
flattened.    It  is  paler  than  the  preceding,  and 
makes  an   entirely  different  burrow.     In  conse- 
quence of  its  immensely  broad   and   lhi,ttened 
head,  it  bores  a  hole  of  an  oval  shape  and  twice 
as  wide  as  high.    It  never  acquires  much  more  than  half  the  size  of  the 
other  species,  and  is  almost  al\va\s  found  with  its  tail  curled  com- 
pletely round  towards  the  head.    It  lives  but  one  year  in  the  tree  and 


TEE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  47 

produces  the  beetle,  represented  at  Figure  16,  which  is  of  a  greenish 
black  color  with  brassy  lines  and  spots  above,  the  underside  appear- 
ing like  burnished  copper.  This  beetle  Hies  by  day  instead  of  by 
night,  and  may  often  be  found  on  different  trees  basking  in  the  sun- 
shine. It  attacks  not  only  the  apple,  but  the  soft  maple,  oak,  peach, 
and  is  said  to  attack  a  variety  of  other  forest  trees  ;  though,  since  the 
larvas  of  the  family  (Buprestid.e)  to  which  it  belongs  all  bear  a  strik- 
ing resemblance  to  each  otlier,  it  is  possible  that  this  particular 
species  has  been  accused  of  more  than  it  deserves. 

It  is,  however,  but  far  too  common  in  the  Valley  of  the  J\Iissis- 
sippi,  and  along  the  Iron  Mountain  and  Pacific  railroads,  it  is  even 
more  common  than  the  preceding  species.  Mr.  G.  Pauls,  of  Eureka, 
informs  me  that  it  has  killed  fifty  apple  trees  for  him,  and  Mr.  Votaw, 
and  many  others  in  that  neighborhood  have  suffered  from  it  in  like 
manner.  It  is  also  seriously  affecting  our  soft  maples  by  riddling 
them  through  and  through,  though  it  confines  itself  far  the  most  part 
to  the  inner  bark,  causing  peculiar  black  scars  and  holes  in  the  trunk. 
Unless  its  destructive  work  is  soon  checked,  it  bids  fair  to  impair  the 
value  of  this  tree  for  shade  and  ornamental  parposes,  as  effectually 
as  the  Locust  borers  have  done  with  the  locust  trees. 

Eemedies. — Dr.  Fitch  found  that  this  borer  was  attacked  by  the 
larvffi  of  some  parasitic  fly,  belonging  probably  to  the  Chalcis  family, 
but  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that  this  parasite  is  as  yet  unknown  in 
the  west.  At  all  events  this  flat-headed  fellow  is  far  more  common 
with  us  than  with  our  eastern  brethren.  As  this  beetle  makes  its 
appearance  during  the  months  of  May  and  June,  and  as  the  eggs  are 
deposited  on  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  as  with  the  preceding  species,  the 
same  method  of  cutting  them  out  or  scalding  them  can  be  applied  in 
the  one  case  as  in  the  other  ;  while  the  soap  preventive  is  found  to  be 
equally  effectual  with  this  species  as  with  the  other.  It  must,  how- 
ever, be  applied  more  generally  over  the  tree,  as  they  attack  all 
parts  of  the  trunk,  and  even  the  larger  limbs. 


THE  PEACH  BOU^'R—^Egeria  exitiosa,  Say. 

(Lepidoptera,  iEgeridce.) 

This  pernicious  borer  I  find  to  be  quite  common  throughout  the 
State.  It  is  withal  an  insect  so  familiar  to  the  peach-grower,  and  its 
history  has  been  so  often  given  in  current  entomological  works  that  I 
should  let  it  go  unnoticed,  were  it  not  for  the  numerous  letters  of  in- 
quiry about  it  that  have  been  sent  to  me  during  the  year.  For  a  com- 
plete and  lengthened  history  of  it,  I  refer  the  reader  to  the  first  of  Dr. 
Fitch's  most  excellent  reports. 

From  the  Round-headed  Apple-tree  borer,  to  which  it  bears  some 
resemblance  both  in  its  mode  of  work  and  general  appearance,  it  is 


48  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

at  once  cistinguished  by  having  six  scaly  and  ten  fleshy  legs.  It 
works  also  more  generally  under  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  goes 
through  its  transformations  within  a  year,  though  worms  of  two  or 
three  sizes  may  be  found  at  almost  any  season.  When  full  grown 
the  worm  spins  for  itself  a  follicle  of  silk,  mixed  with  gum  and  excre- 
ment, and  in  due  time  issues  as  a  moth.  As  it  is  not  so  well  known  in 
^^'S'-^r-]  this  last  state,  I   annex  (Fig.    17} 

figures  of  both  male  (3)  and  female 
(1)  moths.  As  will  be  seen  from 
these  figures,  the  two  sexes  difler 
very  materially  from  each  other,  the 
general  color  in  both  being  glossy 
steel-blue.  Some  specimens  which 
were  received  from  Mr.  W.  S.  Jewett,  of  Pevely,  Jefferson  count}'-, 
commenced  issuing  as  moths  on  the  20th  of  July,  but  I  found  empty 
follicles  the  latter  part  of  May  in  trees  which  had  been  thoroughly 
wormed  the  year  before,  and  from  which  the  moths  has  consequently 
left  at  that  early  date.  This  borer  likewise  attacks  the  plum-tree, 
though  singularly  enough  it  causes  no  exudation  of  gum  in  this  as  it 
does  in  the  peach  tree. 

IvEMEDiES. — I  have  had  ample  occasion  to  witness  the  elTects  of  the 
mounding  system  during  the  summer,  in  several  different  orchards, 
and  am  fully  convinced  that  it  is  the  best  practical  method  of  pre- 
venting the  attacks  of  this  insect,  and  that  it  matters  little  whether 
ashes  or  simple  earth  be  used  for  the  mound.  True,  there  are  parties 
who  claim  (and  among  them  Dr.  Hull,  of  Alton,  Ills.,)  that  the  almost 
complete  exemption  from  borers  in  mounded  peach-orchards  is  due, 
not  to  any  special  effect  produced  by  the  mound,  but  to  the  general 
rarity  of  the  insect.  But  I  have  found  no  general  rarity  of  the  insect, 
wherever  I  have  been  in  our  own  State;  but  on  the  contrary,  have 
with  difficulty  found  a  single  tree  in  any  orchard  that  was  in  anywise 
neglected,  that  did  not  contain  borers ;  while  I  have  found  mounded 
trees  entirely  exempt.  The  following  paragraph  communicated  to  the 
Western  Rural  by  Mr.  B.  Pullen,  of  Centralia,  Illinois,  touches  on  this 
point,  and  1  can  bear  witness  to  the  thrift  and  vigor  of  Mr.  P.'s  trees : 

"As  spring  will  soon  be  upon  us  I  wish  to  add  my  testimony  in  favor 
of  the  "  banking  system,"  as  a  preventive  against  the  attacks  of  the 
peach-borer.  As  to  its  eflScacy  there  can  be  no  doubt.  I  have  prac- 
ticed it  four  years  with  complete  success.  T  would  not  advise  its 
adoption  until  after  the  trees  are  four  years  old.  During  most  of  this 
period  the  bark  is  tender,  and  trees  are  liable  to  be  entirely  girdled 
by  even  a  single  worm.  Safety  lies  only  in  personal  examination  and 
removal  with  the  knife,  in  fall  and  spring  (September  and  April).  In 
April  of  the  fourth  year  bank  up  to  the  hight  of  from  ten  to  twelve 
inches,  pressing  the  dirt  firmly  around  the  tree.  A  little  dirt  should 
be  added  each  successive  spring.  It  is  not  only  a  preventive  but  a 
great  saving  of  labor." 


THE   STATE  DNTOMOtOGlST.  49 

As  fnrthei*  testimony,  and  with  a  view  to  giving  the  method  by 
which  the  trees  may  be  mounded,  I  aLso  insert  the  following  commu- 
nication from  E.  A.  Thompson,  of  Hillside  (near  Cincinnati),  Ohio, 
which  appeared  in  the  Joitrnal  of  Agriculture^  of  Nov.  14,  1S68  : 

"The  mounding  system  was  first  practiced,  so  lar  as  I  know,  by 
Isaac  Bolmar,  of  Warren  county,  Ohio.  I  visited  his  orchards  some 
years  ago — acquainted  myself  with  his  system — and  concluded  to  try 
it  upon  my  orchard  of  4,000  trees — then  one  year  planted.  I  plantmy 
trees  in  the  fall,  and  in  the  spring  following  cut  them  back  to  six 
inches  above  the  bud.  The  tree  then  instead  of  having  one  body  has 
several — from  three  to  six.  The  second  summer  1  plow  both  ways 
turning  the  furrows  toward  the  trees.  The  men  follow  with  shovels, 
throwing  the  loose  soil  around  the  tree  to  the  heighth  of  about 
one  foot.  In  the  fall  I  cut  the  trees  back,  taking  off  about  one-third  of 
the  year's  growth.  The  next  spring  or  summer  I  pursue  the  same 
method,  raising  the  mound  about  one  foot  higher;  cut  back  in  the 
fall,  and  the  third  summer  repeat  the  process,  raising  the  mound 
another  foot,  which  finishes  the  job.  The  mound  will  then  be  about 
three  feet  high  at  its  apex  and  six  feet  in  diameter  at  its  base.  The 
mounding  need  not  be  done  in  the  summer,  or  at  any  particular  sea- 
son ;  it  is  just  as  well  done  in  the  fall  when  the  hurry  is  over.  The 
dirt  is  never  taken  away  from  the  trees — in  fact  it  cannot  be  removed 
without  injury  to  the  tree — for  the  young  rootlets  each  year  keep 
climbing  up  through  this  moand.  I  had  occasion  to  remove  one  ot 
these  mounds  a  few  days  since  and  found  it  a  mass  of  healthy  roots. 

"Now  for  the  benefits.  First  you  have  no  trouble  with  grub  or 
borer;  he  must  have  light  and  air,  and  the  mound  is  too  much  for 
him  ;  he  comes  out  and  that  is  the  last  of  him.  I  have  never  wormed 
iny  trees,  or  hunted  for  the  borer,  and  an  orchard  of  healthier  or  thrif- 
tier trees  cannot  be  found.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  borer  will 
re-appear  again  near  the  top  of  the  mound — but  I  am  satisfied  this  is 
not  the  case  ;  I  have  never  thus  far  been  able  to  find  one.  Second 
the  system  imparts  longevity  to  the  tree.  I  saw  a  tree  in  Warren 
county  treated  in  this  manner  thirty  (30)  years  old,  still  healthy  and 
bearing  annual  crops.  Third,  trees  thus  treated  are  not  subject  to 
disease.  I  have  never  had  a  case  of  yellovjs  in  my  orchard.  Fourth, 
the  expense  is  triflmg — one  man  can  mound  fifty  trees  per  day.  The 
system  can  be  applied  to  old  as  well  as  young  orchards;  but  if  old 
trees  are  thus  treated  they  should  be  first  severely  cut  back,  when 
they  will  make  a  growth  of  young  wood." 

The  application  of  soap  does  not  appear  to  prevent  the  moth  from 
depositing  her  eggs,  as  in  the  case  of  apple  tree  borers.  Hot  water  is 
very  efficient  in  killing  the  young  borers,  after  the  earth  has  been  re- 
moved, and  it  should  be  applied  copiously,  and  hot  nigh  unto  the 
boiling  point,  for  there  is  no  danger  of  its  injuring  the  tree.  Thos© 
4  K  s  E 


50 


FIRST   ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 


who  grow  tobacco  will  also  find  it  profitable  to  tlirow  the  stems  around 
the  butts  of  their  trees,  as  there  is  good  evidence  of  its  being  obnox- 
ious to  the  moth. 


THE  PLUM  CVRCVLlO—Conoirac/telus  ne?iup/iar,  Herbst. 

(Coleoptera,  Curculionidaa). 
[Fig.  18.] 


I  regret  to  have  to  state  that  Missouri  is  none  the  less  exempt 
from  the  ruinous  work  of  this  persistent  "Little  Turk,"  than  are  her 
sister  States,  though  I  have  not  heard  of  a  single  instance  where  they 
have  been  so  numerous  as  they  were  last  summer  in  Southern 
Illinois ;  for  Parker  Earle,  of  South  Pass,  captured  6,500  from  100 peach 
trees,  during  the  first  six  days  of  May.  In  every  locality  which  I  have 
visited,  this  beetle  is  considered  t/ie  enemy  to  stone  fruit,  and  though 
so  much  has  been  written  about  it,  I  find  it  necessary  to  devote  a  few 
pages  to  its  consideration,  since  some  of  the  points  in  its  natural  his- 
tory are  not  entirely  and  satisfactorily  settled,  even  yet.  There  is  in 
fact  conflicting  evidence  from  difierent  authors,  as  to  whether  it  is 
single  or  double  brooded  each  year,  and  as  to  whether  it  hybernates 
principally  in  the  perfect  beetle  state,  above  ground,  or  in  the  pre- 
paratory states,  below  ground;  the  very  earliest  accounts  that  we 
have  of  the  Plum  Gurculio,  in  this  country,  differing  on  these  points. 
Thus,  it  was  believed  by  Dr.  James  Tilton,  of  Wilmington,  Deleware, 
who  wrote  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  by  Dr. 
Joel  Burnett,  of  Southborough,  and  M.  H.  Simpson,  of  Saxon ville, 
Massachusetts,  who  both  wrote  interesting  articles  on  the  subject, 
about  fifty  years  afterwards ;  that  it  passed  the  winter  in  the  larval  or 
grub  state,  under  ground,  and  Harris  seems  to  have  held  the  same 
opinion.  But  Dr.  E.  Sanborn,  of  Andover,  Massachusetts,  in  some  in- 
teresting articles  published  in  1849  and  1850,  gave  as  his  conviction 
that  it  hybernates  in  the  beetle  state  above  ground.  Dr.  Fitch,  of 
New  York,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  two-brooded,  the  second 
brood  wintering  in  the  larva  state  in  the  twigs  of  pear  trees;  while 
Dr.  Trimble,  of  New  Jersey,  who  devoted  the  greater  part  of  a  large 


THE  STATE  ENT0MOL0<5IST.  51 

^nd  expensive  work  to  its  considercation,  decided  that  it  is  single- 
brooded,  and  that  it  hybernates  in  the  beetle  form  above  ground. 
Since  the  writings  of  Harris  and  Fitch,  and  since  the  publication  of 
Dr.  Trimble's  work  there  have  been  other  papers  published  on  the 
subject.  The  first  of  these  was  a  tolerably  exhaustive  article,  by  Mr. 
Walsh,  which  appeared  in  the  Practical  Entomologist  (Vol.  11,  No.  7), 
in  which  he  takes  the  grounds  that  the  Curculio  is  single-brooded ; 
though  subsequently  he  came  to  the  very  different  conclusion  that  it 
was  double-brooded,  (First  Annual  Eep.,  p.  G7).  In  the  summer  of 
1867  I  spent  betv/een  two  and  three  weeks  in  Southern  Illinois,  during 
the  height  of  the  Curculio  season,  and  closely  watched  its  manoeuver- 
ings.  From  the  fact  that  there  was  a  short  period  about  the  middle 
of  July,  when  scarcely  any  could  be  caught  from  the  trees,  and  that 
after  a  warm  shower  they  were  quite  numerous,  having  evidently  just 
€ome  out  of  the  ground,*  I  concluded  that  it  was  double-brooded  and 
communicated  to  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  July  27th,  1>67,  the  passage  to 
that  effect,  under  the  signature  of  "V,"  which  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Walsh 
(Rep.,  p.  67),  as  corroborative  of  its  two-brooded  character.  Subsequent 
calculation  induced  me  to  change  mj  mind,  and  I  afterv/ards  gave  it  as 
my  opinion  that  there  was  but  one  main  brood  during  the  year  and 
that  where  a  second  generation  was  produced  it  was  the  exception, 
(Trans.  Ills.  State  Hort.  Soc,  1867,  p.  113).  Finally  Dr.  E.  S.  Hull,  of 
Alton,  Illinois,  who  has  had  vast  personal  experience  with  this  insect 
read  a  most  valuable  essay  on  the  subject,  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Alton  (Ills.),  Horticultural  Society  of  March,  1868,  in  which  he  evi- 
dently concludes  they  are  single-brooded,  and  that  they  pass  the  win- 
ter, for  the  most  part,  in  the  preparatory  states,  underground. 

Now,  why  is  it  that  persons  who,  it  must  be  admitted,  were  all 
■capable  of  correct  observation,  have  differed  so  much  on  these  most 
interesting  points  in  the  economy  of  our  Plum  Curculio  ?  Is  there  any 
explanation  of  these  contradictory  statements?  I  think  there  is,  and 
that  the  great  difficulty  in  the  study  of  this  as  well  as  of  many  other 
insects,  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  are  all  too  apt  to  generalize.  We  are 
too  apt  to  draw  distinct  lines,  and  to  create  rules  which  never  existed 
in  nature — to  suppose  that  if  a  iev^  insects  which  we  chance  to  watch 
are  not  single-brooded,  therefore  the  species  must  of  necessity  be 
double-brooded.  We  forget  that  Curciilios  are  not  all  hatched  in  one 
day,  and  from  analogy,  are  very  apt  to  underrate  the  duration  of  the 
life  of  the  Curculio  in  the  perfect  beetle  state.  Besides,  what  was  the 
exception  one  year  may  become  the  rule  the  year  following.  In 
breeding  butterflies  and  moths,  individuals  hatched  from  one  and  the 
same  batch  of  eggs  on  the  same  day,  will  frequently,  some  of  them/ 
perfect  themselves  and  issue  in  the  fall,  while  others  ^iU  pp^  .,  ' 
winter  in  the  imperfect  state,  and  not  issue  till  spring;  and  in  the 

*I  have  often  Eoticeil,  and  the  fact  has  been  remarked  by  oth^r.*,  that  insect^     r"^~r~~- - 

■comparatively  inactive  for  many  davs,  in  dry  weather,  fly 'frt-elv  after  a  warni   «!  '<*^*  ^een 

possible  that  the  increase  of  the  Curculio  after  such  rains  is  Partly  due  to  their  fi   i       .'^'"*P.  and  it  is 
ouslj  from  the  surrouading  woods,  *^t     S"  ^^^  BJOre  vigor- 


52  FIRST   ANNUAL   REI ORT   OF 

of  a  green  worm  that  is  found  on  raspberry  leaves,  and  which  passes 
the  winter  under-ground,  and  develops  into  a  four- winged  il.y  (Se- 
landria  rnhi  of  my  manuscript)  in  the  spring  ;  I  have  known  a  dif- 
ference of  three  months  to  occur  between  the  issuing  of  the  first  and 
last  individuals  of  the  same  brood,  all  the  larv?e  of  which  had  entered 
the  ground  within  three  days.  It  is  also  a  well  recorded  lact,  both  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe,  that  in  1S08,  owing,  probably,  to  the  un- 
usual heat  and  drouth  of  the  summer,  very  many  inserts  which  are 
well  known  to  usually  pass  the  winter  in  the  imperfect  state,  per- 
fected themselves  in  the  fall,  and  in  some-  instance* produced  a  second 
brood  of  larvn?.  Far  be  it  frcm  me  to  pronounce  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  rule  in  nature,  and  that  we  cannot,  therefore,  gene?alize  ;  I 
simply  assert  that  we  frequently  draw  our  lines  too  rigidly,  and  en- 
deavor to  make  the  facts  come  within  thera,  instead  of  loosening  and 
allowing  them  to  encomp-ass  the  facts.  It  was  thus  that  the  Joint- 
worm  fly  was  for  so  long  a  time  suspected  to  be  a  parasite  instead  of 
the  true  culprit,  because  all  the  other  species  in  the  genus  {Ettry- 
tom.a  ?),  to  which  it  was  supposed  to  belong,  were  known  to  be  para- 
sitic. For  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  appearance  of  the 
Plum  Curculio,  in  its  diiferent  stages,  1  have  prepared,  at  Figure  18, 
correct  and  magnified  portraits  of  tbe  full-grown  larva  (a)',  of  the 
j;w».^  (J;  into  which  the  larva  is  transformed  within  a  little  cavity 
underground,  and  of  the  perrfect  curciTMo  (e). 

With  this  prelude  I  will  now  give  what  I  berlieve  to  be  facts  in  its: 
natural  history,  founded  on  my  own  obeiervations  of  the  past  year,, 
and  on  the  observations  of  others.     I  firmly  believe  :• 

1 — That  Plum  Curculios  are  a  most  ?jnn>itigated  nuisztnce,  and, 
though  most  beautiful  objects  under  the  microscope,  the  fruit-grower& 
of  the  United  States,  ii  they  bad  their  O'wn  waty  about  the  matter, 
would  wish  thera  swept  from  off  the  face  of  the  Earth,  at  the  risk 
even  of  inierfering  with  the  "Harmony  of  Nature." 

2 — That  they  are  more  nuraevoua  in  timbered  regions  than  on  the 

prairie. 

3__That  they  can  fly  and  do  fly  dnrimg  the  heat  of  the  day,  and 
that  cotton  bandages  around  the  trunk,  and  all  like  contrivances  to 
prevent  their  ascending  the  trees,  are  worse  than  useless,  and  a  result 
only  of  ignorance  of  their  economy. 

4 — That  by  its  punctures  it  causes  tlie  dreaded  peach-rnt  tosirread,, 
whenever  that  disease  is  prevalent,  timugh  it  ctinnot  possibly  be  the 
first  cause  of  the  disease.  The  peach-rot  is  now  pretty  generally 
acknowledged  to  be  a  contagious  disease  of  a  fungoid  nature,  and  I 
believe  that  the  spores  of  this  fungus,  "a  million  of  wliich  might  be 
put  upon  the  point  of  a  stick  whittled  down  to  nothing,"  attach  them- 
selves more  readily  to  fruit  which  has  the  skin  abraded,  and  from 
which  the  gum  issues,  than  to  whole  or  unpunctured  fruit.  With  this, 
belief  I  made  some  effort  to  procure,  for  the  benefit  of  my  readers,  a 
synopsis  of  the  growth  of  this  fungus;  but,  alas  !    I  find   that  nothing 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  53 

Init  confusion  exists  with  regard  to  it.  Upon  applying  to  my  friend, 
Dr.  T.  0.  Hi]gard,  of  St.  Loui? — a  recognized  authority  on  such  sub- 
jectp — he  furnishe-d  me  with  the  article  v/hich  may  be  found  in  the 
Journal  of  Agriculture  of  January  IGth,  ISGl).  i  most  respectfully  de- 
clined publishing  it  in  these  pages,  knowing  that  the  r-ead«r  would 
not  be  likely  to  understand  what  was  either  too  profound  or  too  be- 
fogged for  my  own  comprehension,  and  those  who  require  a  synopsis 
of  this  fungus,  are  referred  to  that  article.  Verily,  we  must  conclude 
tliat  Peach-rot  is  not  yet  much  understood,  if  a  more  clear  exposition 
of  it  cannot  be  given! 

5— That  tliey  prefer  smooth-skinned  to  rough  skinned  fruit. 

f! — That  up  to  the  present  time  the  Miner  and  other  varieties  of 
the  Chickasaw  plum  hav-e  been  almost  entirely  exempt  from  their 
attacks,  and  that  in  the  Columbia  plum  the  young  larviB  are  usually 
"'drowned  out"  before  maturing. 

7 — That  they -deposit  -and  matur-e  alike  in  n-ectarines,  plums,  apri- 
cots, cherries  and  peaches  ;  in  black  knot  on  plum  trees,  and  in  some 
kinds  of  apple-s,  pesirs  and  quinces ;  and,  according  to  Dr.  Hull,  they 
also  deposit  but  do  not  mature  in  strav/bei'ries,  gooseberries,  grapes, 
•and  in  the  vigorous  shoots  of  the  peach  tree. 

S— That  it  is  their  normal  habit  to  transform  underground,  though 
some  few  undergo  their  transformations  in  the  fruit. 

^ — That  the  cherry,  when  infested,  i-emains  on  the  tree,  with  the 
exception  of  the  English  Morello,  which  matures  and  then  separates 
from  the  st-em  ;  but  that  all  other  fruits,  wdien  -containing  larvae,  usually 
fall  to  the  ground.  In  the  larger  fruits  four  or  live  larv^,  may  some- 
times be  found  in  a  single  specimen,  and  I  have  taken  five  full  grown 
larvi©  from  a  peacli  that  had  evidently  fallen  and  laid  on  the  ground 
for  over  a  week. 

10 — That  the  greater  portion  of  them  pass  the  winter  in  the  per- 
fect beetl-e  state,  under  the  old  bark  of  both  forest  and  fruit  trees, 
wnder  shingles,  logs,  and  in  rubbish  of  all  kinds,  and  especially  in  the 
nnderbrush  of  the  woods. 

11 — That  they  are  always  most  numerous  in  the  early  part  of  the 
•season  on  the  outside  of  those  orchards  that  are  surrounded  with  tim- 
ber, and  that  they  frequently  shelter  in  apple-trees  and  other  fcreef5 
befor-e  the  stone  fruit  lorms. 

12 — That  a  certain  portion  of  them  also  pass  the  winter  under- 
ground, both  in  the  larva  and  pupa  states,  at  a  depth.,  frequently  of 
from  2  to  3  feet. 

13— That  those  which  hybernate  as  beetles,  begin  to  leave  their 
winter  quarters  and  to  enter  our  orchards,  througliout  central  Mis- 
souri, during  the  first  days  of  May,  and  commence  to  puncture  the 
fruit  about  the  middle  of  the  same  month — a  little  earlier  or  later 
according  to  the  season — the  fruit  of  the  peacli  being  at  the  time 
;£bGHt  the  size  of  a  small  marble. 


54  FIKST  ANNUAL  KEPOUT  02" 

1-1 — That  those  which  hybernate  underground  continaeto  develop 
and  to  issue  from  the  earth  during  the  whole  month  of  May. 

15— That  both  males  and  females  puncture  the  fruit  for  food,  by 
gouging  hemispherical  holes,  but  that  the  female  alone  makes  the 
well-known  crescent-shaped  mark  (see  Fig,  18,  d.)^  as  a  nidus  for  her 
egg. 

16 — That  the  egg  is  deposited  in  the  following  manner,  the  whole 
process  requiring  about  five  minutes  :  Having  taken  a  strong  hold  on 
the  fruit  (see  Fig.  18,  d\  the  female  makes  a  minute  cut  with  the  jaws, 
which  are  at  the  end  of  her  snout,  just  through  the  skin  of  the  fruit, 
and  then  runs  the  snout  under  the  skin  to  the  depth  of  l-16th  of  an 
inch,  and  moves  it  back  and  forth  until  the  cavity  is  large  enough  to 
receive  the  egg  it  is  to  retain.  She  next  changes  her  position,  and 
drops  an  egg  into  the  mouth  of  the  cut;  then,  veering  round  again, 
she  pushes  it  by  means  of  her  snout  to  the  end  of  the  passage,  and 
afterwards  cuts  the  crescent  in  front  of  the  hole  so  as  to  undermine 
the  egg  and  leave  it  in  a  sort  of  flap ;  her  object  apparently  being  to 
deaden  this  flap  so  as  to  prevent  the  growing  fruit  from  crushing  the 
egg,  though  Dr.  Hull  informs  me  that  he  has  repeatedly  removed  the 
insect  as  soon  as  the  egg  was  deposited  and  before  the  flap  was  made^ 
and  the  egg  hatched  and  the  young  penetrated  the  fruit  in  every 
instance. 

17 — That  the  egg  is  oval,  of  a  pearl-white  color,  large  enough  to 
be  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  requires  a  temperature  of  at  least  70* 
Fahr.  to  hatch  it,  and  may  be  crushed  with  the  finger-nail  without  in- 
juring the  fruit. 

18 — That  the  stock  of  eggs  of  the  female  eoiisists  of  from  50  to  100 ; 
that  she  deposits  from  5  to  10  a  day,  her  activity  varying  with  the 
temperature. 

19 — That  the  last  of  those  curculios  v/hich  hybernated  in  the  im- 
perfect state  under-ground  have  not  finished  depositing  till  the  end 
of  June  and  beginning  of  July,  or  about  the  time  that  the*  new  brood 
developed  from  the  first  laid  eggs  of  the  season,  are  beginning  to  is- 
sue from  the  ground;  and  that  we  thus  have  them  in  the  month  of 
June  in  every  conceivable  state  of  existence,  from  the  egg  to  the 
perfect  insect. 

20 — That  the  period  of  egg  depositing  thus  extends  over  more 
than  two  months. 

21 — That  all  eggs  deposited  before  the  first  of  July  generally 
develop  and  produce  Curculios  the  same  season,  vvhich  issue  from  the 
ground  during  July,  August  and  September  and  hybernate  in  the 
perfect  state. 

22 — That  most  of  those  which  hatch  after  the  first  of  July,  either 
fail  to  hatch,  or  the  young  larvae  die  soon  after  hatching,  owing  per- 
haps to  the  more  ripe  and  juicy  state  of  the  fruit,  being  less  congenial 
to  them;  and  that  what  few  do  mature^  which  hatch  after  this  date^ 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  65 

undergo  their  transformations  more  slowly  than  the  rest  and  pass  the 
winter  in  the  ground. 

23— That  the  perfect  Curculio  while  in  the  ground  is  soft  and  of  a 
uniform  red  color,  and  that  it  remains  in  this  state  an  indefinite  period, 
dependent  on  the  weather,  usually  preferring  to  issue  after  a  warm 
rain. 

24— That  in  a  stiff  clay  soil  a  severe  drought  will  kill  many  of 
them  while  in  this  last  named  condition,  and  that  larvcP.  contained  in 
stone  fruits  that  fall  upon  naked  ploughed  ground  where  the  sun  can 
strike  them,  generally  die. 

This  catalogue  might  be  lengthened,  but  already  embraces  all 
the  more  important  facts,  and  I  think  they  sufficiently  prove  that  the 
Curculio  is  single-brooded.  There  is,  it  is  true,  no  particular  reason 
why  the  earliest  developed  Curculios,  or  those  which  issue  from  the 
ground  during  the  fore  part  of  July,  should  not  pair  and  deposit  eggs 
again ;  other  than  it  does  not  appear  to  be  their  nature  to  do  so.  Such 
an  occurrence  is  by  no  means  an  isolated  one  in  insect  life,  and  aside 
from  the  fact  that  Lite  fruit  is  almost  entirely  exempt  from  them,  we 
have  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Trimble  which  indicate  that  they  have 
to  pass  through  the  winter  before  being  able  to  reproduce  their  kind. 
The  only  other  experiments  that  were  ever  made  to  prove  the  con- 
trary hypothesis,  are  those  detailed  by  Mr.  Walsh,  in  his  First  Annual 
Report  (p.  6S),  and,  as  may  be  seen  from  their  perusal  they  prove 
nothing  at  all.  To  give  them  in  his  own  words,  I  here  quote  them 
in  full : 

"Experiment  1st. — On  Junp  24tli,  I  placed  in  a  large  glass  vase,  with  moist  sand  at  the  bot- 
tom of  it,  a  quantity  of  wild  plums,  every  one  of  which  I  had  previously  ascertained  to  bear  the 
crescent  symbol  of  the  'little  Turk.'  During  the  three  following  weeks  I  added  from  day  to  day  a 
number  of  plums,  all  of  them  bearing  the  same  symbol,  that  had  fallen  from  a  tame  plum-tree  in  my 
garden.  Ihe  whole  number  of  plums,  as  I  subsequently  ascertained,  was  183,  and  the  tame  fruit 
probably  formed  about  a  fourth  part  of  the  whole.  The  first  Curculio  came  out  .July  19th,  and  with 
the  exception  of  July  21st  and  August  1st,  there  were  more  or  less  came  out  every  day  till  August 
4th,  inclusive ;  after  which  day  no  more  came  out.  The  numbers  coming  out  on  each  successive 
day  were  as  follows,  the  very  large  number  on  July  25th  having  been  probably  caused  by  my  wet- 
ting the  sand  on  that  morning  rather  copiously  :  1,  18,  0,  3,  4,  2,  55,  8,  4,  3,  1,  2,  1,  0,  5,  4,  2. 
Total,  113.  On  examining  the  contents  of  the  vase,  November  29th,  I  found  five  dead  and  dried  up 
Curculios  among  the  plums,  and  among  the  sand  sixteen  dead  and  immature  specimens,  which 
had  obviously  failed  to  make  their  way  up  to  the  light  of  day,  besides  the  remains  of  a  good  many 
individuals  which  had  perished  in  the  sand  in  the  larva  or  pupa  state,  and  were  not  counted.  The 
Grand  Total  from  183  infested  plums  was,  therefore,  134  Curculios  in  the  beetle  state,  and  an  un- 
known number  of  larvae  and  pupaj." 

"Experiment  2d.— On  July  27th,  or  eight  days  before  the  Curculios  in  the  preceding  experi- 
ment had  ceased  coming  out,  I  placed  in  a  vase,  similar  to  the  above,  213  plums,  gathered  pro- 
miscuously off  some  badly-infested  wild  plum-trees.  From  this  lot  no  Curculios  whatever  came 
out  till  August  23d,  and  from  that  day,  until  September  14th,  more  or  less  came  out 
daily,  with  the  exception  of  five  out  of  the  23  days,  the  numbers  on  the  respective  days  being 
as  follows  :  3,  1,  2,  2,  2,  3,  2,  2,  5,  3,  1,  0,  5,  6,  3,  2,  0,  0,  0,  1,  0,  1,  1.  Subsequently,  on  Septem- 
ber 18th,  there  came  ont  3,  on  September  24th,  1,  and  on  September  28th,  1  ;  after  which  no  more 
made  their  appearance.  Total,  50  Curculios  from  243  plums,  some  stung  and  some  not.  On  exam- 
iuing  the  contents  of  this  vase  on  November  29th,  I  found  a  single  dead  Curculio  among  the  plums, 
making  a  Grand  Total  of  51  Cuixulios  bred  from  these  plums.    The?e  were  no  speciniens,  either  in 


56  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

larva,  pupa  or  beetle  state,  to  be  found  among  the  sand  in  the  vase  on  November  29th ;  which  was, 
perhaps,  due  to  the  contents  having  kept  much  moister  than  those  of  the  first  vase,  though  on  July 
25th  I  had,  as  I  thought,  moistened  the  sand  in  the  first  vase  quite  sufficiently." 

Now  because  there  was  an  intermission  of  19  days  when  no  Cur- 
culios  came  out,  Mr.  Walsh  arrives  at  once  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  are  two  distinct  broods,  the  second  of  which  is,  "  of  course"  gen- 
erated by  the  first.  If  the  infected  plums  had  been  collected  and 
placed  in  vases  day  by  day,  or  if  the  curculios  bred  in  the  first  exper- 
iment had  been  furnished  with  fresh  plums  and  had  actually  paired 
and  deposited  again,  the  experiments  would  have  been  satisfactory; 
but  af?  they  stand,  they  seem  to  me,  on  the  very  face,  to  forbid  the 
conclusions  to  which  the  experimenter  arrived.  In  both  these  ex- 
periments the  very  result  was  obtained  that  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, for  I  have  myself  proved,  that  Avith  favorable  conditions  the 
Ourculio  remains  under  ground  about  3  weeks,  and  as  there  would 
naturally  be  none  advanced  beyond  the  full  grown  larva  state,  when 
first  put  into  the  vase,  perfect  Curculios  could  not  possibly  appear 
till  they  had  had  time  to  transform,  or  in  other  words,  till  about  three 
weeks  after  the  plums  were  placed  in  the  vase.  Thus  from  the  plums 
placed  in  the  vase  on  the  24th  of  June  the  first  Curculios  appeared  on 
the  19th  of  July — 25  days  afterwards  ;  while  from  those  placed  in  the 
second  vase  on  July  27th,  the  first  Curculios  appeared  on  the  23d  of 
August — 27  days  afterwards.  The  interval  also,  of  19  days  which 
elapsed  between  the  issuing  of  the  last  Curculios  in  the  first  experi- 
ment and  the  first  curculios  in  the  last  experiment,  was  exactly  what 
should  have  been  expected,  since  the  plums  were  placed  in  the  sec- 
ond vase  eight  days  before  the  last  curculios  in  the  first  vase  had 
issued.  Had  the  plums  been  placed  in  the  second  vase  10  days  earlier 
or  10  days  later,  there  would  have  been  an  intermission  of  9  or  29 
days  accordingly,  in  their  coming  out,  etc.,  etc.  Moreover,  a  period 
of  at  least  50  days  elapses  between  the  deposition  of  an  egg  and  the 
time  required  for  that  egg  to  develop  into  a  Curculio  and  even  on  the 
supposition  that  the  female  commenced  depositing  the  moment  she 
left  the  ground,  which  is  certainly  not  the  case,  the  Curculios  bred  in 
the  second  vase  could  not  possibly  have  been  the  progeny  of  any  that 
appeared  contemporaneously  with  those  bred  from  the  first  vase. 

Natural  Remedies. — There  is  no  very  good  evidence  that  any  true 
parasites  infest  the  Curculio,  and  though  it  was  well  known  that  ants 
attacked  and  killed  the  larvae  as  they  left  the  fruit  to  enter  the 
ground,  yet  until  the  present  year  no  other  cannibals  were  known  to 
attack  it;  but  Mr.  Walsh  in  his  interesting  account  of  a  trip  through 
Southern  Illinois  has  shown  that  there  are  several  cannibal  insects 
which  habitually  prey  upon  it.  From  this  account  which  was  pub- 
lished in  the  American  Entomologist — jtp.  33-35 — I  condense  the  fol- 
lowing facts. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


57 


[Fig.  19*.] 


The  Pennsylvani.\  Soldier-beetle  {ChauliognatJius  peiuuylv(mi- 
cics,  DeGeer).— This  beetle  which  is  represented  at  Figure  19,  ^  is  of  a 

yellow  color,  marked  with  black. 
It  is  a  common  species  and  I  have 
found  it  quite  abundant  in  our  own 
Stale  on  the  llowers  of  the  Golden- 
rod  during  the  months  of  September 
and  October.  Its  larva  (Fig.  T,  a)  is 
one  of  the  most  effectual  destroyers 
of  the  Curculio  while  the  latter  is  above  ground  in  the  larva  state.  It 
attacks  the  Curculio  grub  within  the  fruit  while  it  yet  bangs  on  the 
tree,  and  also  enters  the  fruit  which  falls  to  the  ground,  lor  the  same 
purpose.  In  the  summer  of  1S6T  I  found  this  same  larva  on  an  apple 
tree  of  the  Early  Harvest  variety,  the  fruit  of  which  contained  Cur- 
culio larv.T^  from  which  I  subsequently  bred  perfect  Curculios.  It  is 
quite  active  in  its  movements,  and  the  general  color  is  smoky  brown, 
with  a  velvety  appearance,  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  interested  I 
subjoin  the  technical  desription  of  it: 

Chujliognathus  pennsylvanicus,  DeGeer— Larya— Head  shining  rufous,  with  two  black 
patches  behind,  transversely  arranged ;  labrum  retractile,  dark  colored,  horny  and  deeply  emargi- 
nate  with  a  central  tooth ;  maxillary  palpi  4-jointed;  labial  palpi  2-jointed  :  antenna  3-jointed,  the 
last  joint  very  small ;  body  rather  flattened,  of  an  opaque  velvety-brown  color  above,  with  a  some- 
what darker  subdorsal  line,  which  is  widened  on  the  three  thoracic  segments  ;  a  very  distinct  lateral 
spiracle  to  every  segment  of  the  body  except  the  anal  one,  making  altogether  eleven  pairs  of  spir- 
acles, all  of  them  exactly  alike,  and  in  range  with  each  other.  Body  beneath  suddenly  very  pale 
brown,  the  dividing  line  between  the  darker  arfd  the  paler  shades  of  brown  upon  each  segment  be- 
ing a  s'emicircular  curve,  with  its  concavity  upward ;  legs  six ;  a  moderate  anal  proleg ;  length 
0.65  inch. 

Lacewixg  larva.— The  larvae  of  our  lacewing  flies  ( Clirysopa)  seem 
[Fig.  20.]  to  have  the  same  habit  of  at- 

tacking Curculio  grubs  above 
ground,  and   great  numbers 
of  them  were  found  in  the  act 
f^        /(j^^^^^^L^    last  summer  by  Mr.  E.  Lem- 
iiai  xS5S5?^s^    ing.  of  Cobden,  Illinois.    The 
a  b  c  d  particular  species  which  those 

belonged  to  that  were  occupied  in  this  good  manner,  has  not  yet  been 
ascertained,  but  as  they  are  all  known  to  be  cannibals  it  is  possible 
that  more  than  one  species  have  this  praiseworthy  habit,  though  their 
general  food  consists  of  plant-lice.  The  lacewing  flies  are  common 
all  over  the  country,  and  may  at  once  be  recognized  by  their  delicate 
green  bodies,  lace-like  wings  and  by  their  brilliant  golden  eyes ;  but 
more  especially  by  a  peculiarly  disagreeable  odor  which  they  are  ca- 
pable of  emitting  when  handled.  Our  American  lacewings,  like  those 
of  Europe,  are  capable  of  emitting  this  odor,  and  those  who  hate 
once  experienced  it  require  no  description  to  recall  it.     One  of  these 

»Explanation  of  Figure  19— ft  the  left  upper  jaw  (maretfibZe),  /  the  left  lower  jaw  (maxil),  c 
the  under  lip  {Inbium),  d  the  upper  lip  [labrum),  g  the  antenna,  e  one  of  the  legs,  a  the  larva  nat- 
ural size,  h  head  and  first  segment  of  same  enlarged. 


58  FIEST   ANNUAL   REPOP.T   OP 

flies,  with  the  left  wings  cutoif  to  save  space,  is  represented  at  Figure 
20  (7,  and  a  typical  larva  is  represented  in  outline  in  the  same  figure 
at  l.  The  female  deposits  her  eggs  upon  different  plants,  attaching 
them  at  the  extremity  of  a  long  and  very  slender  foot-stalk  (see  Fig- 
20,  a).  This  filament  is  composed  of  a  viscid  matter  which  she  dis- 
charges and  which  quickly  hardens  on  exposure  to  the  atmosphere- 
We  see  here,  as  everywhere  else  in  Nature,  an  Alhvise  creative  tore- 
thought,  and  a  wonderful  adaptation  to  a  particular  end,  in  the  in- 
stinct which  prompts,  and  the  power  which  enables  the  female  lace- 
wing  to  thus  deposit  her  eggs  ;  for  the  newly  hatched  larvffi  are  so 
exceedingly  voracious  that  the  first  hatched  would  devour  the  eggs 
which  yet  remained  unhatched,  if  they  could  but  reach  them. 

The  larvi©  when  full-grown  spin  perfectly  round  white  cocoons 
(Fig.  20,  c),  by  means  of  a  spinneret  with  which  they  are  furnished  at 
the  extremity  of  the  body,  and  they  attach  them  with  threads  of 
loose  silk  to  the  underside  of  fences  and  in  other  sheltered  situations. 
These  cocoons  are  of  an  extraordinary  small  size  compared  with  the 
larva  which  spins  them,  or  with  the  perfect  insect  which  escapes  from 
them,  as  may  be  readily  seen  by  referring  to  the  above  fiiiures  which 
bear  the  relative  proportions.  After  completing  the  cocoon,  I  think 
the  larva  partly  cuts  a  circle  at  one  side  severing  the  fibers  sufficient- 
ly to  enable  their  ready  separation;  for  in  issuing,  the  pupa  pushes 
open  a  small  lid,  which  is  cut  perfectly  smooth,  and  just  spirally 
enougli  to  allow  it  to  hang  at  one  end  as  on  a  hinge.  I  have  also 
noticed  another  fact,  which,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  not  been  re- 
corded by  any  previous  writer,  which  is,  that  the  insect  issues  from 
this  cocoon  in  an  active  sub-imago  state,  from  which  after  a  few  hours 
the  winged  fly  emerges,  leaving  behind  it  a  fine  silvery-white 
transparent  skin. 

The  Subangular  Ground  Beetle — { Aspidiglossa  subangidata^ 
[Fig.  21.]  Chaud.)— This  small  polished  black  beetle  which  is  rep- 
resented enlarged  at  Figure  21,  the  hair  line  at  the  side 
showing  the  natural  size,  also,  in  all  probability  serves 
us  a  good  turn  in  helping  to  diminish  the  numbers  of  the 
Curculio,  for  Mr.  Walsh  found  him  in  a  peach  that  had 

I  contained  Curculio  grubs,  and  as  the  great  family  of 
beetles  {Carahus)  to  which  he  belongs  are  all  cannibals 
so  iar  as  is  known,  and  as  he  was  therefore  evidently 
not  inside  the  peach  for  the  fruit  itself,  he  is  to  be 
strongly  suspected  of  being  a  Curculio  hunter.  To  adopt  Shake- 
speare's mode  of  reasoning  : 

"AVho  finds  the  heifer  dead,  and  bleeding  fresh, 
And  sees  fast  by  a  butcher  with  an  axe, 
But  will  suspect  'twas  he  that  made  the  slaughter?" 


TUE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


59 


The  Curculio  is  not  even  safe  from  the  attacks  of  cannibals  when 

IJig-  22.*]  underground,    for  the    larva 

e  /  which   is  represented  of  the 

natural  size  at  Figure  22,  A^ 

seeks  it  in    its  hiding  place 

~".  .-       and  mercilessly    devours  it. 
Mjsj      i\y^     y^      r^,j^.g    i^j.^^    .g   ^f.    ^   shining 

brown-black  color  above,  and  dull  whitish  beneath,  and  I  subjoin  here- 
with the  technical  description: 

Sliining  brown-black  and  horny  above  ;  thorax  immaculate  above ;  sntures  and  sides  of  the 
abdominal  dorsum,  and  all  beneath,  except  the  head,  pale  dull  greenish  white  ;  a  narrow,  horny, 
elongate,  abbreviated  lateral  dark  stripe  on  the  dorsum  of  each  of  the  abdominal  joints  (4 — 12); 
joints  4 — 10  beneath,  each  with  seven  pale-brown  horny  spots,  namely,  a  large  subquadrate  spot  fol- 
lowed by  two  small  dots  in  the  middle,  an  elongate  spot  on  each  side,  and  between  that  and  the  two 
medial  small  dots  a  second  elongate  spot,  only  half  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  lateral  one  (Fig- 
22,  j);  joint  11  beneath  has  only  the  medial  subquadrate  spot  and  the  lateral  elongate  one  (Fig. 
22,  j);  and  joint  12  beneath  has  nothing  but  the  subquadrate  spot  (Fig.  22,  K);  legs  six,  of  a  pal© 
rufous  color  ;  the  usual  elongate  carabidous  proleg  on  joint  12,  and  on  each  side  of  its  tip  an  elongate 
exarticulate  cercus,  garnished  with  a  few  hairs  ;  antennte  four-jointed  ;  labial  palpi  two-jointed  : 
maxillary  palpi  four-jointed.     Length  1.25  inch. 

This  larva  has  not  yet  been  bred  to  the  perfect  state,  but  belongs 
undoubtedlyto  some  one  of  the  Ground-beetles,  and  not  improbablj'' 
[Fig.  23.]  to  the  Pennsylvania  Ground-beetle,  {Harpalus  penn- 
sylvanicus,  DeGeer),  a  dull  black  species  represented 
at  Figure  23.  All  these  Ground-beetles  are  our 
friends  however,  and  should  always  be  cherished  and 
not  crushed,  as  they  are  very  apt  to  be  from  their 
habit  of  crawling  and  living  on  the  ground.  It  is 
safe  to  infer,  that  all  beetles  approaching  the  annexed 
form,  with  active  movements,  and  generally  dull 
colors,  which  are  observed  running  over  the  ground* 
are  friends,  and  should  therefore  be  saved. 

Hogs. — Before  leaving  the  subject  of  natural  remedies,  I  feel  in 
duty  bound  to  say  a  few  words  in  favor  of  hogs  as  Curculio  destroyers. 
Abundant  proof  might  be  adduced  of  their  utility  in  an  orchard,  es- 
pecially during  the  fruit  season,  but  I  will  mention  only  the  case  of 
Messrs.  Winters  Bros.,  of  Da  Quoin,  Ills.  These  gentlemen,  for  the 
past  tive  years,  have  kept  a  large  drove  of  hogs  in  their  extensive 
peach  orchard,  and  have  been  remarkably  exempt  from  the  attacks  of 
the  Little  Turk.  While  at  their  place  last  fall,  I  noticed  that  all  the 
trees  were  banked  up  with  earth  to  the  height  of  over  a  foot,  which 
prevented  the  hogs  from  injuring  the  trunks.  They  have  never  had 
occasion  to  shake  their  trees,  and  consider  one  hog  to  the  acre  suffi- 
cient to  devour  all  the  fallen  fruit,  the  hogs  being  fed  only  during  the 
winter.  The  efficacy  of  this  hog  remedy  depends  a  great  deal  on  how 
much  one's  orchard  is  isolated  from  those  of  others,  for  it  is  very  evi- 

*  Explanation  op  Figure  22. — B  represents  the  under  side  of  the  head,  showing  at  c  the  upper 
jaw  (n!o«rftft/e),  at  (/the  lower  jaw  (maxil) ,  viiih  its,  four-jointed  feelers  (jja/^n),  at  /  the  lower  Up 
{lahiwn),  with  its  iwo-joiuted  feelers  {pal^i),  and  at  e  the  antenna^ 


60  FIRST   ANKUAL   REPORT   OF 

dent  that  it  will  avail  but  little  for  one  person  to  destroy  all  his  Ciir- 
culio  wliile  his  neighbors  are  breeding  them  by  thousands,  so  that 
they  can  fly  in  upon  him  another  year.  They  would  also  be  of  but 
little  service  in  the  case  of  the  cherry,  as  it  remains  on  the  tree  when 
stung.  Poultry  will  be  found  valuable  in  an  orchard  as  they  also  de- 
vour the  grubs  which  fall  with  the  fruit. 

Artificial  Remedies. — Of  the  hundreds  of  patent  nostrums,  and 
of  the  dozens  of  washes  and  solutions  that  have  been  recommended 
as  Curculio  preventives  or  destroyers,  there  is  scarcely  one  which  is 
worth  the  time  required  to  speak  of  it.  Air-slacked  lime  thrown  on 
the  trees  after  the  fruit  is  formed,  is  eifectual  in  a  certain  measure,  for 
though  it  does  not  deter  the  female  from  depositing  her  eggs,  yet  so 
long  as  the  weather  is  wet,  its  caustic  properties  seem  to  be  imparted 
to  the  water  and  enter  the  cavity  and  destroy  the  egg.  But  it  has  no 
good  effect  in  dry  weather.  An  article  went  the  rounds  of  the  papers 
last  Summer,  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  P.  E.  Rust,,  of  Covington,  Ky.,  had 
tried  burning  tobacco  stems  Vfiih. pe7' feet  success  !  But  a  letter  of  in- 
quiry which  I  addressed  to  that  gentleman  was  never  answered,  al- 
though it  contained  the  requisite  3-cent  postage  stamp,  and  the  tobac- 
co remedy  may  be  placed  by  the  side  of  the  Gas-tar  and  Coal-tar 
remedies,  which  have  proved  utterly  useless.  After  all,  as  Dr.  Hull, 
suggests,  the  successes,  so  reported,  of  these  remedies,  take  their  ori- 
gin from  insufficient  experiment,  by  persons  who  are  little  aware  of 
the  casualties  to  which  the  Curculio  is  subject,  and  who,  if  they  hap- 
pen to  get  fruit  after  applying  some  particular  mixture,  immediately 
jump  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  on  account  of  such  mixture. 

It  may  therefore  be  laid  down  as  a  maxim,  that  the  only  effectual 
and  scientific  mode  of  fighting  the  Curculio,  aside  from  that  of  picking 
up  the  fallen  fruit,  is  by  taking  advantage  of  its  peculiar  instinct 
which  on  approach  of  danger  prompts  it  to  fall;  or  in  other  words  to 
catch  it  by  jarring  the  tree.  The  most  effectual  method  of  doing  this 
on  a  large  scale  is  by  means  of  Dr.  Hull's  "Curculio  catcher,"  and  I 
give  a  description  of  it  in  the  Doctor's  own  words  ; 

"To  make  a  curculio  catcher  we  first  obtain  a  light  wheel,  not  to 
exceed  three  feet  in  diameter,  the  axletree  of  which  should  be  about 
ten  inches  long.  We  next  construct  a  pair  of  handles,  similar  to  those 
of  a  wheelbarrow,  but  much  more  depressed  at  the  point  designed  to 
receive  the  bearings  of  the  axletree,  and  extending  forward  of  the 
wheel  just  far  enough  to  admit  a  crossbeam  to  connect  the  handles  at 
this  point ;  one-and-a-half  inches  in  the  rear  of  the  wheel  a  second  cross 
beam  is  framed  into  the  handles,  and  eighteen  to  twenty-four  inches 
further  back,  a  third.  The  two  last  named  cross-beams  have  framed  to 
their  under-sides  a  fourth  piece,  centrally,  between  the  handles,  and 
pointing  in  the  direction  of  the  wheel.  To  the  handles  and  to  the 
three  last  named  pieces,  the  arms  or  ribs  to  support  the  canvass  are  to 
be  fastened.  To  the  front  part  of  the  beam  connecting  the  handles  in 
front  of  the  wheel,  the  ram  is  attached,  this  should  be  covered  with 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  ^  61 

leather  stulTed  with  furniture  moss,  a  dozen  or  more  thicknesses  of 
old  hat,  leather  or  other  substance,  being  careful  to  use  no  more  than 
necessary  to  protect  the  tree  from  bruising.  Ascertain  the  elevation 
the  handles  should  have  in  driving,  and  support  them  in  that  position. 
We  now  put  in  place  the  stretchers  or  arms,  six  for  each  side,  which 
are  to  receive  and  support  the  canvas.  We  put  the  front  arms  in  po- 
sition. These  extend  back  to  near  the  centre  of  the  wheel  on  each 
side,  and  in  front  of  the  wheel  (for  large  machines)  say  six  feet,  and 
are  far  enough  apart  to  receive  the  largest  tree  between  them  on 
which  it  is  intended  to  operate.  The  remaining  arms  are  supported 
on  the  handles,  and  fastened  to  them  and  to  the  two  cross  and  parallel 
pieces  in  the  rear  of  the  wheel.  These  are  so  placed  as  to  divide  the 
space  at  their  outer  ends  equally  between  them  and  the  first  mention- 
ed stretchers  and  fastened  to  the  ends  of  tlie  handles.  Next  we  have 
ready  a  strip  of  half-inch  board  two  an  a  hallf  wide.  One  end  of  this 
is  secured  to  the  forward  end  ot  one  of  the  front  arms,  and  in  like 
manner  to  all  the  others  on  one  side  of  the  machine,  and  fastened  to 
the  handles.  Both  sides  are  made  alike.  The  office  of  these  strips  is 
to  hold  the  outside  ends  of  the  arms  in  position;  they  also  hold  the 
front  arms  from  closing.  These  outside  strips  also  receive  the  outside 
edge  of  the  canvas,  which  is  fastened  to  them  as  well  as  the  several 
arm  supports. 

"It  will  be  seen  that  the  wheel  is  nearly  in  the  center  of  the  ma- 
chine. To  cover  the  opening  at  this  point,  a  frame  is  raised  over  it, 
which  is  also  covered  with  canvas.  The  arms,  or  stretchers,  are  so 
curved  that  the  motion  of  the  machine,  in  moving  from  one  tree  to 
another,  should  bring  everything  falling  on  the  canvas  to  depressed 
points,  one  on  each  side  of  the  wheel,  where  openings  are  made  into 
funnels  emptying  into  pockets  or  bags,  for  the  reception  of  insects 
and  fallen  fruit.  The  whole  machine  should  not  exceed  ten  or  eleven 
feet  in  breadth,  by  twelve  or  thirteen  in  length.  These  are  for  large 
orchard  trees;  smaller  ones  could  be  protected  with  a  much  smaller 
machine.  If  the  Irame  work  has  been  properly  balanced,  the  machine 
will  require  but  little  lifting,  and  will  be  nearly  propelled  by  its  own 
weight. 

"This  curculio  catcher,  or  machine,  is  run  against  the  tree  three  or 
four  times,  with  sufficient  force  to  impart  a  decided  jarring  motion  to 
all  its  parts.  The  operator  then  backs  far  enough  to  bring  the  machine 
to  the  center  of  the  space  between  the  rows,  turns  round  and  in  like 
manner  butts  the  tree  in  the  opposite  row.  In  this  way  a  man  may 
operate  on  three  hundred  trees  per  hour." 

To  run  this  machine  successfully  three  things  are  necessary:  Ist^ 
that  the  land  be  decently  clean,  and  not  overgrown  with  rank  weeds  ; 
2d,  that  the  orchard  be  sufliciently  large  to  pay  the  interest  on  the 
prime  cost  of  the  machine — about  $30;  3d,  that  the  trees  have  a  clean 
trunk  of  some  three  or  four  feet.  I  find  various  modifications  of  this 
machine,  both  in  our  own  State  and  in  Southern  Illinois,  and  in  some 


63  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

instances  they  have  been  abandoned  entirely  on  account  of  the  injury 
caused  to  the  trees  from  the  repeated  blows  given  to  the  trunk.  In 
small  orchards  it  will  be  found  most  profitable  to  drive  a  spike  into 
the  trunk  of  each  tree  and  to  use  two  sheets  stretched  on  frames, 
which  can  both  be  dragged  or  carried  and  placed  in  position  by  one 
man,  while  a  second  person  gently  taps  the  iron  spike  with  a  mallet. 
To  bring  the  Curculio  down,  it  requires  a  light,  sudden  tap  which  jars, 
rather  than  a  blow  which  shakes,  and  if  the  frames  are  each  made  so 
as  to  fold  in  the  middle,  it  will  facilitate  disposing  of  those  which  fall 
upon  it. 

In  conclusion,  the  intelligent  fruit-grower  can  draw  many  a  lesson 
from  this  account  of  the  Curculio — already  somewhat  lengthy.  Thus 
in  planting  a  new  orchard  with  timber  surrounding,  the  less  valuable 
varieties  should  be  planted  on  the  outside,  and  as  the  little  rascals 
congregate  on  them  from  the  neighboring  woods  in  the  earlj'-  part  of 
the  season,  they  should  be  fought  persistently.  It  will  also  pay  to 
thin  out  all  fruit  that  is  known  to  contain  grabs,  and  that  is  within 
easy  reach;  while  wherever  it  is  practicable  all  rubbish  and  under- 
brush should  be  burnt  during  the  winter,  whereby  many,  yes  very 
many  of  them  will  be  destroyed  in  their  winter  quarters.  As  a  proof 
of  the  value  of  this  measure  when  it  is  feasible,  I  will  state  that  while 
the  peach  crop  of  Southern  Illinois  was  almost  an  entire  failure  in 
1868,  Messrs.  Knowles  &  Co.,  who  have  TO  acres  of  peach  orchard  1^ 
miles  N.  W.  of  Makanda,  shipped  over  9000  boxes.  Though  they  had  a 
few  hogs  in  the  orchard,  there  were  not  enough  to  do  any  material 
good,  and  they  think  they  owe  their  crop  to  the  fact  of  having  cleared 
and  burnt  100  acres  surrounding  the  orchard,  in  the  early  spring  of 
that  year;  for  in  1867  the  Curculios  had  been  very  bad  with  them. 
Judge  Kimble,  who  lives  4  miles  N.  E.  of  Cobden,  also  had  a  good 
crop  free  from  their  marks,  which  he  attributes  to  having  burnt  around 
the  orchard  in  the  spring  of  the  year. 


THE  CODLING  MOTH  OR  AV^lj^AYOKSi—Carpocapsapomonel- 

la^  Linn. 

(Lepidoptera,   Tortricidac.) 

The  Apple-worm,  I  find  to  be  quite  common  all  over  the  State,  as  it 
is  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  v^here  apples  are  grown. 
Dr.  Trimble  has  devoted  page  after  page  to  the  consideration  of  this 
little  pest,  and  yet  its  whole  history  and  the  means  of  preventing  its  in- 
sidious work  may  be  given  in  a  very  few  lines.  It  was  originally  a  den- 
izen of  the  Old  World,  but  was  introduced  into  this  country  about  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century.  The  following  figure  represents  it 
in  all  its  states,  and  gives  at  a  glance  its  natural  history  :  a  represents 
a  section  of  an  apple  which  has  been  attacked  by  the  worm,  showing 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


63 


the  burrowings  and  channel  of  exit  to  the  left;  I,  the  point  at  which 
the  egg  was  laid  and  at  which  the  young  worm  entered ;  e,  the  full 

[Fig.  24] 


grown  worm;  h,  its  head  and  first  segment  magnified;  i,  the  cocoon 
which  it  spins  ;  d^  the  chrysalis  to  which  it  changes ;  f,  the  moth  which 
escapes  from  the   chrysalis,  as  it  appears  when  at  rest;  ^,  the  same 
with  wings  expanded.    The  worm  when  young  is  whitish,  with  usually 
an  entirely'  black  head  and  a  black  shield  on  the  top  of  the  first  seg- 
ment.   When  full  grown  it  acquires  a  flesh-colored  or  pinkish  tint, 
especially  on  the  back,  and  the  head  and  top  of  first  segment  become 
more  brown,  being  usually  marked  as  at  Figure  24  h.    It  is  sparsely 
covered  with  very  minute  hairs  which  take  their  rise  from  minute  ele- 
vated points,  of  which  there  are  eight  on  each  segment.    The  cocoon 
is  invariably  of  a  pure  white  color  on  the  inside,  but  is  disguised  on 
the  outside  by  being  covered  with  minute  fragments  of  whatever 
substance  the  worm  happens  to  spin  to.    The  chrysalis  is  yellowish 
brown,  with  rows  of  minute  teeth  on  its  back,  by  the  aid  of  which  it 
is  enabled  to  partly  push  itself  out  of  its  cocoon,  when  its  time  to 
issue  as  a  moth  arrives.    The  moth  is  a  most  beautiful  object ;  yet,  as 
has  been  well  remarked  by  an  anonymous  writer,*  from  its  habits  not 
being  known  it  is  seldom  seen  in  this  state,  and  the  apple-grower  as 
a  rule,  "knows  no  more  than  the  man  in  the  moon  to  what  cause  he 
is  indebted  for  the  basketfals  of  worm-eaten  windfalls  in  the  stillest 
weather."    Its  fore  wings  are  marked  with  alternate,  irregular  trans- 
verse wavy  streaks  of  ash-gray  and  brown,  and  have  on  the  inner  hind 
angle  a  large  tawny  brown  spot,  with  streaks  of  bright  bronze  color  or 
gold. 

The  apple  is,  so  to  speak,  our  democratic  fruit,  and  while  stone 
fruit  is  grown  but  in  certain  regions,  this  is  cultivated  all  over  the 
country.  The  Codling  moth  is  then  even  more  injurious  than  the  Our- 
culio.  Unlike  the  Curculio,  it  is  mostly  two-brooded,  the  second 
brood  of  worms  hybernating  in  the  larval  btate,  inclosed  in  their  snug 

*  Entomological  Magazine,  London,  Vol.  I,  p.  144. 


64  FIRST  ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

little  silken  houses,  and  ensconced  under  some  frao:ment  of  bark  or 
other  shelter.     Tlie  same  temperature  which  causes  our  apple  trees  ta 
burst  their  beauteous  blossoms,  releases  the  Codling  moth  from  its 
pupal  tomb,  and  though  its  wings  are  at  first  damp  with  the  imprint  of 
the  o-vea,t  Stereotyping  Establishment  of  the  Almighty,  they  soon  dry 
and  expand  under  the  genial  spring-day  sun,  and  enable  each  to  seek 
its  companion.    The  moths  soon  pair,  and  the  female  flits  from  blossom 
to  blossom,  deftly  depositing  in  the  calyx  of  each  a  tiny  yellow  egg. 
As  the  fruit  matures,  the  worm  develops.     In  thirty-three  days, under 
favorable  circumstances,  it  has  become  lull-fed;    when,  leaving  the 
apple  it  spins  up  in  some  crevice,  changes  to  chrysalis  in  three  days, 
and  issues   two   weeks  afterwards   as   moth,  ready  to  deposit  again, 
thouo-h  not  always  in  the  favorite  calyx  this  time,  as  ]  have  found  the 
young  worm  frequently  entering  from  the  side.     Thus  the  young  brood 
of  Codling  moths  appear  at  the  same  time  as  the  young  Curculios,  the 
difference  being  that  instead  of  living  on  'through  fall  and  winter,  as 
do  the  latter,  they  deposit  their  eggs  and  die,  it  being  the  progeny 
from  these  effgs  which  continues  the  race  the  ensuing  year.    Though 
two  apples  side  by  side  may,  the  one  be  maturing  a  Curculio,  the 
other  a  Codling  moth,  the  larva  of  the  latter  can  always  be  distin- 
guished from  the  former  by  having  six  horny  legs  near  the  head,  eight 
flesh V  legs  in  the  middle  of  the  bodj^,  ;ind  two  at  the  caudal  extremity, 
while  the  Curculio  larva  hasn't  the  first  trace  of  either. 

In  latitude  3S°  the  moths  make  their  appearance  about  the  first  of 
May,  and  the  first  worms  begin  to  leave  the  apples  from  the  5th  to  the 
10th  of  June  and  become  moths  again  by  the  fore  part  of  July.  While 
some  of  the  first  worms  are  leaving  the  apples,  others  are  but  just 
hatched  from  later  deposited  eggs,  and  thus  the  two  broods  run  into 
each  other';  but  the  second  brood  of  worms  (the  progeny  of  the 
moths  which  hatch  out  after  the  first  of  July),  invariably  passes  the 
winter  in  the  worm  or  larval  state,  either  within  the  apple  after  it  is 
plucked,  or  within  the  cocoon.  I  have  had  them  spin  up  as  early  as 
the  latter  part  of  August,  and  at  different  dates  subsequently  till  the 
middle  of  November,  and  in  every  instance,  whether  they  spun  up 
early  or  late  in  the  year,  they  remained  in  the  larval  state  till  the 
middle  of  April,  when  they  all  changed  to  chrysalids  within  a  few 
days  of  each  other.  Furthermore,  they  not  only  remain  in  the  larval 
state,  but  in  many  instances  where  I  have  had  them  in  a  warm  room, 
they  have  been  active  throughout  the  winter,  and  would  always  fasten 
up  the  cuts  made  in  their  cocoons,  even  where  the  operation  was  per- 
formed five  and  six  times  on  the  same  individual.  These  active  worms 
perfected  themselves  in  the  spring  as  well  as  those  which  had  not 
been  disturbed,  and  this  fact  would  indicate  that  the  torpid  or  dor- 
mant state,  so  called,  is  not  essential  to  the  well  being  or  the  prolon- 
gation of  life  of  some  insects. 

Though  the  Codling  moth  prefers  the  apple  to  the  pear,  it  never- 
theless breeds  freely  in  the  latter  fruit,  for  I  have  myself  raised  the 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  65 

moth  from  pear-boring  larvee,  and  the  fact  was  recorded  many  years, 
ago  by  the  German  entomologist,  Kollar.  It  also  inhabits  the  fruit  of 
the  crab-apple  and  quince,  and  is  not  even  confined  to  pip-fruit,  for 
Dr.  T.  0.  Hilgard,  of  St.  Louis,  bred  a  specimen,  now  in  my  cabinet, 
from  the  sweetish  pulp  of  a  species  of  screw-bean  {Stromhocarpa 
monoica)  which  grows  in  pods,  and  which  was  obtained  from  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  while  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders,  of  London,  Ontario,  Can- 
ada, has  also  found  it  attacking  the  plum  in  his  vicinity.*  This  is 
entirely  a  new  trait  in  the  history  of  our  Codling  moth,  and  is  another 
evidence  of  the  manner  in  which  certain  individuals  of  a  species  may 
branch  off  from  the  old  beaten  track  of  their  ancestors.  This  change 
of  food  sometimes  produces  a  change  in  the  insects  themselves,  and  it 
would  not  be  at  all  surprising,  if  this  plum-feeding  sect  of  the  Cod- 
ling moth,  should  in  time  show  variations  from  the  normal  pip-fruifc 
feeding  type.  As  Mr.  Saunders  is  a  well  known  entomologist,  it  is 
not  likely  that  he  has  been  mistaken  in  the  identification  of  the  spe- 
cies, for  the  only  other  worm  of  this  character  which  is  known  to  • 
attack  the  plum  in  America,  is  the  larva  of  Mr.  Walsh's  Plum  moth 
{Semasia  prunivora)  which  is  a  very  much  smaller  insect  than  the 
Codling  moth.  Mr.  Saunders  says  that  his  plum  crop  suffered  con- 
siderably from  this  cause  and  that  the  operation  appeared  to  be  per- 
formed by  the  second  brood,  the  plums  falling  much  later  than  those 
stung  by  the  Curculio — remaining  in  fact  on  the  tree  till  nearly  ripe. 
I  do  not  think  that  this  insect  has  yet  acquired  an  appetite  for  the 
plum  in  the  States.  As  a  general  rule,  there  is  but  a  single  worm  in 
each  apple,  but  two  are  sometimes  found  in  one  and  the  same  fruit. 

Remedies. — Though  with  some  varieties  of  the  apple,  the  fruit  re- 
mains on  the  tree  till  after  the  worm  has  left  it,  yet  by  far  the  greater 
portion  of  the  infested  fruit  falls,  prematurely  with  the  worm,  to  the 
ground  ;  hence  much  can  be  done  toward  diminishing  the  numbers  of 
this  little  pest  by  picking  up  and  destroying  the  fallen  fruit  as  soon  as 
it  touches  the  ground.  For  this  purpose,  hogs  will  again  be  found 
quite  valuable,  when  circumstances  allow  of  their  being  turned  into 
the  orchard.  Abundant  testimony  might  be  given  to  prove  this,  but 
I  make  room  only  for  the  following  from  Mr.  Suel  Foster,  of  Musca- 
tine, Iowa,  whom  I  know  to  be  abundantly  capable  of  forming  a  pro- 
per judgment: 

"I  have  twenty-four  acres  of  my  orchards  seeded  to  clover,  and 
last  year  I  turned  the  hogs  in.  I  now  observe  that  where  the  hogs 
ran  last  year,  the  apples  have  not  one-fourth  the  worms  that  they 
have  on  other  trees.  I  this  year  turned  the  hogs  into  my  oldest 
(home)  orchard. f" 

■•"  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  and  Arts,  of  the  Province  of  Ontario,  for  the 
year  1868,  page  200. 

t  Transactions  IlliDoi*  State  Horticultural  Society,  1867,  page  213, 
5  R  S  E 


66  FIRST   ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

Mr.  Huron  Burt,  of  Williamsburg,  Mr.  F.  R.  Allen,  of  Allen  ton 
and  Mr.  Yarniim,  of  Sulphur  Springs,  have  also,  each  of  them,  testified 
to  me  as  to  the  good  effects  obtained  from  allowing  hogs  the  run  of 
their  orchards. 

There  is,  however,  a  more  infallible  remedy,  and  one  which  is  al- 
ways practicable.    It  is  that  of  entrapping  the  worms.    This  can  be 
done  by  hanging  an  old  cloth  in  the  crotches  of  the  tree,  or  by  what 
is  known  as  Dr.  Trimble's  hay-band  system,  which  consists  of  twisting 
a  hay-band  twice  or  thrice  around   the  trunk  of  the  tree.    To  make 
this  system  perfectly  effectual,  I  lay  down   the  following  as  rules : 
1st,  the  hay-land  should  heplaced  around  the  tree  hy  the  first  or  June, 
and  kept  on  till  every  apple  is  oiT  the  tree  ;  2c?,  it  should  he  pushed  up 
or  down,  and  the  worms  and  chrysalids  crushed  that  were  under  it, 
every  toeek,  or  at  the  very  latest,  every  two  loeeks  ;  M,  the  trunk  of  the 
tree  should  he  kept  free  from  old  rough  lark,  so  as  to  give  the  worms 
no  other  place  of  shelter,  and,  Ath,  the  ground  itself  should  le  kept 
clean  from  loeeds  and  rullisL     But,  as  already  stated  on  a  previous 
page,  many  of  the  worms  of  the  second  brood  yet  remain  in  the  apples 
even' after  thev  are  gathered  for  the  market.    These  wormy   ai)ples 
are  barrelled  up  wath  the  sound  ones,  and  stored  away  in  the  cellar 
or  in  the  barn.    From  them  the  worms   continue  to  issue,  and  they 
generally  find  plenty  ot  convenient  corners  about  the  barrels  in  which 
to  form  their  cocoons.    Hundreds  of  these   cocoons  may  sometimes 
be  found  around  a  single  barrel,  and  it  therefore  becomes  obvious 
that,  no  matter  how  thoroughly  the  hay-band  system  had  been  carried 
out  during  the  summer,  there  would  yet  remain  a  sufficiency  in  such 
situations  to  abundantly  continue  the   species  another  year.    And 
when  we  consider  that  every  female  moth  which  escapes  in  the  spring, 
lays  from  two  to  three  hundred  eggs,  and  thus  spoils  so  many  apples, 
the  practical  importance  of  thoroughly  examining,  in  the  spring  of 
the  year,  all  barrels  or  other  vessels  in  which  apples  have  been  stored 
becomes  at  once  apparent.    It  should,  therefore,  also  be  made  a  rule 
to  destroy  all  the  cocoons  which  are  found  on  such  barrels  or  vessels 
either  by  burning  them  up   or  by  immersing  them  in  scalding  hot 

Now,  there  is  nothing  in  these  rules  but  can  be  performed  at  little 
trouble  and  expense.  Their  execution  must  henceforth  be  considered 
a  part  of  apple-growing.  Let  every  apple-grower  in  Missouri  carry 
them  out  strictly,  and  see  that  his  neighbors  do  likewise,  and  fine, 
smooth,  unblemished  fruit  will  be  your  reward ! 

The  philosophy  of  the  hay-band  system  is  simply  that  the  worms, 
in  quitting  the  fruit,  whether  while  it  is  on  the  tree  or  on  the  ground, 
in  their  se^arch  for  a  cozv  nook,  in  which  to  spin  up,  find  the  shelter 
<^iven  by  the  hay-band  just  the  thing,  and  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of 
a  hundred,  they  will  accept  of  the  lure,  if  no  other  more  enticing  be 
in  their  way.  1  have  thoroughly  tested  this  remedy  the  past  summer, 
and  have  found  it  far  more  effectual  than  I  had  anticipated,  wherever 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  67 

the  above  rules  were  recognized.  Under  two  hay-bands  whicli  were 
kept  around  a  single  old  isolated  tree,  through  the  months  of  June, 
July  and  xiugust,  I  found  every  week  of  the  last  two  months  an  aver- 
age of  fifty  cocoons. 

I  have  often  smiled  in  my  journeyings  through  the  State,  to  see 
the  grin  of  incredulity  spread  over  the  face  of  some  unsopiiistieated 
farmer  as  I  recounted  the  natural  history  of  this  Codling  moth,  and 
urged  the  application  of  the  hay-band.  Magic  spell  or  fairy  tale  could 
not  more  thoroughly  have  astounded  some  of  them  than  the  unmask- 
ing of  this  tiny  enemy  and  the  revealing  of  the  proper  preventive. 

Ihe  burning  of  lires  has  been  recommended,  under  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  moths  will  fly  into  them  and  get  destroyed.  I  have  no 
faith  whatever  in  the  process,  so  far  as  regards  this  particular  species 
for  though  it  is  true  that  the  moths  fly  and  deposit  their  eggs  in  the 
evening,  I  do  not  believe  they  are  attracted  to  the  light,  as  are  some 
others,  lor  I  have  never  been  able  to  thus  attract  any  myself. 


CUT-WORMS. 

(Lepidoptera  Noctuidvc.) 
THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  TWELVE  DISTINCT  SPECIES. 

There  are  several  different  kinds  of  insects  that  are  know^n  by  the 
popular  name  of  cut- worm.  Thus,  the  White  grub,  or  larva  of  the 
common  May  beetle  {LaGhnosterna  qitercina,  Knoch),  and  the  difler- 
ent  species  of  wire-worms,  the  larvae  of  our  Click  beetles  ( Elater 
family)  are  all  called  cut-worms  in  some  part  or  other  of  the  United 
States.  But  I  shall  confine  the  term  to  those  caterpillars,  winch,  for 
the  most  part,  have  the  habit  of  hiding  just  under  the  surface  of  .the 
earth  during  the  day,  and  feeding  either  on  the  roots,  stems  or  leaves 
of  plants  during  the  night. 

Most  of  these  caterpillars  have  the  very  destructive  habit  of  cut- 
ting, or  entirely  severing  the  plant  on  which  they  feed,  just  above  or 
below  the  ground.  On  this  account  they  have  received  the  name  of 
Cut-wovm?,^  and  not  because  when  cut  in  two, each  end  will  reproduce 
itself  as  some  people  have  supposed;  for  although  some  polyps 
and  other  animals  belonging  to  the  great  class  radiata  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  have  this  curious  power  of  multiplying  by  division,  it  is  not 
possessed  by  any  insect,  and  after  having  mutilated  one  of  these  cut- 
worms, the  farmer  need  never  fear  that  he  has  thereby  increased,  in- 
stead of  having  decreased  their  number.  From  this  habit  of  cutting, 
they  prove  a  far  greater  nuisance  than  if  they  were  to  satisfy  their 
appetites  in  an  honest  manner.  In  the  latter  case  we  might  feel  like 
letting  them  go  their  way  in  peace,  but  as  with  the  Baltimore  oriole, 
which  abrades  and  ruius  a  hundred  grapes  where  it  would  require  one 
for  food,  we  feel  vexed  at  such  wanton  destruction  of  our  products 
and  would  gladly  rid  ourselves  of  such  nuisances. 


gg  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPOET  OF 

These  caterpillars  are  called  surface  caterpillai-s  in  England,  in 
which  country,  as  well  as  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  they  have  long 
been  known  to  do  great  damage  to  yegetables,  and  especially  to  the 
cabba-e  mangel-wurzel  and  turnip.    There  are  many  different  species 
and  thej  vary  in  size  and  detail  of  markings  ;  but  all  of  them  are 
smooth,  naked  and  greasy-looking  worms  of  some  shade  oi  green, 
o-rav  brown  or  black,  with  a  polished,  scaly  head,  and  a  shield  ot  the 
same  color  on  the  top  of  the  first  and  last  segments ;  while  most  of 
them  have  several  minute  shiny  spots  on  the  other  segments,  each 
spot  giving  rise  to  a  minute  stiff  hair.    They  also  have  the  habit  of 
curling  up  in  a  ball  when  disturbed,  as  shown  at  Figure  2,  in  Plate  1. 
They  produce  moths  of  sombre  colors  which  are  known  as  Owlet  or 
Rustic  molhs,  and  the  species  that  have  so  far  been  bred  in  this  coun- 
try   belong  to  one  or  other  of  the  four  genera,  Agroizs,  Iladena, 
Mamestra  or   Celcena.    These  moths  fly,  for  the  most  part  by  night, 
though  some  few  of  them  may  be  seen  flying  by  day,  especially  in 
cloudv  weather.    They  frequently,  even  in  large  cities,  rush  into  a 
room,  attracted  by  the  light  of  gas  or  candle,  into  which  they  heed- 
lessly plunge  and  singe  themselves.    They  rest  with  the  wings  closed 
more  or  less  flatly  over  the  body,  the  upper  ones  entirely  covering 
the  lower  ones,  and  these  upper  wings  always  have  two,  more  or  less 
distinctly  marked  spots,  the  one  round,  the  other  kidney-shaped. 

The  natural  history  of  most  of  these  cut-worms  may  be  tlius 
briefly  given.  The  parent  moth  attaches  her  eggs  to  some  substance 
near  the  ground,  or  deposits  them  on  plants,  mostly  during  the  latter 
part  of  summer,  though  occasionally  in  the  spring  of  the  year. 
Those  which  are  deposited  during  late  summer,  hatch  early  in  the 
fall  and  the  young  worms,  crawling  into  the  ground  feed  upon  the 
tender  roots  and  shoots  of  herbaceous  plants.  At  this  time  of  the 
vear  the  worms  being  small  and  their  tood  plentiful,  the  damage  they 
do  is  seldom  noticed.  On  the  approach  of  winter  they  are  usually 
about  two-thirds  grown,  when  they  descend  deeper  into  the  ground, 
and  curling  themselves  up,  remain  in  a  torpid  state  till  the  following 
sprin-  When  spring  returns,  they  are  quite  ravenous,  and  their  cut- 
in- propensities  having  fully  developed,  they  ascend  to  the  surface 
and  attack  the  first  green  succulent  vegetation  that  comes  m  their  way. 
When  once  full  grown  they  descend  deeper  into  the  earth,  and  form  for 
[Fig.  25].  themselves    oval    chambers,    in    which    they 

change  to  chrysalids,  as  shown  in  the  annexed 
,cut  (Fig.  25).  In  this  state  they  remain  from 
I  two  to  four  weeks,  and  finally  come  forth  as 
moths,  during  the  months  of  June,  July  and 
Au^^^^^lis  skin,  being  in  most  cases  so  thin,  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  preserve  it.  These  moths  in  time  lay  eggs,  and  their  pro- 
geny goes  through  the  same  cycle  of  changes  Some  species,  how- 
ZZ  as  I  shall  presently  show,  are  most  likely  two-brooded,  while 
others  pass  through  the  winter  in  the  chrysalis  state. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  69 

Dr.  Fitch  states  that  he  had  great  difficulty  in  breeding  these  cut- 
worms to  the  perfect  moths,  "as  the  worms  on  finding  themselves  im- 
prisoned, hurriedly  crawl  around  and  around  the  inner  side  of  their 
prison,  night  after  night,  until  they  literally  travel  themselves  to 
death."  Consequently  the  natural  history  of  but  one  or  two  of  them 
has  hitherto  been  known.  I  have  found,  however,  that  by  giving 
them  the  proper  conditions  they  are  not  so  very  difficult  to  breed, 
and  after  giving  some  account  of  a  certain  class  of  cut-worms 
which  have  the  habit  of  climbing  up  trees,  I  will  briefly  describe 
those  species  which  I  have  traced  through  their  transformations, 
so  that  they  may  be  readily  recognized,  and  afterwards  suggest 
the  proper  remedies, 

CLIMBING  CUT-WORMS. 

Orchardists  in  spring  frequently  find  the  hearts  of  their  fruit  buds 
— on  young  trees  especially — entirely  eaten  out  and  destroyed,  and 
this  circumstance  is  attributed  to  various  causes,  winged  insects, 
beetles,  slugs  for  instance  ;  or  even  to  late  frosts,  unsuitable  climate, 
etc.  Never  have  cut-worms  received  the  blame,  all  of  which  should 
be  ascribed  to  them,  for  the  game  hold  of  many  species  on  a  sand}'' 
soil  in  earl}'-  spring,  is  the  fruit  tree.  This  is  a  very  important  fact  to 
fruit  raisers,  and  let  those  who  have  essayed  to  grow  the  dwarf  apple 
and  pear,  on  a  sandy  soil,  and  have  become  discouraged,  as  many 
have,  from  finding  their  trees  affected  each  year  in  this  way,  take 
hope;  for  knowing  the  cause,  they  may  now  easily  prevent  it. 

These  climbing  cut- worms  will  crawl  up  a  tree  eight  or  ten  feet 
high,  and  seem  to  like  equally  well  the  leaves  of  the  pear,  apx^le  and 
grape. 

They  work  during  the  night,  always  descending  just  under  the 
surface  of  the  earth  again  at  early  dawn,  which  accounts  for  their 
never  having  been  noticed  in  this  their  work  of  destruction  in  former 
years.  They  seldom  descend  the  tree  as  they  ascend  it,  by  crawling, 
but  drop  from  the  bud  or  leaf  on  which  they  have  been  feeding;  and 
it  is  quite  interesting  to  watch  one  at  early  morn  when  it  has  become 
full  fed  and  the  tender  skin  seems  ready  to  burst  from  repletion,  and 
see  it  prepare  by  a  certain  twist  of  the  body  for  the  fall.  This  fact 
also  accounts  for  trees  on  hard,  tenacious  soil,  being  comparatively 
exempt  from  them,  as  their  instinct  doubtless  serves  them  a  good  turn 
either  in  preventing  them  from  ascending  or  by  leading  the  parent 
moth  to  deposit  her  eggs  by  preference  on  a  liglit  soil. 

These  facts  were  published  in  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  June  2, 1S66, 
accompanied  with  descriptions  by  myself  of  three  of  the  worms  that 
were  found  to  have  this  habit;  and  the  observations  were  made  on 
Mr.  J.  W.  Cochran's  farm  at  Calumet,  Illinois.  In  speaking  of  these 
same  climbing  cut-worms,  in  the  same  article  Mr.  Cochran  says: 

"  They  destroy  low  branched  fruit  trees  of  all  kinds,  except  the 
peach,  feeding  on  the  fruit  buds  first,  the  wood  buds  as  a  second 


TO  FIRST   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

choice,  and  preferring  them  to  all  other  things,  tender  grape  buds  and 
shoots  (to  which  they  are  also  x^artial)  not  excepted — the  miller  al- 
ways preferring  to  lay  her  eggs  near  the  hill  or  mound  over  the  roo>ts 
of  the  trees  in  the  orchard ;  and  if,  as  is  many  times  the  case,  the 
trees  have  a  spring  dressing  of  lime  or  ashes  with  the  view  of  prevent- 
ing the  May  beetles'  operations,  this  will  be  selected  with  unerring 
instinct  by  ihe  miller,  thus  giving  her  larvas  a  fine  warm  bed  to  cover 
themselves  up  in  during  the  day  from  the  observations  of  their  ene- 
mies. They  will  leave  potatoes,  peas  and  all  other  young  green  things 
for  the  buds  of  the  apple  and  the  pear.  The  long,  naked  young  trees 
of  the  orchard  are  almost  exempt  from  their  voracious  attacks,  but  I 
have  found  them  about  midnight,  of  a  dark  and  damp  night  well  up  in 
the  limbs  of  these.  The  habit  of  the  dwarf  apple  and  pear  tree  however 
just  suits  their  nature,  and  much  of  the  complaint  of  those  people 
who  can  not  make  these  trees  thrive  on  a  sandy  soil,  has  its  source 
and  foundation  here,  though  apparently  utterly  unknown  to  the  or- 
chardist.  There  is  no  known  remedy ;  salt  has  no  properties  repulsive 
to  them,  they  burrow  in  it  equally  as  quick  as  in  lime  or  ashes.  To- 
bacco, soap  and  other  diluted  washes  do  not  even  provoke  them  ;  but 
a  tin  tube  6  inches  in  length,  opened  on  one  side  and  closed  around 
the  base  of  the  tree,  fitting  close  and  entering  at  the  lower  end  an 
inch  into  the  earth,  is  what  the  lav/yers  would  term  an  effectual  es- 
s topper  to  further  proceedings. 

"If  the  dwarf  tree  branches  so  low  from  the  ground  as  not  to  leave 
6  inches  clear  of  trunk  between  the  limbs  and  ground,  the  limbs  must 
be  sacrificed  to  save  the  tree — as  in  two  nights  four  or  five  of  these 
pests  will  fully  and  effectually  strip  a  four  or  five  year  old  dwarf  of 
every  fruit  and  wood  bud,  and  often  when  the  tree  is  green,  utterly 
denude  it  of  its  foliage.  I  look  upon  them  as  an  enemy  to  the  orchard 
more  fatal  than  the  canker  worm  when  left  to  themselves,  but  fortu- 
nately for  mankind  more  surely  headed  off.''' 

Harris  gives  us  the  earliest  intimation  of  this  climbing  character 
in  these  worms,  on  page  450  of  his  work,  where  he  says,  that  "in  the 
summer  of  1851,  an  agricultural  newspaper  contained  an  account  of 
certain  naked  caterpillars,  that  came  out  of  the  ground  in  the  night, 
and  crawling  up  the  trunks  of  fruit-trees,  devoured  the  leaves,  and  re- 
turned to  conceal  themselves  in  the  ground  before  morning."  But 
until  the  above  article,  from  which  1  have  quoted,  was  published,  the 
fact  was  not  generally  known  and  none  of  the  species  had  been  iden- 
tified. 

They  seem  to  prefer  the  apple,  pear  and  grape-vine,  though  they 
also  attack  the  blackberry,  raspberr}^,  currant,  and  even  rose-bushes 
and  ornamental  trees.  Nor  do  tliey  confine  theaiselves  to  dwarf  trees, 
as  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  by  John  Townley,  of  Marquette 
Co.,  Wis.,  to  the  PraotiGal  Entoinologi&t  for  March^  ISGTj  abundantly 
proves. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  71 

"  During  the  last  two  years  at  least,  young  apple-trees  in  this  lo- 
cality have  been  much  injured  by  having  their  buds  destroyed.  My 
observations  last  spring  led  me  to  conclude,  that  a  worm  very  like  the 
cut-worm,  and  having  the  same  habit  of  hiding  just  beneath  the  sur- 
face of  the  soil  during  the  day  and  feeding  by  night,  was  the  cause  of 

the  mischief.  * 

"  Soon  after  snow  had  gone  in  1865, 1  pruned  a  lot  of  apple-trees 
then  four  years  planted.  The  wood  at  the  time  seemed  alive  and 
sound.  When  older  trees  were  coming  into  leaf,  these  remained  al- 
most destitute  of  foliage  ;  and  on  examining  them,  it  was  found,  that 
most  of  the  buds,  especially  those  on  shoots  formed  the  preced- 
ing year,  were  gone— removed  as  clean  as  if  they  had  been  picked 
out  with  a  point  of  a  knife.  The  bark  in  small  patches  near  the  ends 
of  some  of  the  shoots  had  also  been  eaten  or  chipped  off.  As  many 
small  birds  had  been  seen  about  the  trees,  the  conclusion  was  arrived 
at  that  they  had  probably  eaten  the  buds.  In  the  fall,  mounds  of 
earth  were  thrown  up  around  the  stems  of  these  trees,  and  of  another 
lot  two  years  planted.  These  mounds  were  being  leveled  on  the  6th 
of  May  last;  and  soon  after  commencing  the  work,  several  large  cut- 
worms like  grubs  were  noticed.  This,  coupled  with  the  fact,  that  in 
the  preceding  spring,  I  had  caught  a  worm  like  these  in  the  very  act 
of  eating  out  a  bud  high  up  the  stem  of  a  young  Catalpa,  around 
which  I  bad  thrown  a  blanket  the  evening  before,  to  shield  it  from 
frost,  induced  me  to  suspect  that  they  and  not  tha  birds  destroyed  the 
buds.  This  led  to-an  examination  of  the  untouched  mounds  ;  and  in 
the  soil  immediately  surrounding  the  stem  of  each  tree,  I  found  from 
about  five  to  ten  of  these  worms.  Twenty-three  were  taken  from  the 
soil  around  a  plant  of  the  Rome  Beauty  apple.  *  *  *  On 
a  warm  dewy  night  about  the  middle  of  the  month,  I  took  a  lamp  and 
suddenly  jarred  several  of  the  trees;  when  some  of  these  worms 
came  tumbling  to  the  ground.  The  evidence  against  them  would 
have  been  more  con^^lusive,  if  I  had  searched  the  branches  and  found 
them  there  and  at  work.  That  however,  I  omitted  to  do.  I  have  had 
fruit  trees  planted  here  sixteen  years,  but  never  had  the  buds  de- 
stroyed so  as  to  attract  my  attention  before  the  last  two  years  ;  nor  have 
I  had  any  complaints  from  my  neighbors  on  this  point,  except  during 
that  time.  Orchards  are  not  very  common  here,  but  in  three  others 
in  this  town,  I  know  young  trees  have  been  injured  as  in  my  own 
during  the  last  two  years.  *  *  *  I  grow  no  dwarf 

apples ;  mine   are  all  standard  trees  worked  on  the  ordinary  apple 
stock." 

Mr.  Cochran  also  found  them  last  spring,  up  among  the  highest 
branches  of  his  standard  as  well  as  his  dwarf  trees. 

The  subject  is  all  important  to  the  orchardist,  and  to  those  espec- 
ially who  have  young  and  newly  planted  trees  on  a  light  soil;  for 
there  are  many  who  have  had  their  trees  injured  by  the  buds  being 
devoured  in  this  manner,  who  never  dreamed  of  preventing  such  an 


72  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

occurrence,  for  the  reason  that  the  mischief  was  attributed  to  birds. 
Thus  our  Quail,  Purple-finch,  and  many  other  birds,  have  too  often 
unjustly  received  the  execrations  of  the  culturist,  which  that  evil  ge- 
nius the  cut- worm,  alone  deserved.  To  understand  an  enemy's  foible 
is  to  have  conquered,  and  when  we  learn  the  source  of  an  evil  it  need 
exist  no  longer.  The  range  of  these  climbing  worms  seems  to  be 
wide,  for  we  have  undoubted  evidence  of  their  attacking  the  grape- 
vine, even  in  California,  and  I  have  found  two  species  in  Missouri, 
which  have  the  same  habit.  Climbing  cut- worms  frequently  have  the 
same  habit  of  severing  plants,  as  those  which  have  never  been  known 
to  climb,  and  I  very  much  incline  to  believe  that  this  habit  is  only 
acquired  in  the  spring  time,  and  most  cut-worms  will  mount  trees  if 
they  are  forced  to  do  so,  by  the  absence  of  herbaceous  plants. 

THE  VARIEGATED  CUT-WORM.— PI.  1,  Figs.  1,  2,  3  and  4. 
(Larva  of  the  Unarmed  Rustic,  Agrolis  inermis,  Harris.) 

During  the  latter  part  of  May,  Mr.  Isidor  Bush,  of  Bushburg,  Mo., 
brought  me  several  greasy-looking  worms,  which  had  been  feeding 
on,  and  doing  considerable  damage  to  a  lot  of  young  Creveling  grape- 
vines, which  he  had  in  cold  frames.  As  I  ascertained  afterwards,  up- 
on visiting  Mr.  Bush's  place,  they  lay  concealed  during  the  day,  just 
under  the  surface  of  the  rich  earth,  contained  in  the  frames,  and 
mounted  the  vines  to  feed,  during  the  night  time.  The  weather  be- 
ing warm,  Mr.  B.  at  my  suggestion,  threw  open  the  frames  during  the 
day  and  allowed  the  chickens  to  get  in  them,  and  two  dscys  after  do- 
ing this,  there  was  not  a  worm  to  be  found.  By  the  30th  of  May,  these 
worms  had  grown  to  be  of  great  size,  measuring  nigh  two  inches  in 
length.  When  full  grown  they  are  mottled  with  dull  flesh-color, 
brown  and  black,  with  elongated,  velvety-black  marks  each  side,  as 
shown  at  Plate  1,  Figure  2.  The  head  is  light  gray  and  mottled,  and 
marked  as  shown  in  Figure  3,  and  each  segment  on  the  back  appears 
as  in  Figure  4  of  the  same  plate. 

About  the  time  these  worms  were  completing  their  growth,  they 
having  most  likely  developed  earlier  than  usual,  in  the  unnatural  heat 
of  the  frames,  I  received  from  J.  M.  Shaffer,  Secretary  of  the  Iowa 
State  Agricultural  Society,  some  eggs  which  he  found  on  a  cherry 
twig.  These  eggs  were  quite  small,  of  a  pink  color,  with  ribs  radiat- 
ing from  a  common  centre,  and  were  deposited  in  a  batch.  Exactly 
similar  eggs,  found  on  an  apple  twig,  were  presented  to  the  Alton 
Horticultural  Society,  at  it-s  June  meeting,  by  Mr.  L.  W.  Lyon,  of  Be- 
thalto,  Ills.;  while  I  subsequently  found  a  batch  of  the  very  same  eggs 
on  a  White  mulberry  leaf,  taken  from  a  tree  growing  near  St.  Louis. 
Between  the  Sith  and  30th  of  May,  the  young  hatched  from  these 
eggs,  in  the  shape  of  minute,  thread-like  worms  of  a  dirty  yellow  col- 
or, and  covered  with  the  spots,  already  spoken  of  as  occurring  on  all  cut- 
worms, which  are  at  this  time  in  this  species  quite  dark  and  conspic- 
uous. In  this  early  stage  of  their  growth,  tliey  did  not  hide  themselves 


IHE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  «" 


in  the  i?round,  and  had,  furthermore,  the  peculiarity  of  looping  up  the 
back  when  in  motion,  in  the  same  manner  as  does  ^he  Canker-worm 
and  as  do  all  other  geometers  or  span  worms.  After  the  first  moult, 
which  took  place  six  days  after  hatching,  the  dark  spots  became  al- 
most obliterated,  the  characteristic  markings  of  this  same  Variegated 
cut-worm  which  I  had  received  from  Mr.  Bush,  began  to  appear,  and 
tliey  lost  their  looping  habit.  At  this  time  they  grew  at  an  mcredibie 
rate,  becoming  thicker  in  proportion  to  their  length  as  they  S/ew  older 
and  bv  the  15th  of  June,  those  which  hatched  on  the  24th  of  May  had 
shed  their  skins  four  times,  and  gone  into  the  ground,  where  tiiey 
formed  oval  cocoons  of  earth,  and  in  two  days  more  were  changed 
into  chrysalids.  By  the  20th  of  June  the  moths  began  issmng,  thus 
requiring  but  35  days  to  go  through  all  their  transformations. 

These  worms  were  very  voracious,  and  after  the  first  mou  t,  showed 
the  true  cut-worm  characteristic  of  concealing  themselves  durmgthe 
day,  and  feeding  at  night.    Moreover,  they  proved  to  be  quite  univer- 
sal feeders,  for  while  I  fed  them,  when  young,  on  cabbage  and  grape- 
vine  leaves,  they  ilourished  exceedingly,  the  latter  part  of  their  lives^ 
on  the  leaves  of  the  White  mulberry;  and  on  the  16th  of  June  i  au^ 
up  from  my  garden,  two  full  grown  specimens  of  this  same  kind  oi 
worm,  which  produced  the  same  species  of  moth,  each  of  them  liavin^ 
severed  a  young  lettuce  plant.   From  the  foregoing,  it  is  manifest  tliat 
all  cut-worm  moths  do  not  deposit  their  eggs  on  the  ground,  and  from 
the  fact  that  these  eggs  were  found,  in  one  instance,  on  a  leaf,  so  early 
in  the  season,  they  were  undoubtedly  deposited  in  the  spring  by  a 
moth  which  must  have  passed  the  winter  either  in  the  chrysalis  or 
moth  state  ;  and  as  the  insect  goes  through  its  transformations  so  rap- 
idly, there  are  most  likely  two  broods  during  the  year.   From  the  fore- 
going experience,  and  from  the  fact  that  most  other  moths  attach  their 
eggs  to  different  substances,  I  think  it  not  unlikely  that  our  cut-worm 
moths  do  the  same,  as  a  general  rule,  instead  of  depositing  them  m,  or 
on  the  ground,  as  has  heretofore  been  supposed ;    and  Mr.  Cochraii 
has  related  to  me  a  curious  incident  which  bears  me  out  in  this  behef. 
He  is  in  the  habit    of   gathering,  during  the  winter,  all  crumpled 
leaves  and  egg-masses  which  he  finds  in  his  orchard,  and  of  placing 
them  in  a  drawer  in  his  secretary.    Last  spring  he  was  astonished  to 
find  several  half-grown  cut-worms  in  this  drawer,  they  having  evi- 
dently hatched  from  some  of  the  eggs,  and  fed  entirely  on  some  apples 
which  chanced  at  that  time  to  be  in  the  drawer. 

The  moth  produced  from  this  cut-Avorm  is  represented  at  PLate  1, 
Figure  1.  Its  general  color  is  a  dark  brownish-gray,  some  specimens 
being  almost  black  along  the  front  edge  of  the  upper  wings,  while 
others  have  this  edge  of  a  dull  golden-bufi^  color.  The  Noctuid.e,  to 
which  our  cut-worm  moths  belong,  have  not  yet  been  worked  up  by 
any  one  in  this  country,  and  as  they  are  all  of  sombre  colors,  and  as 
the  species,  in  many  instances,  very  closely  resemble  each  other,  it  is 
not  an  easv  matter  to  properly  determine  them.    The  species  under 


7J:  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

consideration,  is  apparently  quite  common  here,  and  yet  Mr.  A.  Grote 
of  New  York,  who  made  a  trip  to  Europe  last  year,  for  the  purpose  of 
comparing  our  American  moths  with  those  in  the  British  museum,  and 
in  other  European  collections,  took  a  specimen  with  him  and  brought 
it  back  unnamed.  In  the  collection  of  Mr.  A.  Bolter,  of  Chicago,  it  is 
marked  Agroiis  saucia^  Treitschke,  while  Mr.  Cresson  informs  me  that 
in  the  collection  of  the  American  Entomological  Society,  at  Philadel- 
phia, it  is  named  oequa^  but  without  authority.  Harris's  description  of 
inermis  (Inj.  Insects,  p.  444),  brief  and  insufficient  as  it  is,  agrees  with 
some  of  the  individuals,  and,  as  it  is  said  to  be  the  counterpart  of  cequa 
which  is  an  European  species,  I  have  concluded,  rather  than  to  create 
more  synonyms,  to  redescribe  it  below,  under  this  name.  Individuals 
among  the  numerous  specimens  which  I  bred  from  the  same  batch  of 
eggs,  differ  greatly  from  one  another,  and  I  find  this  to  be  the  case 
with  all  owlet  moths.  Indeed,  with  the  present  species,  a  description, 
taken  from  any  single  specimen  would  scarcely  suffice  for  any  of  the 
others,  and  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  this  species  has  received  diff- 
erent names  from  different  authors. 

Agrotis  inermis,  Harris — Larva — Length,  when  full  grown,  2  inches.  Finely  mottled  with 
dull,  carneous-brown  and  black,  and  having  dark  velvety  longitudinal  marks  along  subdorsal  and 
stigmatal  region  (see  PI.  1,  Fig.  2) ;  segment  11  somewhat  ridged  and  abruptly  divided  trans- 
versely by  velvety  black  and  carneous.  Lighter  laterally  than  above.  A  carneous  stripe  below  stig- 
mata. Venter  and  legs  speckled  glaucous.  Dorsum  of  segments  marked  ss  in  Plate  1,  Figure  4; 
Head  light  gray,  and  marked  as  in  Plate  1,  Figure  3.     Cervical  shield  obselete. 

Chrysalis. — Of  normal  form,  deep  mahogony  brown,  with  a  single  point  at  extremity. 

Perfect  insect. — Average  length  0.80 ;  alar  expanse  1.80.  Ground  color  of  fore  wings  gray- 
brown,  marked  as  in  Plate  1,  Figure  1.  A  most  variable  species,  sometimes  washed  with  dull  car- 
neous, at  others  with  light  buff,  but  alwaj's  marked  with  more  or  less  smoky  black.  Costal  region, 
head  and  thorax,  sometimes  very  black,  at  others  bright  golden-buff.  Spots  usuallj'  lighter  than 
wing,  though  sometimes  concolorous.  Basal  half  and  transverse  lines  more  or  less  distinct,  espe- 
cially at  costa,  geminate,  their  middle  space,  usually  lighter  than  the  ground  color.  Hind  wings 
pearly  white,  with  a  very  slight  pink  tint  in  the  middle,  shaded  behind  and  veined  with  smoky 
brown. 

Under  surface  of  the  wings,  the  least  variable  and  most  characteristic  feature,  that  of  fore- 
wings  being  mouse-gray  with  a  distinct  ferruginous  spot  in  the  middle  at  base,  and  a  lighter  strip 
running  from  this  spot  to  the  posterior  angle  ;  the  arcuated  band  very  distinct  and  geminate  at 
costa,  and  the  whole  surface  pearly  and  especially  the  light  strip  at  interior  margin  which  in  cer- 
tain lights  reflects  all  the  prismatic  colors.  That  of  hind  wings  pearly  white  in  the  middle,  darker 
near  the  margins,  distinctly  freckled  along  anterior  margin,  where  the  arcuated  band  is  very  dis- 
tinct, while  in  the  middle  of  the  wing  it  is  represented  by  distinct  black  strokes  on  the  veins. 

Described  from  25  bred  specimens. 

THE    DARK-SIDED  CUT-WORM. 
(Larva  of  the  Cochran  Rustic,  Agrotis  Cochranii,  Riley.) 

This  worm  is  one  of  the  most  common  of  those  which  have  the 
climbing  habit.    It  is   represented  in  the  annexed  Figure  26,  at  a. 

The  general  color  is  dingy  ash- 
gray,  but  it  is  characterized  more 
especially  by  the  sides  being  dark- 
er than  the  rest  of  the  body.  When 
young,  it  is  much  darker,  and  the 
white,  which  is  below  the  dark 
lateral  band,  is  then  cream-color- 
ed, and  very  distinct.  It  produces 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  75 

a  moth  which  may  be  known  as  the  Cochran  Rustic,  and  was  first 
described  in  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  June  22, 1867.  Speaking  of  the 
depredations  of  this  worm,  Mr  Cochran  says : 

"In  the  beginning  of  the  evening  its  activity  is  wonderful ;  moving 
along  from  limb-to  limb  swiftly,  and  selecting  at  first  only  the  blossom 
buds,  to  one  of  which  having  fastened,  it  does  not  let  go  its  hold  until 
the  entire  head  is  eaten  out,  and  from  this  point,  so  thorough,  is  its 
work,  no  latent  or  adventitious  bud  will  ever  again  push.  From  a  six- 
year  old  fruit  tree,  I  have,  on  a  single  night,  taken  seventy-five  of 
these  worms,  and,  on  the  ensuing  evening,  found  them  well  nigh  as 
plenty  on  the  same  tree.  When  all  the  blossom  buds  of  a  tree  are 
taken,  it  attacks  with  equal  avidity  the  leaf  buds.  It  is  no  unusual 
thing  to  find  small  trees  with  every  bud  that  had  pushed,  from  first 
intentions  utterly  destroyed,  and  frequently  young  orchards  the  first 
season  planted  on  sandy  grounds,  lose  from  50  to  75  per  cent,  of  their 
trees ;  sometimes  those  remaining  will  be  so  badly  injured  as  to  linger 
along  for  a  few  years,  fruiting  prematurely  each  season,  and  then  die, 
utterly  drained  of  their  vital  principle  by  this  dreadful  enemy.  The 
instinct  of  the  perfect  insect,  like  that  of  all  insects  injurious  to  vege- 
tation, leads  it  unerringly  to  deposit  its  eggs  where  they  will  hatch 
out  from  the  warmth  of  the  sun,  and  where  the  larvae  is  nearest  to 
that  food  which  is  necessary  to  its  existence:  hence  I  never  yet  have 
found  the  eggs  upon  clay,  or  heavy  cold  grounds  of  any  description, 
and  on  my  carefully  placing  them  in  such  situations  they  failed  to 
hatch  out.  Can  there  be  a  stronger  argument  used  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  State  Entomologist  than  the  fact,  that  the  habits  of  this 
enemy  of  horticulture,  that  has  ruined  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
fruit  trees  in  our  country,  has  until  recently  been  entirely  unknown  ? 
I  doubt  whether  one  fruit  grower  in  five  hundred  is  even  now  aware 
of  tbe  presence  of  this  curse  on  his  grounds.  There  is  not  an  orchard 
upon  the  sands  of  Michigan,  or  the  light  timber  openings  of  Indiana, 
or  the  sandy  ridges  of  our  own  State,  but  that  has  suffered  greatly, 
many  of  them  entirely  ruined  by  its  depredations.  It  is  far  more  de- 
structive to  fruit  trees  than  any  other  insect,  infinitely  more  so  than 
the  canker  worm,  but  unlike  the  other  depredators  of  our  orchard 
trees,  it  is  easily  kept  in  check,  and  at  small  expense  permanently 
eradicated." 

This  species  remains  longer  underground  in  the  chrysalis  state, 
than  the  preceding,  and  there  is  but  one  brood  each  year,  the  moths 
appearing  through  the  months  of  July  and  August.  The  moth  which 
is  represented  at  Figure  26,  J,  is  of  a  light  warm  gray  color,  and  shaded 
with  brown  and  umber. 

Agrotts  Cochranii,  Riley — Imago. — Fore  wings  of  a  light  warm  cinereous,  shaded  with  van- 
dyke  brown  and  umber,  the  terminal  space,  except  at  apex,  being  darker  and  smoky.  Basal, 
middle  and  limbal  areas  of  almost  equal  width,  the  middle  exceeding  somewhat  the  others.  A 
geminate  dark  basal  half-line,  usually  quite  distinct.  Transverse  anterior  geminate,  dark,  some- 
what irregularly  undulate,  and  slightly  obliquing  outwards  from  costa  to  interior  margin.  Trans- 
verse posterior  geminate,  the  inner  line  being  dark,  distinct  and  regularly  undulate  between  the 


76  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

nerves,  while  the  outer  line  is  plain  and  much  paler  ;  it  is  arcuated  superiorly  and  inversely  ob- 
liques for  two-thirds  its  width.  Orbicular  and  reniform  spots  of  normal  shape,  having  a  fine,  dark 
annulation,  which  is  however  obsolete  in  both,  anteriorly;  the  orbicular  is  concolorous  with  the 
■wing,  whilst  the  reniform  has  a  dark  inner  shade  with  a  centr.al  light  one,  and  forms  with  the  trans- 
verse posterior  a  somewhat  oval  spot  which  is  also  dark.  Median  shade  dark  and  distinct  inte- 
riorly, shading  off  and  becoming  indistinct  in  center  of  wing,  and  quite  dark  between  the  two  spots, 
giving  them  a  fair  relief.  Subterminal  line  single,  light,  acutely  and  irregularly  dentate,  with  an 
inner  dark  shade,  but  warmer  than  that  of  terminal  space.  Terminal,  line  very  fine,  almost  black, 
slightly  undulate.  Fringes  of  same  color  as  wing,  with  a  light  central  line,  having  an  outer  dark 
coincident  shade.  A  dark  costal  spot  in  basal  area ;  at  termini  of  the  usual  lines,  and  two  light 
ones  in  subterminal  space.  In  some  specimens  one  or  two  fine  dark  sagittate  marks  are  discernable, 
and  also  a  fine  black  claviform  mark.  Hind  wings  :  whitish,  with  a  darker  shade  along  posterior 
margin.  Under  surface  of  fore  wings  somewhat  lighter  than  the  upper  surface  and  pearlaceous 
interiorly,  with  a  smoky  arcuated  band — more  definite  near  the  costa  than  elsewhere — and  a  toler- 
ably distinct  lunule.  Under  surface  of  hind  wings  concolorous  ;  slightly  irrorate  with  brown  ante- 
riorly and  posteriorly,  and  with  an  indistinct  lunule  and  band.  Antenna;,  prothorax,  thorax, 
tegul£e  and  body  of  same  color  as  primaries,  the  prothorax  having  a  darker  central  line,  and  in 
common  with  the  tegulae  acarneous  margin.     Under  surface  lighter  ;  legs  with  the  tarsi  spotted. 

This  moth,  in  its  general  appearance,  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  Hadena  chenojiodii,  but 
the  two  are  found  to  differ  essentially  when  compared.  From  specimens  of  H,  chenopodii,  kindly 
furnished  me  by  Mr.  AValsh,  and  named  by  Grote,  I  am  enabled  to  give  the  essential  differences, 
which  are:  1st.  In  jl.  Cochranii,  as  already  stated,  the  middle  area  exceeds  somewhat  in  width 
either  of  the  other  two,  while  in  H.  chenopodii  it  is  but  half  as  wide  as  either.  2d.  In  the  Agrotis 
the  space  between  the  spots  and  between  the  reniform  and  transverse  posterior  is  dark,  relieving  the 
spots  and  giving  them  a  light  appearance,  whilst  in  the  Hadena  this  space  is  of  the  same  color  as 
the  wing,  and  the  reniform  spot  is  dark.  The  claviform  spot  in  the  Hadena  is  also  quite  prominent^ 
and  one  of  its  distinctive  features,  while  in  the  Agrolis  it  is  just  about  obsolete. 

There  are  specimens  that  seem  to  be  intermediate  between  these  two,  but  all  those  bred  by 
me,  both  male  and  female,  were  quite  constant  in  their  markings,  and  their  intermediates  will 
doubtless  prove  to  be  distinct  species  or  mere  varieties. 

Larva — Length  1.07  inches.  Slightly  shagreened.  General  color,  dingy  ash-gray,  with 
lighter  or  darker  shadings.  Dorsum  light,  inclining  to  flesh  color,  with  a  darker  dingy  line  along 
its  middle.  The  sides,  particularly  along  the  sub-dorsal  line  are  of  a  darker  shade.  On  each  seg- 
ment there  are  eight  small,  black,  shiny,  slightly  elevated  points,  having  the  appearance  of  black 
sealing-wax,  from  each  of  which  originates  a  small  black  bristle.  The  stigmata  are  of  the  same 
black  color,  and  one  of  the  black  spots  is  placed  quite  close  to  them  anteriorily.  Head  shiny  and 
of  the  same  dingy  color  as  the  body,  with  two  darker  marks,  thick  and  almost  joining  at  the  uppe'^ 
surface,  becoming  thinner  below  and  diverging  toward  the  palpi.  The  upper  surface  of  first  seg- 
ment is  also  shiny  like  the  head.  Ventral  region  of  the  same  dingy  color,  but  lighter,  having  a 
greenish  tinge  anteriorly  and  inclining  to  yellow  under  the  anal  segment.  Legs  of  same  color.  It 
has  a  few  short  bristles  on  the  anterior  and  posterior  segments. 

Chrysalis. — Length  0.70  of  an  inch.  Light  yellowish  brown  with  a  dusky  line  along  top  of  ab- 
domen. Joints,  especially  of  the  three  segments  immediately  behind  the  wing-sheaths,  dark  brown. 
The  brown  part  of  these  three  segments,  minutely  punctured  on  the  back.  Eyes  dark  brown,  and 
just  above  them,  a  smaller  brownish  spot.     Two  quite  minute  bristles  at  extremity. 

Described  from  numerous  bred  specimens. 

THE  CLIMBING  CUT-WORM— PI.  1,  Figs.  5,  6  and  7. 
[Larva  of  the  Climbing  Rustic,  Agrotis  scandens,'N.  Sp.) 

This  is  another  of  the  most  common  species  having  the  climbing 
habit.  It  occurs  in  at  least  five  different  States,  for  Mr.  Walsh  informs 
me  that  it  is  the  species  referred  to  by  Mr.  Townley,  of  Marquette 
county,  Wisconsin,  and  I  have  found  it  with  the  same  pernicious  habit 
on  Mr.  Jordan's  nurser}'-  at  St.  Louis,  in  our  own  State ;  while  it  was 
even  more  numerous,  last  spring,  in  North  Illinois,  North  Indiana  and 
West  Michigan,  than  the  preceding  species,  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr. 
Cochran,  and  by  Mr.  H.  D.  Emery,  of  Chicago,  who  both  sent  me  great 
numbers  of  specimens  during  the  last  week  of  April.    The  following 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  77 

interesting  letter  accompanied  those  which  were  received  from  the 
last  named  gentleman: 

"I  made  a  nocturnal  visit  to  Mr.  Cochran's  place,  Monday 
night,  for  the  purpose  of  observing  the  workings  of  this  pest,  and 
spent  about  3|  hours,  until  1  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  the  job.  I 
found  on  some  single  dwarf  trees  over  50  at  a  time,  and  from  that 
down,  and  they  were  on  both  apple,  pear,  peach  and  cherry.  They 
commence  ascending  the  trees  soon  after  dark,  and  are  found  the 
most  plenty  from  11  to  12,  some  remaining  on  t  he  trees  until  daylight, 
as  I  found  several  at  -1  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Their  first  drive  seems 
to  be  the  terminal  bud, and  when  these  are  all  gone,  they  take  side  buds 
or  even  the  bark  of  the  tree  in  many  cases,  as  you  will  see  by  the 
small  twigs  sent  herein.  You  will  see  they  are  of  different  sizes. 
Some  trees  were  entirely  despoiled  of  ihe  terminal  buds.  After  they 
have  eaten  their  fill,  they  seem  to  let  themselves  oil  the  limb  by  a 
short  web,  and  drop  to  the  ground.  We  have  found  a  large  number  of 
the  worms  attacked  by  the  bug  found  in  the  tin  box*.  They  would 
pierce  the  worm  and  suck  him  dry,  and  frequently  two  of  them  were 
hold  01  one  worm.  There  were  also  numbers  of  spiders  about  the 
trees,  of  various  sizes  and  kinds,  all  alive  and  alert,  and  apparently 
annoying  if  not  preying  upon  the  worms.  Also  a  beetle,  of  which  I 
send  two  specimens,  was  very  active  on  the  ground  under  the  trees, 
apparently  after  prey  f .  The  worms  were  the  most  abundant  on  the 
light  sandy  soils,  and  less  frequent  as  the  ground  grew  hard  oi  clayey, 
and  where  it  was  pretty  much  all  clay,  scarcely  one  could  be  found. 
The  tin  tubes  placed  around  the  trunks  of  the  trees,  when  properly 
adjusted,  were  a  perfect  protection.  The  injury  they  have  already 
done  is  very  great." 

Mr.  Cochran,  speaking  of  the  same  worm,  says  :  "Some  trees  were 
literally  covered  with  them.  Scarcely  a  bud  but  that  had  its  worm, 
and,  returning  towards  10  o'clock,  to  those  trees  which  we  had  in  the 
early  part  of  the  night  examined,  we  found  others  had  come  as  abun- 
dantly as  before.  I  have  observed  that  they  are  actually  ruining  the 
young  orchards  along  the  Lake  shore,  and,  stran  ge  as  it  may  appear, 
their  owners  do  not  know  what  is  doing  the  mischief.  At  Hyde  park, 
where  there  are  many  handsome  country  residences  with  grounds  of 
great  beauty,  this  worm  has  been  especially  injurious  to  their  young 
shrubbery." 

This  worm  is  represented  at  Plate  1,  Figure  7.  Its  general  color 
is  a  very  light  yellowish-gray,  variegated  with  dirty  bluish-green,  and 
when  filled  with  food  it  wears  a  much  greener  appearance  than  oth- 
erwise. In  depth  of  shading  it  is  variable  however,  and  the  young 
worm  is  of  a  more  uniform  dirty  whitish-yellow,  with  the  lines  along 
the  body  less  distinct  but  the  shiny  spots  more  so  than  in  the  full 

*  The  bug  -was  the  Spined  Soldier  bug.  {Arma  tpinosa,  Dallas).     See  Figure  64. 
t  The  Incrassated  Geopinus  (Geopinm  incraitatus,  Bej.)  a  beetle  about  i  inch  long  and  of  th» 
color  and  polished  appearance  of  thin  glue. 


78  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

green  ones.  Mr.  Cochran  informs  me  that  on  the  apple  tree, 
when  this  worm  has  fed  out  its  bud,  the  work  is  so  effectually  done, 
that  no  adventitious  or  accessory  bud  ever  starts  again  from  the  same 
place;  the  worm,  as  it  were,  boring  into  the  very  heart  of  the  wood 
and  effectually  destroying  the  ability  of  the  tree  to  react,  at  such  a 
point,  in  the  formation  of  a  new  bud,  and  that  consequently  a  tree 
that  is  once  stripped  generally  dies,  and  that  this  occurs  more  fre- 
quently on  small  or  dwarf  trees,  where  the  buds  are  few,  and  3  or  4 
worms  in  a  single  night  can  eat  out  every  one.  But  1  have  noticed 
that  with  the  grape-vine  this  is  not  generally  the  case,  as  a  new  bud 
almost  always  appears  where  one  has  been  eaten  off. 

Great  numbers  of  these  worms  which  I  reared  to  the  moth  state, 
were  fed  promiscuously  on  apple  and  grape-vine  leaves.  They  began 
entering  the  earth  on  the  20th  of  May,  and  generally  issued  as  moths 
nine  days  after  thus  disappearing;  the  last  moth  having  issued  on  the 
29th  of  June. 

The  moth  produced  from  this  worm  is  easily  distinguished  from 
most  other  owlet  moths  by  its  peculiar  color.  It  seems  allied  to 
Agrotis  ctirsoria  of  Europe,  and  also  greatly  resembles  one  that  was 
described  as  A.  murcenula^  by  Mr.  Grote,  and  figured  in  Volume  1, 
Number  4,  of  the  American  Entomological  Transactions.  Upon  sub- 
mitting specimens  to  Mr.  Grote,  however,  he  informed  me  that  it  is 
distinct  and  undescribed,  and  I  have  therefore  named  it  the  Climbing 
rustic  {Agrotis  scandens).  It  is  well  represented  with  extended 
wings  at  Plate  1,  Figure  5,  and  with  closed  wings  at  Figure  6.  The 
general  color  of  the  upper  wings  is  a  pearly  bluish-gray,  while  the 
Tinder  wings  are  pearly  white  ;  but  as  with  the  other  species,  it  varies 
greatly  in  color  and  appearance,  and  as  I  could  pick  out,  from  30  in- 
dividuals, at  least  4  which,  if  taken  singly  would  doubtless  be  de- 
scribed as  distinct  species,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Mr.  Grote's  murcB' 
nula,  may  prove  identical  with  it  after  all. 

Agrotis  scaxdens,  N.  Sp. — Lrrva. —Average  "length  when  full  grown  1.40.  Ground-color  very 
light  yellowish  gray,  variegated  with  glancous  in  the  shape  of  different  sized  patches,  whicli  are 
distinctly  seen  under  the  lens,  to  be  separated  by  fine  lines  of  the  light  ground  color.  A  well  de- 
fined dorsal  and  less  distinct  subdorsal  and  stiginatal  line,  caused  by  these  patches  becoming  larger 
and  darlier ;  another  and  still  less  distinct  line  of  the  same  kind  under  stigmata.  The  dorsal  line 
frequently  with  a  very  fine  white  line  along  its  middle,  especially  at  sutures  of  segments.  Piliferous 
spots  in  the  normal  position  ;  those  above  black,  those  at  the  sides  lighter.  Stigmata  black. 
Head  and  cervical  shield  tawny,  the  latter  with  a  small  black  spot  each  side,  the  former  with  two  in 
front,  and  two  eye-spots  each  side.  Caudal  plate  tawny,  speckled  with  black.  Venter  and  legs 
glancous.  Bristles  fine -and  small.  Filled  with  food  it  wears  a  much  greener  appearance  than  oth- 
©rwise,  while  when  young  it  is  of  a  more  uniform  dirty  whitish-yellow,  the  lines  less  distinct  but 
the  piliferous  spots  proportionately  larger.     Head  quite  variable  in  depth  of  shade. 

Perfecl  Insect. — Average  length  O.70;  alar  expansel.50.  General  color  of  fore  wings  very 
li"-ht  pearly  bluisli-gray,  with  a  perceptible  deepening  posteriorly.  Quite  variable,  sometimes  of  a 
more  decided  blue,  at  others  inclining  to  bufif  as  in  Leucania  uniptmctata,  Haw.  Markings,  when 
distinct,  as  in  Plate  I,  Figures  5  and  6.  With  the  exception  of  the  reniform  spot  and  subteruiinal 
line,  however,  they  are  usually  distinct  only  on  costa,  being  either  indistinct  or  entirely  obsolete 
on  the  rest  of  the  wing.  The  subterminal  line  is  light,  with  a  more  or  less  dark  diffuse  shade  each 
Bide,  which,  in  some  instances,  forms  into  sagittate  spots.  A  black  stain  at  the  lower  part  of  reni- 
form spot  forms  a  most  distinctive  character.     Hind  wings  very  pale  and  lacking  the  bluish  oust  of 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  79 

fore  wings  ;  lunule  distinct,  and  a  dark  shade,  enclosins:  a  lighter  mark,  as  in  iTeUolhis,  along  poster- 
ior margin.     Eyes  dark;  head  and  thorax  same  as  fore  wings  ;  abdomen  same  as  hind  wings.     The 
whole  under  surface  the  same  as  hind  wi»gs  above,  the  lunules  and  arcuated  bands   faintly  traced, 
the  fore  wings  having  a  darker  shade  in  the  middle. 
Described  from  30  bred  specimens. 

THE  AV-MARKED  CUT- WORM.— Pi,  1,  Pig.  1.3. 
(Larva  of  the  Clandestine  Owlet  moth,  Noctua  clandestina,  Harris.) 

Another  cut-worm  which  has  this  same  habit  of  climbing  trees,  I 
have  named  the  W-marked  cut-worm,  on  account  of  the  characteristic 
markings  resembling  this  letter,  which  it  has  on  its  back.    Its  general 
[Fig.  27.]  color  is  ash-gray,  inclining  on  the  back  and  upper 

sides  to  dirty  yellow,  and  the  annexed  Figure  27 
gives  a  correct  view  of  it.  This  species,  so  far  as  I 
j^have  observed,  though  it  has  been  caught  in  the  act 
^jf  eating  apple  buds,  is  but  seldom  found  very  high 
up  on  trees,  but  seems  to  prefer  to  attack  low  bushes, 
such  as  currants,  on  which  I  have  often  found  it.  It  occurs  abundantly 
on  a  species  of  wild  endive  (probably  Cichorium  saliva)^  under  the 
broad  leaves  of  which  it  frequently  nestles  during  the  day,  without 
entering  into  the  ground.  Harris  quotes  a  communication  from  Dr. 
F.  E.  Melsheimer,  of  Dover,  Pa.,  in  which  this  same  worm  is  said  to 
attack  young  corn,  and  to  feed  indiscriminately  on  all  succulent 
plants,  such  as  early  sown  buckwheat,  young  pumpkin  plants,  young 
beans,  cabbage  plants,  and  many  other  field  and  garden  vegetables. 
Mr.  Glover,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  has  also  found  it  to  at- 
tack wheat,  and  I  have  found  it  quite  injurious  to  young  cabbages.  In 
feeding,  it  frequently  drags  its  food  under  stones  and  other  places  of 
concealment.  The  young  worms  are  of  a  more  decided  gray  than  the 
older  ones,  with  the  black  W-shaped  marks  less  distinct,  and  subsist, 
for  the  most  part,  on  grasses. 

The  moth  produced  from  this  worm  is  illustrated  at  Plate  1,  Figure 
13.  It  appears  during  the  latter  part  of  June,  and  is,  consequently, 
one  of  our  earliest.  It  is  of  a  dark  ash-gray  color,  with  the  wavy 
bands  but  faintly  traced.  The  two  ordinary  spots  are  small,  narrow, 
and  usually  connected  by  a  fine  black  line.  The  hind  wings  are  dirty 
brownish-white,  somewhat  darker  behind.  It  may  be  popularly  known 
as  the  Clandestine  Owlet  moth,  and  was  named  Noctua  clandestina^ 
by  Harris,  though  it  might  be  placed  with  more  propriety  in  the  genus 
GrapMphora. 

Noctua  clandestina,  Harris. — Larva — Length,  when  full  grown,  1.15  of  an  inch.  General  color 
ash-gray,  inclining  on  the  back  and  upper  sides  to  dirty  yellow.  Finely  speckled  all  over  with  black 
and  brown  spots.  Along  the  dorsum  there  is  a  fine  line  of  a  lighter  color,  shaded  on  each  side,  at 
the  ring  joints  with  a  darker  color.  Sub-dorsal  line  light  sulphur-yellow,  with  a  band  of  dirty 
brownish-yellow  underneath.  Along  the  stigmatal  region  is  a  wavy  line  of  a  dark  shade,  with  flest- 
colored  markings  underneath  it ;  but  the  distinguishing  feature  is  a  row  of  black  velvety  marks 
along  each  side  of  the  back,  on  all  but  the  thoracic  segments,  and  bearing  a  general  resemblance, 
looking  from  anus  to  head,  to  the  letter  W.  Ventral  region  greenish-graj'  ;  prolegs  of  same  color  ; 
thoracic  legs  brown-black.  Head  black,  with  a  white  line  in  front  resembling  an  inverted  Y,  and 
white  at  sides.     The  thoracic  segments  frequently  have  a  greenish  hue. 

Chrysalis. — Of  the  normal  form  and  color,  with  but  one  rather  long  thorn  at  extremity. 


80  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

THE  GREASY  CUT-WORM.— PI.  1,  Figs.  8,  9  and  10. 
(Larva  of  the  Lance  Rustic,  Agrotis  teUfera,  Harris.) 

In  the  Prairie  Farmer  for  June  22, 1S67, 1  described  a  large  cut- 
worm under  the  name  of  the  "Black  cut-worm."  I  have  since  ascer- 
tained that  it  is  quite  variable  in  its  coloration,  some  specimens  being 
lighter,  and  the  markings  much  more  distinct  than  in  others,  and  have 
therefore  concluded  to  give  it  the  above  appellation.  This  worm  is 
usually  of  a  deep  leaden-brown  inclining  to  black,  though  some  speci- 
mens are  of  a  greasy  glaucous  color,  with  a  dark  flesh-colored  back. 
It  is  always  more  or  less  distinctly  marked  as  in  Figure  9,  of  Plate  1, 
while  the  head,  when  retracted  within  the  first  segment,  presents  the 
appearance  of  Figure  10  on  the  same  plate,  this  figure  being  enlarged 
beyond  the  natural  size.  It  is  probably  the  most  common  cut-worm 
in  the  country,  for  the  moth  is  frequently  caught  in  our  rooms  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Though  it  has  not,  so  far  as  I  am  aware 
the  climbing  habit  of  the  preceding  species,  it  has  a  most  emphatic 
and  pernicious  cutting  habit. 

Mr.  Jordan,  of  the  St.  Louis  nursery,  had  transplanted  a  great  num- 
ber of  tomato  plants  last  spring,  but  lost  well-nigh  every  one  of  them 
by  this  pernicious  worm.  It  cut  off  large  plants  that  were  over  six 
inches  in  height,  generally  at  about  an  inch  above  ground,  and  thus 
effectually  destroyed  them.  After  severing  one  plant,  the  same  worm 
would  travel  to  others,  and  thus  in  a  single  night,  from  three  to  four 
plants  would  be  ruined  by  a  single  individual.  Along  the  Clayton 
road,  to  the  west  of  St.  Louis,  most  of  the  corn  had  to  be  replanted  on 
account  of  its  attacks.  On  the  22d  of  May  I  examined  several  fields, 
and  was  surprised  to  find  these  worms  present  at  almost  every  hill, 
most  of  them  being  two-thirds  grown.  The  land  is  clayey,  and  was 
at  that  time  quite  hard,  and  each  worm  had  a  smooth  burrow  in  which 
it  lay  hidden,  and  to  the  bottom  of  which  it  could  generally  be  traced. 
I  subsequently  learned  that  a  large  tobacco  field  belonging  to  Mr.  F. 
R.  Allen,  of  Allenton,  had  been  entirely  ruined  soon  after  it  was 
planted,  by  this  same  worm,  and  I  found  it  in  my  own  garden  cutting 
off  cypress  vines.  Indeed,  nothing  seems  to  come  amiss  to  its  vora- 
cious appetite,  for  in  confinement  it  devoured  with  equal  relish,  apple 
and  grape  leaves. 

This  species  comes  to  its  growth  in  this  latitude  by  the  end  of  May, 
though  the  moth  does  not  make  its  appearance  till  the  month  of  July. 
The  moth  is  known  as  the  Lance  Rustic  {Agrotis  telifera,  Harris), 
and  is  represented  in  the  annexed  Figure  28. 
^and  still  more  correctly  at  Plate  1,  Figure 
(3.  The  upper  wings  are  light-brown  shaded 
with  dark-brown,  and  the  under  wings  are 
pearly  white,  with  a  gray  shade  around  the 
edges;  but  the  characteristic  feature,  from 
which  it  takes  its  name,  is  a  dark-brown 
lance-shaped  mark  running  outwardly  from 
the  kidney-spot. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  SI 

Agrotistelifera,  Harris— Larva— (PI.  1,  Fig.  9)— Length  1.50@1 .60  inches  when  crawling. 
General  co'or  above,  dull  dark  leaden-brown.  A  faint  trace  of  a  dirty  yellow-white  line  along  dor- 
sum. Subdorsal  line  more  distinct,  and  between  it  and  stigmata  two  other  indistinct  pale  lines. 
Ei"-ht  black  shiny  piliferous  spots  on  each  segment;  two  near  subdorsal  line,  the  smaller  a  little 
above  anteriorly":  the  larger  just  below  it,  a  little  back  of  the  middle  of  the  segment,  with  the  line 
appearing  especially  light  above  it.  The  other  two  are  placed  each  side  of  stigmata,  the  one  an- 
teriorly a  little  above,  the  other  just  l)ehind,  in  the  same  line  with  them,  and  having  a  white  shade 
above  it.  lle.;d  light  brown,  with  a  dark  brown  spot  each  side  and  dark  brown  above,  leaving  the 
inverted  Y  mark  in  the  middle,  light  brown,  and  having  much  the  appearance  of  a  goblet,  as  one 
looks  from  tail  to  head.  Cervical  shield  dark  brown,  except  a  stripe  above  and  each  side.  Sparse 
short  white  bristles  laterally  and  posteriorly.  Venter  and  pro-legs  of  a  glaucous  glassy  color. 
Thoracic  legs  light  brown. 

It  varies  considerably  in  depth  of  shading,  and  some  of  the  lighter  specimens  have  the  lateral 
stripes  quite  distinct,  and  the  dorsum  is  frequently  of  a  dull  carneous  with  a  darker  shade,  divided 
by  a  fine  line  of  a  lighter  color,  along  the  middle.  There  is  frequently  a  third  piliferous  spot  near 
the  stigmata. 

Chrysalis.— Average  length  0.54  of  an  inch,  very  pale  shiny  yellowish-brown,  with  two  large 
dark  brown  eye-spots.  Stigmata  and  anterior  edge  of  four  largest  abdominal  segments  on  the 
back,  also  drak  brown  and  shagreened.     Two  minute  thorns  at  extremity. 

Imago.— As  Harris's  description,  as  given  in  his  "Injurious  Insects,"  is  not  very  complete,  I 
subjoin  a  more  detailed  one  :  Average  expanse  1.60  inches.  Color  of  fore-wings  brownish-gray, 
verging  into  a  very  dark  brown,  with  a  bluish  tint  at  the  costa,  for  nearly  one-third  the  width  of 
the  wing.  Iliudle  area  somewhat  darker  than  basal  and  lirabal,  the  latter  being  especially 
light  at  the  apex,  and  between  transverse  posterior  and  subterminal  lines  ;  having  distinct  spots 
on  the  nerves,  and  two  distinct  sagittate  marks.  Ordinary  spots  dark,  with  a  very  fine  dark  brown 
annulation,  especially  distinct  around  the  dentiform.  Reniform  spot  of  normal  shape.  Orbicular 
nearly  oval,  and  generally  elongated  into  a  point  posteriorly.  Distinguishing  feature  a  dark  brown 
lance-shaped  mark,  running  from  posterior  portion  of  reniform  spot.  Transverse  anterior  gemi- 
nate, dark.  T.  posterior  geminate,  dark,  projected  and  arcuated  above.  Subterminal  line  light, 
irregular  and  festooned.  Median  band  distinct.  Sul)terminal  space  dark,  especially  where  broad- 
est, at  nerves  5,  6  and  7.  Margins  dark  brown,  with  a  lighter  inward,  angular  rim  between  each 
nerve.  Costa  with  usual  spots.  Fringes  light,  with  a  central  line,  the  inner  half  having  dark  square 
spots  on  the  nerves.  Hind  wings  pearly  white,  semi-transparent,  margined  behind  and  veined  with 
dusky  gray.  Fringes  even  whiter,  with  a  faint  darker  line.  Under  side  of  fore  wings  pearly-gray  ; 
hind  wings  concolorous,  but  with  a  broad  band  of  speckled  gray  on  the  anterior  margin.  Legs 
dark,  with  light  spots  at  joints.  Head  often  rust-brown.  Antennas  brownish.  Prothorax  very 
clearly  defir.-d,  and  of  a  rich  dark  brown  at  margins.  Thorax  and  body  light  lilaceous-gray,  the 
t  a;  gulae  being  rimmed  with  flesh  color. 

THE  WESTERN  STRIPED  CUT-WORM, 

(Larva  of  the  Gothic  Dart,  Agrotis  subgolhica,  Haworth). 

Dr.  Fitch,  in  his  Second  Report,  on  noxious  insects  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  describes  a  cut-worm  by  the  name  of  the  ''Striped  cut- 
worm," (p.  313),  In  his  9th  Report,  (pp.  245-8),  this  worm  was  very 
fully  re-described,  together  with  the  moth  which  it  produces.  This 
worm  seems  to  have  done  great  injury  to  the  corn  crop  in  the  p]ast, 
and  the  moth  is  a  variety  of  the  Corn  Rustic  (Agrotis  nigricans,  Linn,) 
which  Di-.  Fitch  named  maizi.  It  will  be  referred  to  on  page  87. 
From  worms,  found  in  an  orchard,  and  answering  entirely  to  that  de- 
scription. I  have  bred  numerous  specimens  of  one  of  our  most  com- 
mon owlet  moths,  namely,  the  Gothic  Dart  (Agrotis  sulgotliica,  Ha- 
worth.) As  the  worms  are  so  similar  in  appearance,  I  have  called 
the  one  under  consideration,  the  "  Western  Striped  Cut-worm,"  as  no 
other  name  would  better  characterize  it,  though  it  is  evidently  as 
common  in  the  East  as  it  is  in  the  West.  Its  general  appearance  is  not 
6  K  s  E 


82 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


[rig.   29.] 


greatly  unlike  that  of  the  "Greasy  Cut-worm"  already  described 
but  Its  average  size  is  but  U  inches.  The  ground  color  is  dirty  white 
or  ash-gray  and  it  has  three  broad  dark  lines,  and  two  light  narrow 
ones  along  the  sides,  and  a  light  one,  edged  on  each  side  with  a  dark 
one,  along  the  middle  of  the  back.  This  species  remains  lon-erin 
the  ground  than  any  of  the  others,  and  the  moth  does  not  appear  till 
August  and   September.    The  moth  is  represented  at  Figure  29,  «, 

with  the  wings  expanded,  and  at 

h    with    the    wings    closed.     Its 

markings  are  so  conspicuous  and 

characteristic  that    it  suffices   to 

say  that   the   light    parts   are  of 

grayish  flesh- color,  and  the  dark 

parts  of  a  deep   brown.    It  was 

first  described  in  the  year  1810  by 

Mr.  Haworth,  and  is  supposed  to 

a  &        be  an  English  insect ;  but  as  it  is 

quite  rare  in  England,  and  very  common  in  this  country.  Dr.  Fitch 

concludes,  and  I  think  rightly,  that  it  is  an  American  insect,  the  eggs 

or  larvas  of  which  have  accidentally  been  carried  to  England. 

Agbotis  subgothica,  Haw. — Larva. — Length  1.25  inches.  Ground  color  dirty  white  or  ash- 
gray,  inclining  in  some  instances  to  yellowish.  A  whitish  dorsal  line  edged  on  each  side  with  a  dark 
one.  Three  lateral  dark  broader  stripes — the  lower  one  broadest  of  all — separated  by  two  pale 
ones.  Quite  often  an  indistinct  glaucous  white  stripe  under  the  lower  broad  dark  one.  Pilifcrona 
spots  of  good  size.  Head  shiny  black,  or  in  some  individuals  finely  speckled  with  white,  especial- 
ly at  the  sides  ;  with  the  usual  forked  white  line  like  an  inverted  Y.  Cervical  shield,  or  upper  por- 
tion of  the  first  segment,  of  the  same  shiny  color  as  the  head,  with  a  white  stripe  in  the  middle, 
contiguous  to  that  on  the  head^  and  anotlier  each  side.  Venter  dull  white.  Legs  the  same,  varied 
with  smoky  brown. 

THE  DINGY  CUT-WORM— PI.  1,  Fig.  11. 
(Larra  of  the  Dart-bearing  Rustic,  Agrotis  jacuUfera.) 

We  have,  in  the  West,  another  cut-worm,  resembling  the  preced- 
ing species  in  almost  every  particular,  the  following  being  the  only 
permanent  differences:  1st,  It  never  attains  quite  so  large  a  size , 
2d,  it  is  generally  darker  and  more  dingy,  and  the  longitudinal  lines 
are  consequently  less  distinct;  3d,  it  is  generally  of  a  more  decided 
dull  pale  buft'  color  on  the  back. 

On  the  27th  of  last  June,  I  received  several  of  these  cut-worms 
from  Mr.  Horace  Starkey,  of  Rockford,  Illinois,  with  a  statement  that 
they  were  proving  quite  destructive  in  the  gardens  of  that  vicinity, 
but  without  specifying  what  particular  plants  they  attacked.  They  en- 
tered the  ground  soon  after  being  received,  and  by  the  7th  of  July,  had 
all  changed  to  chrysalids.  The  chrj^salis  diifers  from  most  of  the  oth- 
ers, in  being  of  a  very  light  honey-yellow,  shaded  with  brown,  with 
the  eyes  dark  brown,  and  two  sub  quadrate  spots  of  the  same  color  on 
the  wing-sheaths,  just  above  the  antenna?.  It  measures  0.G5  of  an 
inch  in  length.  The  moths  began  to  issue  on  the  2d  of  September, 
and  proved  to  be  a  species  very  closely  allied  to  the  preceding.  In- 
deed the  markings  on  the  wings  are  almost  exactly  the  same;  but  it 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  83 

is  K  smaller  species,  seldom  expanding  more  tlian  1.25  inches  and 
differs  materially  upon  a  strict  comparison,  and  especially  in  the 
ground  color  being  lighter  and  more  silvery.  It  is  faithfully  repre- 
sented at  Plate  1,  Figure  11.  This  species,  as  I  am  kindly  informed 
^y  Mr.  Cresson,  is  marked  Agrotis  jaculifera  in  the  collection  of  the 
American  Entomological  Society,  but  without  authorship  ;  and  as  the 
name  seems  appropriate  1  have  retained  it. 

Tims  w^e  have  in  this  country,  at  least  three  species  of  cut- worms, 
which  differ  no  more  from  one  another  in  general  appearance,  than 
^do  individuals  of  the  same  spe^^'ies;  and  yet  they  all  produce  distinct 
moths,  though  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  moths  produced  from 
worms  so  resembling  each  other,  viz :  Agroth  nigricans^  var 
viaizi,  A.  suhgotJilca  and  A  jaculifera  ;  have,  all  three  of  them, 
the  space  between  and  behind  the  two  ordinary  spots  on  the  front 
"wings  of  a  dark  brown  color.  It  is  possible  that  each  of  these  species 
may  have  a  dilFerent  habit,  but  time,  and  further  investigation  wdll 
alone  determine  the  point. 

Agrotis  jaculifeh*. — LcrrxL — Length  one  inch.  Similarly  marked  to  that  of  Agrolu  subgo- 
-tkica,  Vfith  the  colors  darker  and  more  diogy,  the  long-ituvJinal  lines  less  conspicuous,  and  the  dor- 
sum of  a  more  decided  pale  buff  color. 

Chrysalis — Length  0.65-0.70.  .Color  horey-yeliow  with  dull  brown  shadings,  and  dark-hrown 
eyes,  but  characterized  especiaHy  by  two  subquadrate  dark  spots  on  the  wing-sheaths  just  above 
■antenniv. 

Perfect  insect — Much  resembling  A,  subgothica,  Haw.,  being  marked  as  at  Plate  1,  Figure  11.  It 
■difFers  from  that  species  in  the  following  respects  :  The  average  expanse  is  but  1.30.  The  whole 
■ground-color  is  colder  (to  use  the  language  of  the  artist),!,  e.,  of  a  whiter  gray,  with  less  of  the 
\)vlS  color.  The  costa  is  darker,  and  the  light  costal  band  narrower  ;  the  posterior  median  nerve  is 
•almost  white  and  very  distinct  to  the  lower  part  of  the  reniform  spot ;  nerves  3,  4  and  5  are  well  re- 
lieved by  light  margins  ;  the  streak  running  between  -nerves  2  and  3  is  very  distinct  andless  diffuse; 
the  terminal  space  is  darker,  and  the  inner  margin  only  broken  by  nerves  4  and  5  ;  there  are  no 
sagittate  spots,  while  the  posterior  margin  is  very  clearly  defined  by  abla»ckline  bounded  outwardly 
Joy  a  light  one. 

Descjibed  from  three  bred  specimens, 

THE  GLASSY  CUT-WORM. 
(Larva  of  the  Devastating  Dart,  Agrotis  devastator.  Brace.) 

In  the  year  1819,  in  a  short  article  upon  the  cut- worm,  published 
in  the  first  volume  of  Silliman's  Journal,  p.  157,  Mr,  Brace,  of  Litch- 
field, Connecticut,  gave  an  account  of  this  moth,  which  he  bred  from 
pupas  that  were  found  a  few  inches  under  the  ground,  in  a  cabbage 
patch.  He  did  not  describe  the  worm  which  produced  the  pupas,  as 
he  evidently  supposed  there  was  but  one  kind  of  cut-worm  in  exist- 
ence. Consequently,  up  to  the  present  day  the  larva  of  this  common 
Devastating  Dart  moth  has  been  unknown.  It  was  my  good  fortune 
to  breed  this  moth  from  the  larva  state.    The  cut-worm  from  which  it 

was  produced,  was  found  on  the  12th  of  May 
under  a  wild  endive  plant,  upon  the  leaves 
of  which  it  Iiad  evidently  been  feeding.  It 
was  but  half  grown,  and,  being  placed  in  a 
jar  half  filled  with  earth,  that  contained 
growing  grass,  it  burrowed  into  the  earth 
and  after  once  casting  its  skin,  fed  entirely 


84:  FIRST   ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

on  the  roots  of  the  grass,  though  other  food  was  thrown  into  the  jar. 
On  the  7th  of  June  it  measured  1.80  inches  when  crawling,  and  on  the 
19th  of  the  same  month  had  changed  to  a  chrysalis  from  which  the 
moth  emerged  on  the  Tth  of  July,  The  worm  is  represented  at  Figure 
30,  and  may  at  once  be  distinguished  from  all  others  of  its  tribe, 
tha^j  are  known,  by  its  translucent  glassy  green  body,  in  contrast 
with  a  very  distinct  hard,  polished,  dark-brown  shield  on  the  first  seg- 
ment, and  a  bright  renetian-red  head.  The  usual  spots  on  the  body 
are  quite  distinct,  and  placed  in  the  positions  given  at  the  lower  out- 
line of  Figure  30,  which  represents  the  side  of  one  of  the  middle  seg- 
ments. 

The  moth  bears  a  close  general  resemblance  to  the  Cochran  Rus- 
tic already  described,  the  ground  color  being  the  same.  It  differs  in 
its  larger  size  ;  in  the  wavy  transverse  lines  being  more  equidistant ; 
in  the  spots  in  the  shape  of  arrow  heads,  which  emanate  from  the 
inside  of  the  last  or  outer  line,  being  darker  and  more  distinct ;  and 
in  the  outer  edge  of  the  large  kidney-shaped  spot  being  almost  al- 
ways quite  white.  Entomologically,  it  differs  still  more  essentially, 
for  though  named  Agrotis  devastator^  it  seems  to  belong  to  the  genus 
Maineitra.  Plere  we  have  the  converse  of  the  facts  given,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  Dingy  cut-worm,  for,  closely  as  the  Cochran  Rustic  and 
this  Devastating  Dart  moth  resembles  each  other,  their  larvae  are  very 
dissimilar. 

Agrotis  (Mamf.stra)  detastator,  Brace — Larva. — Length  l.SQ.  Color  translucent  glassy 
green,  with  a  tinge  of  blue.  Usually,  a  very  deep  V>luish  dorsal  line.  Fowr  distinct  piliferous  spots 
on  each  segment,  each  with  a  slight  annulation.  Two  other  minute  simple  spots,  without  hairs  on 
the  anterior  edge  of  the  segment  (see  Fig.  30,  ).  Uead,  bright  Venetian-icd,  with  black  jaws,  and 
a  small  black  spot  each  side.  Cervical  shield,  very  distinct,  hard,  polished  and  of  a  dark  brown. 
Caudal  plate,  less  defined  and  more  dusky.  The  body  is  lighter  posteriorly  than  anteriorly  and  the 
dorsal  line  is  most  distinct  along  the  middle  segments. 

Chrysalis — Quite  darli  mahagany  brown,  vnth  the  body  somewhat  more  attenuated  than  is 
usual,  and  with  two  distinct  slightly  cixrved  thorns  at  extremity  with  several  other  stiff  briatleo 
wound  them. 

THE  SPECKLED  CUT-WOKM— PI.  1,  Figs.  14,  15,  16  and  17. 
^'  (Larva  of  the  Subjoined   Hadena,  Hadena  subjuncta,  Gr.  &  Rob.) 

At  two  different  times,  I  have  found  in  a  truck  garden  hiding  in 
the  ground,  under  cabbage  plants,  near  St.  Louis,  a  cut-worm  which 
may  be  known  by  the  above  name.  On  one  occasion,  I  also  received 
the  same  worm  from  my  friend,  Mr.  A.  Bolter,  of  Chicago,  who  found 
it  in  Wisconsin.  It  is  at  once  distinguished  from  all  others  that  are 
known  by  several  characteristics,  but  more  especially  b}''  being 
si?eckled  as  with  pepper  and  salt,  when  viewed  with  a  pocket  lens, 
the  ground  color  being  flesh-gray,  with  a  tinge  of  rust  color  in  the 
middle  of  each  segment.  The  head  is  marked  as  in  Figure  15,  each 
segment  on  the  back  as  in  Figure  16,  and  the  extremity  as  in  Figure 
17  of  Plate  1 — these  figures  being  enlarged  the  better  to  show  the 
markings. 

Those  which  I  bred,  fed  voraciously  on  cabbage  leaves  during  the 
night  and  lay  concealed  and   motionle&'s  during  the   day.     Before 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST,  85 

changing  to  chrysalids,  they  became  of  a  uniform  pale  dirty  yellow, 
with  the  markings  almost  entirely  obliterated.  The  chrysalis  is  of  the 
usual  form  and  the  moths  appeared  between  the  2d  and  8th  of  August. 
The  kind  of  moth  that  was  produced  from  these  worms  is  laiuitully 
reprec^ented  at  Plate  1,  Figure  U,  the  front  wings  being  marked  as  in 
tne  figure  with  gravish-brown  and  black,  and  having  a  dull  flesh- 
colored  shade.  It  differs  essentially  from  all  those  that  I  have  hither- 
to described,  and  belongs  to  a  different  genus  {Iladena).  It  was  named 
Iladena  suhjicncta  by  Guea6e,  in  his  MS.  and  this  name  has  been  re- 
Gained  by  Messrs.  Grote  &  Robinson,  in  their  description  of  it  pub- 
lished in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Entomological  Society, 
Volume  il,  pp.  198-9,  which  will  be  found  below- 

HADENi  .suB.t:N.CTA,  Gr.  &  Rob.~Larra.-Averag.  lengtt  1.60  ioches.  Color  e^n<K)us^gTray, 
5ncUa5ng  lo  ferruginous  iu  the  middle  of  e.sch  segment.  Minutely  speckled  as  wUa  pepper  and 
.alt.  I  lateral  stigmaUl. tripe,  scmewh.at  lighter  th.n  the  rest  of  the  body  An  -terrupted 
,dors«l  and  suWors.l  >.hite  line,  the.e  lines  being  quite  distinct  ou  the  posterior  half  and  indistinct 
,oa  the  anterior  half  of  each  segment.  Two  distinct  spots  anteriorly  on  the  dorsum  of  each  seg- 
ment; the  other  .pots  obsolete.  Head  light  shiny  bro^n,  with  two  outwardly  diverging  darker 
marks.  Segaiect  1,  with  the  three  longitudinal  white  lines  and  a  white  anterior  edge  shaded  on  the 
inside  with  1^-k  browH.  Anal  aegn^ent  with  a  white  transverse  line,  son^ewhat  in  the  shape  of  . 
.drawn^out  W,  and  with  a  deep  shade  above  it.     Veater  glaucous.    Legs  or  the  eame  color. 

ChrysM..-%i  a  deep  brown  color,  rather  short  and  thick,  a^d  with  two  bristles  at  extremity. 
r«,,o-(Pl.l,  fig.  14>.  Length  0.65;  expanse  1.6G.  d"  ? -AntennsB .  .imple.  finely  and 
ahortly  ciliate  beneath.  Caribou,  brown.  Head  with  adark  frontal  line  Prothoracic  pieces  with 
a  very  distinct  and  deep  brown  line.  Abdomen  crested  above  at  base,  with  ^  l^'l'^^'^l"^^^^^' ^^ 
in  the  male.  Fore  wings,  above,  blackish  browa  shaded  with  carneous.  A  longitudinal  deep 
irown  basal  r.y,  shaded  i.feriorly,  extending  outwardly  and  narrowly  to  the  ^\--^^;'l'ljf'^^ 
line.  Above  this  ray,  the  base  is  tinged  with  carneous,  an4  the  basal  hiae  ts  indicated  by  a  dark 
gemi.a.te  costal  stre.k.  Transverse  anterior  line  geminate,  the  outer  line  the  ^'-k-'  ^"'^^^l  f^^ 
and  eve^y  i>^terspaceally  waved,  nearly  pvependicular.  Ordinary  spots  very  large,  d^Btirictly  lim- 
ited. The  median  ss>ace  is  wide  superiorly,  but  is  constricted  below  the  m.edian  nervure  ;  a  ong  - 
tudinaldeeT,  brown  streak  r,iBS  alo^g  the  .ubmediaB  fold  a^d  connects  tbe  two  media:,  hues  at^Ae-x 
^oint  of  ere^test  eottiguity.  This  atreak  becomes  the  lower  margin  of  the  claviform  spot  wh  ch 
Tabutts  fr^m  the  tr^sverse  anterior  li^e,  and  s-hose  upper  margin  is  seen  in  a  very  di^^.mct  deep 
3,rownliae  running  .outwardly  and  downwardly  obliquely  feom  the  median  nervure.  Above  tue 
claviform  i-.  the  large  obiculax,  p8,le,  with  a  dL-linct  annulus.  The  reniform  is  wide,  of  the  orai- 
^aary  shape,  with  an  indistinct  central  Bhade  and  the  distinct  annulus  is  often  obsolete  ouiwarOIy. 
Wond  the  reniform,  the  wing  is  shaded  with  eaa-neous  to  the  subterminal  Une,  this  .hade  spread- 
ing inferiarly.  A  dilTuse  and  faint  blackish  median  shade  runs  from  the  cos  ta  downward  betveen 
^.he  ordiKa^'v  spots  and  is  discontinued  below  median  nervvre.  The  transverse  posterior  line  is  in- 
/-epted  abo.-e  the  reEiform,  ruES  outwardly  straightly  along  the  eostal  regjon,  thence  downwardly 
^ver  the  Berv,.les,  bending  inwardly  beneath  the  reuiform  spot.  It  is  geminate,  faint,  the  lines  en- 
ao£in-  a  paler  space  a^d  iuterspaceaiiy  Ian  ulate.  Subterminal  liEe  pale,  preceded  by  a  dp.rK  sli.acie, 
t"ormiag  the  usval  At  shaped  mark  at  the  middle,  the  pciets  of  the  M  attaining  the  external  max- 
irin.  The  da^k  shading  is  sometimes  ticged  with  olivaceous  before  the  interual  angle  as  ;ls  tue  in- 
ferior shading  of  the  loEgituOital  streak  connecting  the  median  lines.  The  termmal  space  isblackisH 
forown  and  black  ifterspaceitl  marks  precede  the  terminal  line.  The  funges  are  urevea  ;  the  exter- 
aal  margiu  of  the  wiEg  retiz-es  inwardly  before  iaterKal  aagle. 

Hind  wiEgs  smoky  blackish,  paler  towards  the  base,  without  discernable  diseal  m«k  or  linea. 
(Under  surface  pale.  The  wings  terminally  »nd  eloEg  costal  edges  are  covered  with  powdery  squa^ 
cnatio«  with  i^termxed  dark  scales  brii^ging  th*  nervales  into  relief.  Th«  fore  wings  show  three 
ante,  apical  white  dots  and  the  white  subtet-mical  shade  line  emaaates  from  a  fourth  and  larger  dot 
just  before  the  apex,  these  latter  at  times  hardly  discemaW^.  Pawt  di^ca.!  <JJ?Ls ;  soiaet-mes  traces 
<sf  d»j-k  mediae  lines  uau  be  iieec  f  d  .bolh  wixig£> 


FIRST  ANNUAL   KEPORT  OF 

THE  SMALL  WHITE  BRISTLY  CUT-WORM. 
(Larva  of  the  Figure  8  Minor,  CcliBna  renigera,  Stephens)^ 

During  the  month  of  August  in  North  Illinois,  a  small  dirty-white- 
cut-worm  may  frequently  be  iound  in  tlower  gardens,  where  it  doubt- 
less feeds  for  the  most  part  on  the 
roots  of  various  flowers.  This  worm 
is  represented  at  Figure  31  h.  It 
never  gets  to  be  more  than  |  of  an. 
inch  in  length,  and  is  c&vered  with- 
distinct,  sHff  yellow  bristles,  and  may^ 
o  h        be  popularly  known  by  the  above 

name.    During  the  fore  part  of  August  it  descends  deeper  into  the- 
ground,  and  soon  changes  to  a  very  bright  shiny,  mahogany  brownj 

chrysalis,  from  which  in  about  three  weeks  afterwards,  the  motli! 

emer,<:es. 

This  moth  is  represented  (as  v/ell  as  a  wood  cut  can  represent  it), 
at  Figure  -1  a.  It  is  quite  prettily  marked,  the  fore-wings  being, 
brown,  variejrafed  with  lilac-gray  and  moss-green,  with  a  deep  browrt 
spot  about  the  lijiddle  and  a  silvery  annulatiori  around  the  kidney- 
diaped  spot.  It  is  the  Celcsna  renigera  of  Stephens  of  which  (7,  her- 
Jy-wacwZa,  Gu6n6eisa  p-vnonym,  and  as  it  should  have  a  popular  name^ 
it  may  be  called  the  ">  igure  6  Minor,''  in  allusion  to  the  silvery  edge 
of  the  kidney-spot  which  almost  always  reminds  one  of  the  figure  8. 
In  the  genus  Cdcena  the  wings  are  entire,  broad  and  rounded,  and 
there  is  a  conspicuous  tuft  on  the  crown  of  the  head.  The  species 
may  at  once  be  distinguished  from  those  of  Agrotis  and  Iladena  hj 
their  smaller  size  and  more  rounded  appearance.. 

CEL.iiNA  RENiGEEA^  Stephens. — Larva. — Lengtli  0.75  of  aa  inch. — Color,  dusky  salmon-yelloW;,, 
the  dusky  dirty  appearance,  caused  by  innumerable  dark  specks  all  over  it.  Largest  at  the  four 
middle  segments  and  tapering  thence  each  way.  A  daa-k  lateral  stripe,  distinct  on  the-  middle  seg- 
ments, indistinct  at  both  ends-,  distinguishing  feature^  very  visible  stiff  yeUowish  bristles,  pro- 
ceeding from  tlie  usual  spots  which  are  smaU.  A  dorsal  line  is  indicated  uader  the  glass  by  twov 
indistinct  thin  lines  at  the  joints  of  the  segments.. 

CAr?/"  "''■«■— Length  0.56  of  an  inch;  concise;  ol  a  b?ight  polished  mahogany  brown,  witb 
dark  eyes  and  very  slightly  punctured  on  the  aaterior  portion  ot  the  abdominal  segments. 

Jfliaffo.— J .' panse  l.lOinches.  Fore  wings  brownish-gray,,  with  a  more  or  less  determined  came- 
ous  or  lilaceous  hue.  Orbicular  spot  sub-obsolete  ;  sometimes  entirely  obsolete.  Reniform  spot 
of  normal  shape,moss-grc-en,  with  asnow-white  annulati.on,indistinct  above:  broad  and  distinct  below.. 
Ordinary  lines  lighter.  Basal  h.alf-line  distinct  only  on  costa,  and  below  posterior  median  nerve.. 
Transverse  anterior  single,  obliquing  but  slightly,  and  bordered  posteriorly  with  a  very  thin  broken^ 
darker  line  ;  it  is  moss-green  in  the  middle,  and  there  is  a  green  shade  running  from  it  to  the-  basal 
half-line,  dividing  the  sub-basal  space.  Opposite  this  green  in  the  median  space,  is  a  dark  sub- 
quadrate  almost  black  spot,  and  between  the  stigma  the  wings  are  also  quite  dark.  Transverse- 
posterior  single,  posteriorly  oblique  a  little  more  tha.n  i  of  breadth  of  wing.,  then  parallel  with, 
posterior  margin,  forming  at  the  second  nerve  a  roundish  spot  which  extends  to  the  anal  angle,  and; 
is  dark  below  and  moss-green  above.  Subterminal  liae  nsuaUy  veiy  indistinct— merely  indicated 
by  a  few  dots.  A  median  arcuated  band  is  perceptible,  being  broader  and  darker  betweeu  the  stig- 
ma and  interrupted  in  the  middle  by  lower  portiou  of  veniform  spot.  A  minute  light  spot  on  each 
vein  at  posterior  margin.  Costa  with  a  light  spot  at  terminus  of  sub-basal  line,  of  transverse  an- 
terior, and  above  reniiorm  spots— dark  each  side  of  these  and  at  terminus  of  median  band  ;  con- 
colnrous  with  wing  at  subterminal  space,  having  four  very  minute  light  spots,  oneatends  of  subter- 
mmal  and  transverse  posterior  lines,  aad  two  between  the.Di.  Enjig.es  concolcraua  TOith  the  viiag, 
having,a  very  fine  darker  edg©^  " 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  87 

Hind  wings  carneouB-gray  at  base  and  interiorly-darker  anteriorly  and  posteriorly  and  es- 
pecially at  posterior  margin.     Nerves  and  lunule  rather  dark.     Fringes  same  color  as  interior  of 

wins:,  with  a  darker  central  line.  ,     i    _  „„a 

Under  surface  of  fore  wings  brownish-gray,  the  fringes  and  transverse  posterior  darker  and 
ttie  spots  faintly  .narked  at  costa.  Under  surface  of  hind  wings  of  same  color  above,  lighter  be- 
low, with  the  lunule  dark  and  the  arcuated  band  distinct. 

Le-s  dark-o-ray  with  light  spots  at  joints  ;  palpi  same  color.  Head,  prothorax  and  thorax  not 
quite  so  purplish  as  wings.  Prothorax  with  a  light  margin  at  junction  of  wings-the  tegul*  al.o 
with  a  light  spot.     Body  same  color  as  hind  wings  above,  darker  below.     Feelers  same. 

OTHER  CUT-WORMS. 

Besides  the  ten  distinct  cut-worms,  whose  transformations  I  have 
just  recorded,  there  are  two  others,  which  Dr.  Fitch  has  described  in 
all  their  stat-es.    The  one  is  the  "striped"  or  "corn  cut  woRxm"  as  he 
calls  it,  which  proves  very  injurious  to  corn,  by  cutting  it  ofF  about 
an  inch  above  ground.  This  worm  produces  a  dusky-gray  moth  (AffroUs 
nigricans,  Linn.-var.  7/m/-0,  which  is  distinguished  principally  by 
two  coal  black  spots,  one  nearly  square,  placed  outside  of  the  centre 
of  the  fore  wing,  and  the  other  nearly  triangular,  a  little  forward  of  it, 
a  roundish  nearly  white  spot  separating  them.    The  other  which  Dr. 
Fitch  has  called  the    "yellow-headed  cut-worm,"  is  of  a  shining  livid 
color,  with  a  yellowish  or   chestnut-colored  head  and  a  horny  spot  of 
the  same  color  on  the  top  of  the  first  and  last  rings.    It  is  a  large 
species  and  produces  the  Amputating  Brocade  moth  {Iladena  ampii- 
tatrix,  Fitch),   which  is  figured  on  page  450,  of  Hams'  work.     Ihis 
moth  is  distinguished  bv  its  Spanish-brown  upper  wmgs,  marked  with 
a  large  pale  kidney-shaped  spot,  and  a  broad  wavy    blue-gray   band 
near  the  end.    The  worm  was  found  by  Dr.  Fitch  to  be  even  more  in- 
jurious  to  corn  than  the  striped  species,  since  it  severs  the  lAantMow 
ground ;  while  it  also  combines  the  habit  of  climbing  trees    during 
•  the  night,  according  to  Harris. 

Thus  we  are  now  acquainted  with  the  natural  history  of  just  one 
dozen  of\hese  cut-worms,  while  there  is  fully  another  dozen  whose 
habits  and  history  vet  remain  to  be  studied.   Of  one  of  these  especial- 
soon  to  give  the  complete  history.    Meanwhile,  I  will  give 
brief  account  of  the   worm  itself,   which   may  be  known  as 
the  wheat  cut-worm. 

On  the  10th  of  October,  1868, 1  received  from  Mr.  F.  R.  Allen,  of 
Allenton,  Missouri,  the  following  communication: 

"  Enclosed  I  send  vou  some  specimens  of  a  worm  that  seems  to 
be  proving  upon  the  recently  sown  wheat.  My  neighbor,  Mr.  George 
W  Moore,  informed  me  a  day  or  two  ago,  that  a  worm  was  eating  all 
his  wheat  that  he  had  lately  sown  in  oats  ground.  I  went  to  see  what 
it  was  vesterdav,  and  as  I  am  not  entomologist  enough  to  tell  1  refer 
them  to  you.  Mr.  Moore  has  learned  within  a  day  or  two,  that  tins 
same  insect  is  now  generally  preying  on  the  wheat  in  Franklin  county 
that  is  sown  on  oats  stubble.  V/hat  is  remarkable  tl^ey  do  not  yet 
trouble  the  wheat  in  the  same  field  sown  on  wheat  stubble,    ^or  dQ 


88 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 


they  seem  to  feed  on  the  volunteer  oats  in  the  same  field,  but  entirely 
destroy  the  young  wheat." 

Subsequently,  upon  visiting  Allenton,  Eureka,  and  other  places 
in  St.  Louis  county,  I  ascertained  from  L.  D.  Votaw  and  others,  that 
this  [worm  had  been  known  to  attack  wheat  in   the  fall  lor  many 
years  back.    They  come  to  their  growth  the  latter  part  of  October, 
descend  into  <he  earth  and  pass  the  winter  in  the  chrysalis  state.  The 
only  manner  in  which  I  can  account  for  their  appearing   only  on  that 
wheat  which  was  sown  on  oats  stubble,  is  by  supposing  that  the  scat- 
tering oats  that  were  left  after  harvest  had  sprouted  before  the  wheat, 
and  had  thus   attracted  the  parent  moths.    On  this  supposition  the 
worms  had  hatched  and  fed  awhile,  before  the  ground  was  ploughed, 
and   planted  to  fall  wheat,  and  this  seems  the  more  likely,  since  the 
worms  were  full-grown,  almost  as  soon  as  the  wheat  appeared  above 
ground.    If  this  supposition  be  correct,  the  attacks  of  this  worm  can 
be  effectually  prevented  by  ploughing  the  land  early  and  keeping  the 
ground  clear  of  all  vegetation  until  the  wheat  is  planted.    No  other 
rational  explanation  can  be  given,  fori  found  by  experiment  that  they 
would  devour  with  equal  relish  the  young  plants  of  both  oats,  wheat, 
and  a  variety  of  grasses. 

In  the  Canada  Farmer  for  April  15,  1867,  an  account  was  given 
of  the  ravages  of  "cut-worms"  on  Spring  wheat,  in  the  county  of  Hu- 
ron. Judging  from  the  account  however,  the  worm  referred  to,  was 
the  common  "White  grub;"  but  if  it  be  the  same  as  that  spoken  of 
above,  the  fact  can  be  ascertained  by  the  description  which  I  subjoin 
herewith. 

The  Wheat  Cut-worm.— A  dark  pitchy  black  cut-worm,  the  characteristic  mark  being,  a 
very  distinct  pale  buff  or  flesh-colored  stigmatal  band.  Dorsum  generally  of  a  brownish  shade,  the 
dorsal  line  of  the  same  color,  with  a  more  or  less  distinct  dingy  shade  each  side  of  it.  The  subdor- 
sal region  is  always  the  darkest  part  of  the  worm,  being  of  a  pitchy  brown  ;  but  ed„ed  above,  at 
junction  of  dorsum,  with  a  fine  light  buff-colored  line,  and  generally  variegated  in  the"niiddle,  with 
very  minute  light  colored  irrorations.  Eight  sealing-wax-like  black  elevated  piliferous  spots  on 
each  segment,  those  on  dorsum  usually  having  a  white  base  outwardly.  Greatest  width  at  seg- 
ments 10  and  11,  the  spots  upon  them  being  also  the  largest.  Head,  deep  polislied  brown,  with  the 
usual  inverted  Y-shaped  white  mark,  and  some  white  spots  at  sides ;  also  with  white  lips,  and  per- 
fectly white  palpi.  Cervical  shield,  of  same  color  as  dorsum,  but  polished,  and  with  the  dorsal  and 
sub-dorsal  white  lines  quite  distinct  upon  it.  Caudal  plate  with  a  bright  cream-colored  longi- 
tudinal dash  (generally  constricted  in  the  middle)  between  two  black  spots.  Venter  and  legs  glassy 
glaucous.  The  young  worm  is  almost  uniformly  pitchy  black,  with  the  light  stigmatal  band  al- 
ways visible  however.  Indeed  this  band  is  always  constant  no  matter  how  much  the  worms  vary  in 
depth  of  ground-color. 

There  are  various  other  naked  caterpillars  which  are  frequently 
found  upon  the  ground  near  vegetation  of  various  kinds.  Thus  du- 
ring the  months  of  July  and  August,  a  species  with  the  back  of  each 
segment  very  characteristically  marked  as  represented  at  Plate  1, 
Figure  12,  may  often  be  found.  It  seems  to  feed  on  a  variety  of  herbs, 
and  produces  a  prettily  variegated  moth  known  as  Prodenia  comme- 
linm,  Gu6n6e;  but  though  this  and  other  species  may  have  the  cutting 
habit,  they  have  never  attracted  notice  so  far,  and  I  shall  pass  them 
over  and  proceed   at  once   to  suggest  the  proper  preventives  and 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  89 

REMEDIES  AGAINST  CUT  WORMS. 

Natural  Kememes. — These  cut-worms,  like  all  other  vegetable- 
feeding-  insects,  have  numerous  insect  enemies  which  are  continually 
on  the  alert  for  them,  and  materially  assist  us  in  keeping  them  in  due 
[Fig.  32.]  bounds.  Of  those  that  are  parasitic  internally  may  be  meii- 
^^■^  /"">  tioned  the  minute  four- winged  flies  belonging  to  the  genus 
"^1^-:, '  ,.^  Microgasier.  One  of  these  which  is  parasitic  on  the  Army- 
;^>|' 'i^  worm  (the  M.  militaris  of  Walsh)  is  represented  at  Fig- 
j  ^  I  ure  32,  and  it  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  an  nndescribed 
species  which  I  have  often  bred  from  a  cut- worm,  described 
in  the  Prairie  Farmer  as  the  "Pale  cut-worm."  The  female  fly  punc- 
tures the  tender  skin  of  the  worm  and  deposits  great  numbers  of  eggs 
in  the  body.  These  eggs  produce  maggots  which  live  upon  the  fatty 
parts  of  the  worm,  and  slowly  but  surely  produce  the  death  of  their 
victim.  AVhen  full  grown  they  pierce  the  skin  of  the  worm  and  spin 
their  white  silken  cocoons,  in  company,  on  his  body,  and  in  due  time 
issue  forth  as  flies. 

There  is  also  a  large  yellowish-brown  four-winged  Ichneumon  fly 
(the  Pa.niscus geminatus  of  Say),  which  I  have  bred  from  cut  worms. 
The  parent  fly  deposits  a  single  egg  within  the  body  of  a  worm,  but 
the  maggot  hatching  from  this  egg  does  not  cause  the  worm  to  die, 
till  after  the  latter  has  entered  the  earth  to  become  a  chrysalis.  At 
this  point  the  worm  suddenly  succumbs  and  the  maggot  spins  a  tough, 
black,  smooth  cocoon,  and  where  we  expected  to  see  a  moth  rise  to 
day-light,  we  behold  in  time  this  Ichneumon  fly. 

Among  the  cannibals,  that  bodily  devour  these  worms,  may  be 
mentioned  the  Spined  Soldier-bug,  already  referred  to  on  page  77,  note, 
[Fig.  33.]  and  whose  likeness  I  produce  at  Figure  33.  This  fellow 

"^  /^  is  such  a  thorough  cannibal,  and  so  serviceable  to 
\  "^/U-.,^..^man,  that  his  portrait  cannot  be  too  well  graven  on 
*^  ;>^^  the  mind.    It  is  not  unlikely,  also,  that  most  of  the 

/\4/\  ground  beetles  that  are  figured  in  a  future  chapter  on 

jf  the  10-lined  Potato  beetle,  prey  upon  cut-worms  ;  and 

the  Homely  Geopinus  referred  to  in  the  note  on  page  77  has  been 
found  to  do  so,  but  by  far  the  most  efficient  insect  in  slaying  these 

worms  is  the  larva  of  the  Fiery  Ground 
beetle  {Calosoma  caliditm^  Fabr.),  which  I 
represent  at  Figure  34  a,  by  the  side  of  its  pa- 
rent Figure  3-1:  h.  This  larva  has  very  appro- 
priately been  called  the  Out-worm  lion,  by 
Dr.  Shinier  of  Mt.  Oarroll,  Illinois,  who  gives 
the  following  account  of  its  mode  of  trans- 
formation to  the  perfect  beetle:  "The  fat, 
full  grown  larva  of  Calosoma  calidum  chooses 
a  hard  piece  of  ground,  as  a  wagon  road  in 
the  field,  where  it  bores  into  to  pass  the  pupa 
state.    I  have  seen  them  many  hours  in  boring  a  few  inches.    These 


/ 


90  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

fierce  insects  often  wage  terrible  battles  when  they  encounter  each 
other,  and  they  will  eat  each  other  as  readily  as  cut- worms,  as  I  found 
whenever  I  put  more  than  one  of  them  into  my  collecting  box.  He 
that  would  breed  these  insects  to  the  perfect  state,  must  pack  the  dirt 
in  his  breeding  box  as  hard  as  a  wagon  road,  or  he  will  fail,  as  I  always 
did  before  I  saw  their  operations  in  the  iield.  In  using  moderately 
compact  earth,  the  larva  digsit  over  and  over,  endeavoring  to  find  a 
suitably  dense  place,  works  up  the  dirt  into  balls,  until  its  feet  are 
clogged  up  with  earth  and  juices  from  its  mouth,  and  it  sinks  ex- 
hausted and  dies.  In  a  few  days  after  it  enters  the  ground,  the  beau- 
tiful spotted,  perfect  beetle  appp^ars,  and,  strangely,  the  smell  of  the 
beetle  is  peculiar  and  entirely  different  from  the  larva." 

Thit  Cut-worm  lion  has  quite  a  formidable  appearance,  and  is  ex- 
ceedingly agile.  It  is  flattened,  of  a  black  color,  with  six  legs  upon 
the  breast,  and  a  pair  of  sharp  hook-like  jaws  projecting  in  front  of  its 
head.  It  pursues  the  worms  in  their  retreats  under  the  ground,  and 
seizes  them  wherever  it  comes  in  contact  with  them.  Sometimes  a 
young  Cut-worm  lion  will  seize  a  worm  twice  as  large  as  itself,  and 
will  cling  with  bull  dog  tenacity  to  its  prey,  through  all  its  throes,  its 
writhings  and  twistings,  till  at  last  the  worm  succumbs,  exhausted, 
and  the  victor  bites  two  or  three  holes  through  its  skin  and  proceeds 
to  suck  out  its  juices. 

Some  kinds  of  spiders  are  also  known  to  prey  on  cut-worms,  and 
these  unwisely  unpopular  little  animals  should  always  be  cherished 
and  protected.  Poultry  is  also  quite  efficient  in  destroying  them,  and 
chickens  are  better  than  anj''  other  kind.  I  cannot  too  strongly  urge 
their  claims  as  cut-worm  destroyers,  than  by  giving  the  statement  of 
Mr.  Cochran,  to-wit:  that  he  believed  he  could  not  possibly  have 
coped  Mith  the  worms  without  the  aid  of  a  large  brood  of  chickens 
which  he  procured  for  that  purpose. 

Artificial  Remedies. — The  climbing  cut-worms  are  easily  headed 
off  by  a  little  vigilance.  From  the  orchard  planted  upon  light,  warm 
soils  they  can  be  driven  away  entirely  by  claying  the  ground  about 
the  trees;  a  wheelbarrow  full  is  well  nigh  enough  for  each  treoAvhen 
spread  around  its  base  and  as  far  as  the  limbs  extend.  Tiiis  is  the 
most  thorough  and  lasting.  A  small  strip  of  tin,  three  inches  wide, 
carefully  secured  around  the  body  of  the  tree,  will  effectually  prevent 
their  ascension  ;  if  the  tin  is  old  and  rusty  it  will  require  to  be  a  little 
wider.  Each  night,  after  the  swelling  of  the  bud,  an  hour  or  two  after 
midnight  a  slight  jar  of  the  tree  will  bring  every  one  on  it  down,  when 
they  can  be  caught  in  a  spread  sheet  and  destroyed.  This  will  have 
to  be  followed  up  till  the  bud  has  unfolded  into  the  leaf,  after  which 
there  is  no  longer  anything  to  be  apprehended  from  the  vv-orm.  The 
reasons  why  the  clay  is  so  efficient,  are  two-fold:  1st — The  worms 
seem  to  have  an  instinctive  dislike  to  crawling  over  it.  2nd — In  drop- 
ping from  the  tree  on  to  the  hard  surface  they  are  frequently  disabled, 
and  whether  di:?abled  or  not,  they  cannot  immediately  burrow  into  it 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  91 

as  in  sand,  and  they  are  all  the  more  exposed  to  their  numerous  mid- 
night enemies  which  are  ever  watching  for  them. 

For  the  common  field  cut-worms,  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  no 
better  remedy,  as  a  rule,  than  hunting  and  killing  them.  It  is  gen- 
erally believed  that  ashes  and  lime  used  about  plants  will  keep  off 
cut-worms,  and  I  might  fill  pages  with  recorded  experiments,  going  to 
prove  the  good  effects  of  these  substances.  The  experimenters  gen- 
erally forget,  Iiowever,  that  there  is  a  period  in  the  life  of  these  worms 
when  they  of  themselves  go  down  in  the  earth  and  disappear,  and 
anything  applied  just  before  this  happens  is  sure  to  be  heralded  forth, 
as  a  perfect  remedy.  Experiments  show,  however,  that  when  placed 
in  a  box  with  separate  quantities  ot  ashes,  lime,  salt  and  mold,  they 
will  burrow  and  hide  in  all  of  them,  but  especially  in  the  ashes  and 
mold.  Soot  seems  to  be  more  obnoxious  to  them,  and,  although  I  have 
not  yet  had  an  opportunity  to  give  it  a  thorough  test,  I  do  not  wish  to 
discourage  its  trial.  Fall  plowing,  to  be  efficacious,  must  be  done  very 
late  in  the  fall,  when  the  worms  are  numbed  with  cold^  and  then  I 
think  it  is  of  doubtful  utility  further  than  it  exposes  them  to  the  at- 
tacks ol  enemies,  including  birds. 

In  a  case  like  that,  communicated  by  Mr.  Allen,  it  would  pay  ta 
dig  a  narrow  ditch  around  the  part  of  the  field  infested,  the  outward 
side  to  be  mide  smooth  and  slanting  under;  for  these  worms  cannot 
crawl  up  a  perpendicular  bank  of  earth.  On  the  same  principle,  many 
an  one  may  be  entrapped  by  making  smooth  holes  with  a  stick  around 
hills  of  corn  or  other  plants,  and  on  going  over  the  same  ground  the 
next  day,  those  that  are  thus  entrapped  can  be  crushed  by  the  end  of 
the  same  stick.  In  corn  fields  that  have  been  subject  to  the  attacks  of 
cut-worms,  it  is  well  to  plant  so  much  seed  as  will  enable  them  to 
glut  their  appetites  without  taking  all  the  stalks  in  the  hill,  and  in 
this  light  the  following  lines  contain  a  deal  of  wisdom  : 

"  One  for  the  black-bird  and  one  for  the  crow. 
Two  for  the  cut-worm  and  three  to  grow." 


INSECTS  INFESTING  THE  POTATO, 

As  the  potato  forms  one  of  our  leading  articles  of  diet,  and  is 
universally  cultivated,  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  insects  which 
attack  it,  is  of  the  utmost  importance.  A  very  full  account  of  thena 
was  given  in  the  October  and  November  numbers  of  the  American 
Entomologist,  and  since  the  editions  of  those  tvfo  numbers  are  en~ 
tirely  exhausted,  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  transfer  it,  for  the  most 
part,  to  the  pages  of  this  report,  with  such  additions  and  alterations 
as  I  have  since  found  necessary. 

We  often  see  paragraphs  in  the  papers,  stating  that  "-THE  Potato- 
Bug"  has  been  very  abundant  and  destructive  in  such  a  month  and  a  fe 


92 


FIRST  ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 


such  and  such  a  place.  Accompanying  these  statements, remarks  are 
frequently  added,  that  "THE  Potato  Bag"  is  preyed  upon  by  such  and 
such  insects,  so  that  we  may  soon  expect  to  see  it  swept  from  off  the 
face  of  the  earth ;  and  that,  even  if  this  desirable  event  should  not 
take  place,  "THE  Potato  Bug"  may  be  checked  and  controlled  by- 
such  and  such  remedies. 

Do  the  worthy  men,  who  indite  these  notable  paragraphs,  ever 
consider  for  one  moment,  that  there  are  no  less  than  eleven  distinct 
species  of  bugs,  preying  upon  the  potato  plant  within  the  limits  of 
the  United  States?  That  many  of  these  eleven  species  are  confined 
within  certain  geographical  limits  ?  That  the  habits  and  history  of 
several  of  them  differ  as  widely  as  those  of  a  hog  and  a  horse  ?  That 
■some  attack  the  potato  both  in  the  larva  state  and  in  the  jjerfect  or 
winged  state;  others  in  the  perfect  or  winged  state  alone  ;  and  others 
again  in  the  larva  state  alone  ?  That  in  the  case  of  eight  of  these  in- 
sects there  is  but  one  single  brood  every  year,  while  of  the  remaining 
three  there  are  every  year  from  two  to  three  broods,  each  of  them 
generated  by  females  belonging  to  the  preceding  brood  ?  That  nine  of 
the  eleven  feed  externally  upon  the  leaves  and  tenderer  stems  of  the 
potato,  while  two  of  them  burrow,  like  a  borer,  exclusively  in  the 
larger  stalks?  Finally,  that  almost  every  one  of  these  eleven  species 
has  its  peculiar  insect  enemies;  and  that  a  mode  of  attack,  which  will 
prove  very  successful  against  one,  two  or  three  of  them,  will  often 
turn  oilt  to  be  utterly  worthless,  when  employed  against  the  remain- 
der? 

THE  STALK-BORER— Gor<2/?ia  nitela,  Guenee. 
(Lepidoptera,    Noctuidaj.) 

^^^'    ^■■'  This  larva  (Fig.  35  2,)  is  of  a 

livid  hue  when  young,  with 
light  stripes  along  the  body,  as 
shown  in  the  figure.  When  full 
grown  it  generally  becomes 
lighter,  with  t!ie  longitudinal 
2  lines  broader,  and  at  this  time 

it  more  frequently  resembles  Figure  36.    It   commonly   burrows  in 
[Fig.  36.]  large  stalks  of  the  potato  ;  but  is  not  peculiar 

to  that  plant,  as  it  occurs  also  in  the  stalks 
of  the  tomato,  and  in  those  of  the  dahlia  and 
aster  and  other  garden  flowers.  I  have  like- 
wise found  it  boring  through  the  cob  of  grow- 
ing Indian  corn,  and  strangely  confining  itself  to  that  portion  of  the 
ear:  though  it  is  likewise  found  occasionally  in  the  stem  of  that  plant. 
By  way  of  compensation,  it  is  particularly  partial  to  the  stem  of  the 
common  cocklebur  {Xanthium  strumariwn);  and  it  it  would  only 
confine  itself  to  such  noxious  weeds  as  this,  it  might  be  considered  as 
a  friend  instead  of  an  enemy.    In  1868  it  was  more  numerous  than 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  93 

usual,  and  was  particularly  abundant  along  the  Iron  Mountain  and 
Pacific  roads. 

Never  having  found  this  worm  earlier  than  June  and  July,  nor 
obtained  the  moth  from  the  very  earliest  matured  ones,  till  the  latter 
part  of  August  and  fore  part  of  September,  this  insect  must  necessa- 
rily be  single  brooded,  the  egg  requiring  longer  to  hatch,  and  the  lar- 
va longer  to  develop  than  of  many  other  moths.  Leaving  the  stalk 
in  which  thej'^  have  burrowed  the  laiter  part  of  July,  they  descend  a 
litte  below  the  surface  ot  the  ground  and  in  three  days  become  chrys- 
alids.  These  are  of  the  normal  form,  with  two  fine  bristles  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  body,  usually  closed  so  as  to  form  a  point,  but  readi- 
ly opened  V-shaped  at  the  will  of  the  insect,  as  with  hundreds  of 
others  of  the  same  class.  I  have  had  the  moths  issue  as  early  as  the 
SOth  of  August  and  as  late  as  the  26th  of  September,  and  in  one  in- 
stance it  emerged  during  a  freezing  night,  being  quite  dull  and  numb 
at  the  time,  thus  showing  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  moths  hybernat© 
in  a  state  of  torpor,  and  then  deposit  their  eggs,  singly,  on  the  plant 
destined  for  the  worm,  during  the  months  of  April  and  May,  This 
moth  (Fig,  35,  2)  is  of  a  mouse  gray  color  with  the  fore  wings  finely 
sprinkled  with  jSTaples-yellow  and  having  a  very  faint  lilac-colored 
hue;  but  distinguished  mainly  by  an  arcuated  pale  line  running 
across  their  outer  third. 

Eemedy — Prevention. — The  careful  florist,  by  an  occasional  close 
inspection  of  his  plants  about  the  beginning  of  July,  may  detect  the 
point  at  which  the  borer  entered,  which  is  generally  quite  a  distance 
from  the  ground,  and  can  then  cut  him  out  without  injury  to  the 
plant.  As  this  is  not  feasible  in  a  large  potato  field,  care  should  be 
taken  to  prevent  his  attacks  another  year  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do 
so,  by  hunting  for  him  wherever  a  vine  is  seen  to  suddenly  wilt. 

THE  POTATO  STALK-WEEA^IL— Barirfiiw  trinotatus,  Say. 
(Coleoptera,    Curciilionidse.) 

This  insect  is  more  particularly 
a  Southern  species,  occurring  abun- 
dantly in  the  Middle  States,  bul,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Harris,  being  totally 
unknown  in  New  England.  I  found 
it  in  our  own  State  last  summer, 
equally  as  abundant  as  the  preced- 
ing species.  Indeed,  some  patches  were  utterly  ruined  by  it,  the  vines 
appearing  as  if  scalded.  The  beetle  (Fig  37  e)  is  of  a  bluish  or  ash- 
gray  color,  distinguished,  as  its  name  implies,  by  having  three  shiny 
black  impressed  spots  at  the  lower  edge  of  the  thorax.  The  female 
deposits  a  single  egg  in  an  oblong  slit  about  one-eighth  inch  long, 
v/hich  she  has  previously  formed  with  her  beak  in  the  stalk  of  the 
potato.  The  larva  subsequently  hatches  out,  and  bores  into  the  heart 
of  the  stalk,  always,  proceeding  downwards  towards  the  root.    When 


u 


^IRST  ANNUAL  REPOKT  OP 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  95 

full  grown,  it  is  a  little  over  one-fourth  inch  long  (Fig.  37,  «),  and  is 
a  soft  whitish,  legless  grub,  with  a  scaly  head.  Hence  it  can 
always  be  readily  distinguished  from  the  larva  of  the  Stalk-borer, 
which  has  invariably  sixteen  legs,  no  matter  how  small  it  may  be. 
Unlike  this  last  insect,  it  becomes  a  pupa  (Fig.  37,  h)  within  the  po- 
tato sLalk  which  it  inliabits;  and  it  comes  out  in  the  beetle  state  about 
the  last  of  Aug:ist  or  the  beginning  of  September.  The  stalk  inhab- 
ited by  the  larva  almost  always  wilts  and  dies,  and  this  wilting  is  first 
noticed  in  the  latitude  of  St  Louis,  about  the  first  of  July,  So  far  as 
is  at  present  known  it  attacks  no  other  plant  but  the  potato,  and  the 
perfect  beetle,  like  many  other  snout-beetles,  must  of  course  live 
through  the  winter  to  reproduce  its  species  in  the  following  spring. 

Rkmedy. — Same  as  with  the  foregoing  species.  Burn  all  the  vines 
which  wilt  from  its  attacks — roots  and  all,  for  it  almost  alwa\'^s  works 
below  ground.  The  Stalk-borer  must  be  searched  for,  if  one  will  be 
sure  of  killing  him  as  he  leaves  the  stalk  to  transform;  but  as  this 
Stalk- weevil  transforms  within  the  vine,  one  may  be  pretty  sure  of 
destroying  it  by  burning  the  vines  when  they  first  wilt. 

THE  POTATO  OR  TOMATO-WOIIM— .S';?;!!^^;   h-maculata,  Haw. 
(Lepidoptera,    Spliing-id».) 

This  well  known  insect,  the  larva  of  which  is  illustrated  on  the 
opposite  page  (Fig.  38,  A),  is  usually  called  the  Potato-worm,  but  it  is 
far  commoner  on  the  closely  allied  tomato,  the  foliage  of  which  it 
often  clears  off  very  completely  in  particular  spots  in  a  single  night. 
Many  persons  are  afraid  to  handle  this  worm,  Irom  an  absurd  idea  that 
it  has  the  power  of  stinging  with  the  horn  on  its  tail.  But  this  is  a 
vulgar  error  and  the  worm  is  totally  incapable  of  doing  any  direct 
harm  to  man,  either  with  the  conspicuous  horn  on  its  tail,  or  with  any 
hidden  weapon  that  it  may  have  concealed  about  its  person.  In  fact, 
this  dreadful  looking  horn  is  not  peculiar  to  the  Potato-worm,  but  is 
met  with  in  almost  all  the  larvre  of  the  large  and  beautiful  group  to 
which  it  belongs  (^Sphinx  family.)  It  seems  to  have  no  special  use, 
but,  like  the  bunch  of  hair  on  the  breast  of  the  turkey  cock,  to  be  a 
mere  ornamental  appendage. 

When  full  fed,  which  is  usually  about  the  last  of  August,  the  Po- 
tato worm  burrows  under  ground  and  shortly  afterwards  transforms 
into  the  pupa  state  (Fig.  38,  B).  The  pupa  is  often  dug  up  in  the  spring 
from  ground  where  tomatoes  or  potatoes  were  grown  in  the  preced- 
ing season  ;  and  most  persons  that  meet  with  it  suppose  that  the  sin- 
gular, jug-handled  appendage  at  one  end  of  it  is  its  tail.  In  reality, 
however,  it  is  the  tongue-case^  and  contains  the  long  pliable  tongue 
which  the  future  moth  will  employ  in  lapping  up  the  nectar  of  the 
flowers,  before  which,  in  the  dusky  gloom  of  some  warm,  balmy  sum- 
mer's evening,  it  hangs  for  a  few  moments  suspended  in  the  air,  like 
the  glorified  ghost  of  some  departed  botanist. 

The  moth  itself  (Fig.  38,0  )  was  formerly  confounded  with  the  To- 


96  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

bacco-worm  moth  {S2)Mnx  Carolina^  Linnreus),  which  indeed  it  very 
closely  resembles,  having  the  same  series  of  orange  colored  spots  on 
each  side  of  the  abdomen.  The  gray  and  black  markings,  however,  of 
the  wings  differ  perceptibly  in  the  two  species;  and  in  the  Tobacco- 
worm  moth  there  is  always  a  more  or  less  faint  white  spot  or  dot  near 
the  centre  of  the  front  wing, which  is  never  met  within  the  other  spe- 
cies. In  Connecticut  and  other  northern  States  where  tobacco  is  grown, 
the  Potato-Avorra  often  feeds  upon  the  leaves  of  the  tobacco  plant,  the 
true  Tobacco-worm  being  unknown  in  those  latitudes.  In  the  more 
southerly  States,  on  the  other  hand,  and  in  Mexico  and  in  the  West 
Indies,  the  true  Potato- worm  is  unknown,  and  it  is  the  Tobacco-worm 
that  the  tobacco  growers  have  to  fight.  While  in  the  intermediate 
country  both  species  may  frequently  be  captured  on  the  wing  in  the 
same  garden  and  upon  the  same  evening.  In  other  words,  the  Potato- 
worm  is  a  northern  species,  the  Tobacco- worm  a  southern  species ; 
but  on  the  confines  of  the  two  districts  exclusively  inhabited  by  each, 
they  intermingle  in  varying  proportions,  according  to  the  latitude. 

Remedies. — This  insect  is  so  large  and  conspicuous  that  the  most 
effectual  mode  of  destroying  it  is  by  hand-picking.  In  destroyingthe 
worms  in  this  manner  care  should  be  taken  to  leave  alone  all  those 
specimens  which  one  finds  covered  with  little  white  oval  cocoons,  as 
these  are  the  cocoons  of  little  parasites*  which  materially  assist  us  in 
its  subjugation. 

THE  STRIPED  BLISTER-BEETLE— Li/Z/a  vittata,  Fabr. 
(Coleoptera  Meloidse.) 

The  three  insects  figured  and  described  above  infest  the  potato 
plant  in  the  larva  state  only,  the  two  first  of  them  burrowing  inter- 
nally in  the  stalk  or  stem,  the  third  feeding  upon  its  leaves  externally. 
Of  these  three  the  first  and  third  are  moths  or  scaly-winged  insects 
(order  Lepidoptera)^  so  called  because  the  wings  of  all  the  insects 
belonging  to  this  large  group  are  covered  with  minute  variously-col- 
ored scales,  which,  on  the  slightest  touch,  rub  off  and  rob  the  wing  of 
all  its  brilliant  coloring.  The  second  of  the  three,  as  well  as  the  next 
four  foes  of  the  potato,  which  I  shall  notice,  are  all  of  theiii  beetles 
or  shelly-winged  insects  (order  Coleoptera)^  so  called  because  what 
would  normally  be  the  front  wing  is  transformed  here  into  a  more  or 
less  hard  and  shelly  wing-case,  which,  instead  oi  being  used  as  an  or- 
gan of  flight,  is  employed  merely  to  protect  and  cover  the  hind  wings 
in  repose.  To  look  at  any  beetle,  indeed,  almost  any  inexperienced 
person  would  suppose  that  it  has  got  no  wings  at  all ;  but  in  reality 
nearly  all  beetles  have  full  sized  wings  snugly  folded  up  under  their 
wing-cases,  and,  whenever  they  choose  it,  can  fly  with  the  greatest 

*  Ther9  are  two  distinct  pamsites  which  attack  thia  worm,  both  species  beina;  very  much  of  a 
size.  One  issues  from  the  worm  ani  spins  a  smooth  white  silken  cocoon  which  it  fastens  ly  one  end 
to  the  i^kin  of  the  worm,  and  in  due  time  produces  a  fly  which  Mr.  Norton  inf'irms  lue  \f  an  unde- 
Beribed  species  of  Blacus,  West.  (Braconides  polymorphi).  The  other  species  forms  an  imrieuse  laasa 
of  loose  woolly  cocoons  and  produces  an  apparently  undescribed  species  of  Micragaster. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  97 

ease.  This  is  the  case  with  the  four  following  beetles  which  infest  the 
potato.  As  these  four  species  all  agree  with  one  another  in  living 
under  ground  and  feeding  upon  various  roots,  during  the  larva  state, 
and  in  emerging  to  attack  the  foliage  of  the  potato,  only  when  in  the 
course  of  the  summer  they  have  passed  into  the  perfect  or  beetle 
state  ;  it  will  be  quite  unnecessary  to  repeat  this  statement  under  the 
head  of  each  of  the  four.  In  fact,  the  four  are  so  closely  allied,  that 
they  all  belong  to  the  same  family  of  beetles,  the  blister-beetles 
{Lytta  family) — to  which  also  the  common  imported  Spanish-fly  or 
blister-beetle  of  the  druggist  appertains — and  all  of  them  will  raise 
just  as  good  a  blister  as  that  does,  and  are  equally  poisonous  when 
taken  internally  in  large  doses.  In  Missouri,  these  blister-beetles 
were  more  numerous  and  more  injurious  in  1868  than  the  dreaded 
Colorado  Potato-beetle. 

The  Striped  Blister-beetle  (Fig.  39)  is  almost  exclusively  a  south- 
J^ig-  390^  em  species,  occurring  in  particular  years  very  abundantly 
on  the  potato  vine  in  Central  and  Southern  Illinois,  and  in 
our  own  State,  though  according  to  Dr.  Harris,  it  is  also 
occasionally  found  even  in  New  England.  In  some  speci- 
mens, the  broad  outer  black  stripe  on.  the]  wing-cases  is 
divided  lengthways  by  a  slender  yellow  line,  so  that  instead 
o^  tioo  there  are  three  black  stripes  on  each  wing-case  ;  and 
in  the  same  field  all  the  intermediate  grades  between  the  two  varie- 
ties may  be  met  with;  thus  proving  that  the  four-striped  individuals 
do  not  form  a  distinct  species,  as  was  formerly  supposed  by  the  Euro- 
pean entomologist,  Fabricius,  but  are  mere  varieties  of  the  same 
species  to  which  the  six-striped  individuals  appertain. 

The  late  Samuel  P.  Boardman,  of  Lincoln,  Illinois,  discovered 
that  this  Striped  Blister-beetle,  like  the  Colorado  beetle,  eats  all  other 
potato  tops  in  preference  to  Peach-blows.  (See  N'.  Y.  Sem.  Tribune^ 
July  13,  186S.)  This  is  certainly  a  new  fact,  so  far  as  regards  the  for- 
mer species,  though  it  has  long  been  ascertained  to  be  true  of  the 
latter,  but  as  I  shall  presently  show,  the  Margined  Blister-beetle  has 
the  same  tastes. 

THE  ASH-GRAY  BLISTER-BEETLE*— Li/f/a  cinerea,  Fabr. 

This  species  (Fig.  40  «,  male)  is  the  one  commonly  found  in  the 
more  northerly  parts  of  the  Northern  States,  where  it  usually  takes 
the  place  of  the  Striped  Blister-beetle  figured  above.  It  is  of  a  uni- 
form ash-gray  color;  but  this  color  is  given  it  by  the  presence  upon 

*  In  the  male  of  this  species,  but  not  in  the  female,  the  iirst  two  joints  of  the  antennje  are 
greatly  elongnted  and  dilated  ;  which  is  also  the  case  with  the  species  next  to  be  referred  to.  (Fig. 
40  d,  represents  the  male  antenna^  above  ;  that  of  female  below.)  Hence,  in  splitting  up  the  exten- 
sive and  unwieldy  old  genus  (Lytta),  these  and  certain  allied  species  have  been  very  properly  placed 
in  a  genus  by  themselves  (Mocrobasis);  while  the  Striped  Blistpr-beetle  and  the  Margined  Blister- 
beetle,  not  possessing  this  peculiarity,  are  grouped  together  under  a  distinct  genus  (Epicauta). 
Practical  men,  however,  -who  do  not  desire  to  trouble  their  heads  with  these  niceties,  will  find  it  most 
convenient  to  class  them  all  together  under  the  old  genus  (Lytta) ;  and  this  we  have  accordinglj 
done. 

7  R  S   E 


98 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


its  body  of  minute  ash-gray 
scales  or  sliort  hairs,  and 
whenever  these  are  rubbed 
off,  which  happens  almost  as 
readily  as  on  the  wings  of  a 
butterfly,  the  original  black 
color  of  its  hide  appears.  It 
attacks  not  onl}"  potato  vines, 
but  also  honey-locusts,  and 
especially  the  English  or  Windsor  bean,  and  I  found  it  quite  abun- 
dant on  the  Early  Snap  bean  at  Hermann,  last  summer.  It  also  at- 
tacks the  foliage  of  the  apple-tree,  and  likewise  gnaws  into  the  young 
fruit. 

THE  BLACK-RAT  BLISTER-BEETLE -L^/^a  murina,  Le  Conte. 

This  species  (Fig.  40  h,  male)  is  sometimes  found  upon  the  potato 
in  the  month  of  July,  and  early  in  August.  In  1867  it  was  found  by 
Mr.  D.  W.  Kaufiman,  to  swarm  on  the  potato  vines  near  Des  Moines, 
Iowa;  but  I  have  not  yet  met  with  it  in  Missouri. 

THE  BLACK  BLISTER-BEETLE— Ly/^o  atrata,  Fabr. 

This  species  is  very  similar  in  appearance  to  the  Black-rat  Blister- 
beetle;  the  latter. being  distinguishable  from  it  only  by  having  four 
raised  lines  placed  lengthwise  upon  each  wing-case  and  by  the  two 
first  joints  of  the  antennfe  being  greatly  dilated  and  lengthened  in 
the  males  as  shown  at  Figure  c.  The  Black  Blister-beetle  appears  in 
August  and  September,  and  is  very  common  on  the  flowers  of  the 
Golden-rod.  I  learned  from  several  parties,  while  attending  the  Oc- 
tober meeting  of  the  Meramac  Horticultural  Society,  at  Eureka,  that 
it  had  been  quite  numerous  on  the  potatoes  in  that  vicinity,  and  that 
they  did  much  damage  in  some  patches.  The  severe  drouth  of  the 
summer  had  retarded  the  development  of  the  tubers,  so  that  this 
beetle  attacked  the  vines  before  the  latter  were  formed;  but  as  a  gen- 
eral rule,  it  makes  its  appearance  too  late  in  the  season  to  do  great 
damage. 

THE  MARGINED  BLISTER-BEETLE*— Li/«a  marginaia,  Fabr. 

[Fig.  41.]  This  species  (Fig.  41)  may  be  at  once  recognized  by  its 
, general  black  color,  and  the  narrow  ash-gray  edging  to  its 
wing-cases.  It  usually  feeds  on  certain  wild  plants ;  but  I 
found  it  quite  abundant  on  potatoes  last  summer,  both  in  our 
own  State  and  in  Illinois.  It  appears  not  to  attack  the  Peach 
/VBIlVN^Blow  variety,  for  Mr.  Wm.  Brown,  of  Eureka,  informs  me  that 
jKPj  lie  had  a  patch  of  Quaker  Kussetts  by  the  side  of  another 
/  \ patch  of  Peach  Blows,  and  while  the  former  were  entirely 
eaten  up  by  it,  the  latter  were  untouched. 

*This  is  the  nam?  formerl.y  given  by  almost  all  entomologists  to  this  species  ;  and  a  most  ap- 
propriate one  it  is,  in  view  of  "the  remarkable  ash-gray  margin  of  its  black  wing-cases  {elytra).  But 
of  late  years  it  has  been  discovered,  that,  as  long  ago  as  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  several 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  99 

Remedies. — The  same  remedies  will  apply  equally  to  all  five  of 
the  Blister-beetles  that  have  just  been  described.  Let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  during  the  heat  of  the  day,  the§e  beetles  are  ready  with 
their  wings  and  may  be  driven  from  the  vines.  Thus  the  most  prac- 
tical and  efficient  mode  of  destroying  them,  is  to  drive  them  into  a  ■ 
windrow  of  hay  or  straw,  and  kill  them  -by  setting  fire  to  it.  As  they 
all  appear  rather  late  in  the  season,  I  should  recommend  the  planting 
of  early  varieties,  which  will  be  more  likely  to  escape  their  attacks; 
and  especially  of  the  Peach  Blow  variety,  the  leaves  of  which  seem 
to  be  more  distasteful  to  them  than  those  of  any  other  variety. 

TIIE  THREE-LINED  LEAF-BEETLE— Lema  t?iZi>!ca/o,  Olivier.— (Coleoptera,Clirysomelida2.) 

The  three  first  insects,  described  and  figured  above  as  infesting 

]Fig.  42.]  ^j^g  potato-plant,  attack  it  only  in  the 

||  larva  state.    The  five  next,  namely  the 

^3^^v    |;i|         J^         ("^"3  ^^^®  Blister-beetles,    attack  it  exclu- 

^STv^^^^tM^      T*^       Y^y  sively  in  the  perfect  state.    The  three 

^^^^"^^i^    Vh  ^^Ik        7^  ^^^'^^  remain  to  be  considered  attack  it 

or^-'  ^-     '  "^    '  M.    ^^^^^  ^^^  ^'^®  larva  and  in  the  perfect 

<^^^^^^^^^^^  ^"^1         T^S^'  ^^'^^^^  ^^''^  SO  underground  to  pass  into 

(/. ^^^^^^y p        I't^^iyKhe  pupa  state,  in  which  state— like 

^^V  '^V    all  other  Beetles,  without  exception — 

they  are  quiescent,  and  eat  nothing  at  all. 

The  larva  of  the  Three-lined  Leaf-beetle  may  be  distinguished  from 
all  other  insects  that  prey  upon  the  potato  by  its  habit  of  covering 
itself  with  its  own  excrement.  In  Figure  i2  a,  this  larva  is  shown  in 
profile,  both  full  and  half  grown,  covered  with  the  soft,  greenish  ex- 
crementitious  matter  which  from  time  to  time  it  discharges.  Figure 
42  c,  gives  a  somewhat  magnified  view  of  the  pupa ;  and  Figure  42  h, 
shows  the  last  few  joints  of  the  abdomen  of  the  larva,  magnified,  and 
viewed,  not  in  profile,  but  from  above.  The  vent  of  the  larva,  as  will 
be  seen  from  this  last  figure,  is  situated  on  the  upper  surface  of  the 
last  joint,  so  that  its  excrement  naturally  falls  upon  its  back,  and  by 
successive  discharges  is  pushed  forward  towards  its  head,  till  the  whole 

years  before  Fabricius  named  and  described  this  insect  as  the  "Marpned  Blister-Beetle"  (f;i/»a 
maryimla),  it  >Yas  named  and  described  as  the  "  Ash-gray  Blister-beetle  (Lytta  cmerca)  hy  h oer- 
ster.  Hence,  in  accordance  with  the  inexorable  "  la^v  of  priority,"  the  obedient  scientihc  world 
has  been  called  upon  to  adopt  Foerster's  name  for  this  species  ;  and  as  two  species  belonging-  to  the 
same  genus  can  not,  of  course,  have  the  same  specific  name,  the  true  Ash-gray  Llister-beetle  of 
Fabricius  {Lytta  cmerea),  which  is  really  ash-gray  all  over,  has  been  re-christened  by  the  name  of 
"  Fabricius'  Blister-beetle"  (Lutta  Fabricii.)  Positively,  this  continual  chopping-  and  changing  in 
scientilic  nomenclature  is  getting  to  be  an  unbearable  nuisance,  and  imist  be  put  a  stop  to.  Other- 
wise one-half  of  the  time  of  eve.T  entomologist,  which  might  be  much  better  occupied  m  studying 
out  scientific  f,n  Is,  will  be  frittered  away  in  studying  out  scientific  phrcses.  ,,,,„„_     .  ,, 

Manv  writers,  in  giving  the  scientific  designation  of  an  insect,  neglect  to  add  the  name  of  the 
author  who  first  described  it.  This  practice  often  leads  to  err<-r,  uncertainty  and  confusion,  as  the 
preceding  example  will  at  once  show.  If,  for  instance,  we  write  simply  "  I^'Jtf  c,ne,ea,  how  can 
the  reado^r  tell  whether  we  mean  the  species  described  under  t;hat  name  by  Foerster,  or  the  very  dis- 
tinct species  described  under  the  very  same  name  "cinerca"  by  Fabricius ?  Whereas,  U  we  add  the 
author's  name,  all  doul,ts  upon  the  subject  are  at  once  removed;  and  we  can  snap  our  ung_ers  at 
those  wearisome  and  interminable  disputes  about  the  priority  of  n.mes  and  the  law  of  piiority, 
Tvhich  take  up  so  much  space  in  scientific  papers,  while  they  add  absolu  eiy  nothing  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  facts  recorded  by  the  finger  of  God  in  the  great  book  of  xNature. 


"iOO  FIRST  ANNUAL   KEFOKT  OF 

upper  surface  of  the  insect  is  covered  with  it.  In  other  insects,  wliicii 
do  not  indulge  in  this  singular  practice,  the  vent  is  situated  either  at 
the  extreme  tip  of  the  abdomen  or  on  itsjxjwer  surface. 

There  are  several  otjier  laryge,  feeding  upon  other  plants,  which 
commonly  wear  cloaks  of  tliia^strange  material,  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  one  which  is  very  common  upon  the  Sumach,  and  which 
produces  a  jumping,  oval  Leaf-beetle  (Blephar^'da  rkois,  Foerster), 
about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  long,  and  of  a  yellow  color,  speckled  with 
brick-red.  The  larvcie  of  certain  Tortoise-beetles  (Cassida),  some  of 
which  feed  on  the  Morning  Glory  and  the  Sweet  Potato  vines,  adopt 
the  same  practice,  but  in  their  case  there  is  a  forked  process  at  the 
tail  which  curves  over  their  backs  and  receives  the  requisite  supply 
of  excrement. 

Many  authors  have  supposed  that  the  object  of  the  larva,  in  all 
these  cases,  is  to  protect  its  soft  and  tender  body  from  the  beat  of  the 
sun.  This  can  scarcely  be  the  correct  explanation,  because  then  they 
would  throw  away  their  parasols  in  cold  cloudy  weather,  which  they 
do  not  do.  In  all  probability,  the  real  aim  of  Nature,  in  the  case  of 
all  these  larva?,  is  to  defend  them  from  the  attacks  of  birds  and  of  can- 
nibal and  parasitic  insects. 

There  are  two  broods  of  this  species  every  year.  The  first  brood 
of  larvae  may  be  found  on  the  potato  vine  toward  the  latter  end  of 
June,  and  the  second  in  August.  The  first  brood  stays  underground 
about  a  fortnight  before  it  emerges  in  the  perfect  beetle  state  ;  and 
the  second  brood  stays  there  all  winter,  and  only  emerges  at  the  be- 
F'^'  %'^  ginning  of  the  following  June.  The  perfect  beetle  [^^'^s-  «•! 
(Fig.  43)  is  of  a  pale  yellow  color,  with  three  black 
.stripes  on  its  back,  and  bears  a  general  resem- 
^  I  blance  to  the  common  Cucumber-beetle(Z)^a5r^^/c« 
^'Hittata,  Fabr.,  Fig  44).  From  this  last  species,  how- 
ever, it  may  be  readily  distinguished  by  the  remarkable 
pinching  in  of  the  sides  of  its  thorax,  so  as  to  make  quite  a  lady-like 
waist  there,  or  what  naturalists  call  a  "  constriction."  It  is  also  on  the 
average  a  somewhat  larger  insect,  and  differs  in  other  less  obvious 
respects.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle,  the  female, 
after  coupling  in  the  usual  manner,  lays  her  yellow  eggs  (Fig.  42  d) 
on  the  unier  surface  of  the  leaves  of  the  potato  plant.  The  larv^ 
hatching  from  these  require  about  the  same  time  to  develop,  and  when 
full  grown  descend  in  the  same  manner  into  the  ground,  where  they 
transform  to  pupse  (Fig.  42  c)  within  a  small  oval  chamber,  from  which 
in  time  the  perfect  beetle  comes  forth. 

The  Three-lined  Leaf-beetle,  in  certain  seasons,  is  a  great  pest  in 
the  Eastern  States  ;  but,  it  has  never  yet  occurred  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi  in  such  numbers  as  to  be  materially  injurious. 


TflE  STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


101 


THE  CUCUMBER  FLEA-BEETLE— HaZ/ica  cwcumeM's.*— Harris. 
(Coleoptera,  Chrysomelldat;.) 

This  minute  Beetle  (Fig.  45)  belongs  to  the  Flea-beetles  {Ilaltica 
tFig-.  45.]  family),  the  same  sub-group  of  the  Leaf-beetles  (  Phytophaga) 
l^V^  to  which  also  appertains  the  notorious  St^el-blue  Flea-beetle 
^{Ilaliica  chalyhea,  lUiger),  that  is  such  a  pest  to  the  vineyard- 
ist.  Like  all  the  rest  of  the  Flea-beetles,  it  has  its  hind  thighs 
greatly  enlarged,  which  enables  it  to  jump  with  much  agility.  It  is 
not  peculiar  to  the  potato,  but  infests  a  great  variety  of  plants,  includ. 
ing  the  cucumber,  from  which  it  derives  its  name.  It  operates  by- 
eating  minute  round  holes  into  the  substance  of  the  leaf  which  it  at- 
tacks, but  often  not  so  as  to  penetrate  entirely  through  it.  Li  South 
Illinois  whole  fields  of  potatoes  may  often  be  observed  looking  seared 
ana  yellow,  and  with  their  leaves  riddled  with  the  round  holes  made 
by  this  insect.  The  larva  feeds  internally  upon  the  substance  of  the 
leaf,  like  that  of  the  closely-allied  European  Flea-beetle  of  the  turnip 
{Haltlca  nemorum,  Linn.);  and,  from  its  near  relationship  to  that  in- 
sect, we  may  infer  that  it  goes  underground  to  assume  the  pupa  state, 
that  it  passes  through  all  its  stages  in  about  a  month,  and  that  there 
ai-e  two  or  three  broodfe  of  them  in  the  course  of  the  same  season. 

THE  COLOIIADO  POTATO-BEETLE— Dorj/;)ftoro  \0-lineata,  Say. 
(Coleeptera,  Chrysomelidae.) 

ITS  PAST  HISTORY   AND  FUTURE  PROGRESS. 

[Fig.  46.] 


Up  to  the  autumn  of  1865,  it  was  generally  supposed  by  economic 
entomologists,  that  this  destructive  insect  had  existed  from  time  imme- 
morial in  the  Northwestern  States,  feeding  upon  some  worthless  weed 
or  other;  and  that  of  late  years,  from  some  unexplained  cause,  it  had 
all  of  a  sudden  taken  to  attacking  the  potato-plant.    In  Octo])er,  1S65, 

*  Erronpously  considered  by  some  authors  as  identical  with  the  HalHca  pubcscens  of  lUiger. 
In  this  last  species,  .according  to  Dr.  J.  L.  LeConte,  the  thorax,  instead  of  being-  shming,  as  !U  our 
iusect,  is  opaque,  with  large,  dease  punctures. 


102  FIRST   ANNUAL  EEPOKT   OF 

Mr.  Walsh  showed  that  originally  its  exclusive  home  was  in  the  Rocky- 
Mountains,  whore  it  had  been  known  to  exist  for  at  least  forty-five 
years  feeding  upon  a  wild  species  of  potato  peculiar  to  that  region 
{Solarium  rostratum^  Dunal);  that  when  civilization  marched  up  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  potatoes  began  to  be  grown  in  that  region, 
it  gradually  acquired  the  habit  of  feeding  upon  the  cultivated  potato  ; 
that  in  1859,  spreading  eastward  from  potato  patch  to  potato  patch,  it 
had  reached  a  point  one  hundred  miles  to  the  west  of  Omaha  city,  in 
Nebraska;  that  in  1861,  it  invaded  Iowa,  gradually,  in  the  next  three 
or  four  years,  spreading  eastward  over  that  State;  that  in  1864  and 
18G5,  it  crossed  the  Mississippi,  invading  Illinois  on  the  western  bor- 
ders of  that  State,  from  the  eastern  borders  of  North  Missouri  and 
Iowa,  upon  at  least  five  different  points  on  a  line  of  two  hundred 
miles;  and  that  in  all  probability  it  would  in  future  years  "  travel  on' 
wards  to  the  Atlantic,  establishing  a  permanent  colony  wherever  it 
goes,  and  pushing  eastward  at  the  rate  of  about  fifty  miles  a  year." 
{Practiced  Entomologist^  Vol.  I,  No.  1.)  A  remarkable  peculiarity  in 
the  eastern  progress  of  tiiis  insect  was  subsequently  pointed  out  by 
the  same  v/riter,  in  18G6,  namely,  that  "in  marching  through  Illinois 
in  many  separate  columns,  just  as  Sherman  marched  to  the  sea,  the 
southern  columns  of  the  grand  army  lagged  far  behind  the  northern 
columns."    {Ihid^  II,  p.  14.) 

Now,  let  us  see  how  far  the  predictions  above,  have  been  verified 
By  the  autumn  of  1866,  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle,  which  appears  to 
have  invaded  the  south-west  corner  of  Wisconsin  at  as  early  a  date  as 
1862  (Ilnd,  II,  p.  JOl),  had  already  occupied  and  possessed  a  large  part 
of  the  cultivated  or  southern  parts  of  that  State;  and  in  Illinois  if  we  draw 
a  straight  line  to  connect  Chicago  with  St.  Louis,  nearly  all  the  region 
that  lies  to  the  north-west  of  that  line  was  overrun  by  it.  It  subse- 
quently invaded  parts  ot  South  Illinois,  occurring  in  Union,  Marion, 
and  Effingham  counties,  in  1868;  and  already  in  1867  it  had  passed 
through  the  eastern  borders  of  North  and  Central  Illinois  into  West- 
ern Indiana,  and  the  south-west  corner  of  Michigan;  and  finally,  in 
1868  it  made  its  appearance  in  many  different  places  in  Indiana,  and 
as  the  following  communication  from  a  Cincinnati  correspondent  of 
the  Ohio  farmer,  under  date  of  July,  1868,  will  show,  it  has  even 
spread  into  Ohio. 

"  About  three  years  ago  when  in  your  office  at  Cleveland,  you 
presented  me  with  samples  of  this  devastating  insect,  the  first  I  had 
seen;  liiey  have  been  preserved  in  the  collection  of  one  of  the  best 
entomologists  ot  Ohio.  You  had  received  tiie  beetles  from  some  cor- 
res])ondent  in  Iowa,  where  it  was  then  ravaging  the  crops  and  where 
it  continues  to  be  very  destructive.  We  soon  learned  that  the  insects 
were  progressing  eastward  at  the  computed  rate  of  about  thirty  miles 
a  year,  and  we  began  to  calculate  the  time  when  we  might  expect  its 
appearance  in  Ohio — which  we  did  not  anticipate  for  some  years. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  103 

"Having  crossed  the  Mississippi  at  Rock  Island  tlie  insects  soon 
traversed  the  State  of  Illinois  and  reached  the  shores  of  Lake  Michi- 
Jr^"  ere  it  mi.ht  have  met  a  watery  grave,  but,  unfortunately  its 
coul-se  was  onlv  deilected  southward,  and  there  were  other  cohostsot 
the  invaders,  t^aversin,  lower  parallels,  so  that_  by  ^--jS-^'^^^f;. 
force  was  multiplied  and  great  fears  were  anticipated  by  the  potato 
growe  s  of  Noi'hern  Indiana  and  Ohio,  and  it  was  supposed  tha 
NorUiern  Ohio  would  be  invaded  before  the  Southern  portion  of  this 

^^''^"  At  the  last  annual  meeting  of  the  Indiana  Horticultural  Society 
in  January  1868,  the  existence  of  this  insect  was  reported  m  severa^ 
counties  in  the  north-western  part  of  that  Stae  during  ^^^^^^^f^^f 
us  to  apprehend  that  the  day  of  their  approach  to  us  was  not  so  dis- 
tant IS  we  had  fondlv  hoped.  Correspondents  now  iniorm  us  hat 
till  re^tle  has  reached  Lfayette,  Indianapolis,  Danville  and  other 
points  of  central  Indiana,  so  that  its  progress  eastward  continues  with 
increasing  speed. 

"We'have  now  to  record  the  actual  presence  of  the  Ten-lmed 
Spearman,  {Dorj/phora  10-Uneata;)  in  the  south-western  corner  of 
Ohio!  a  veW  few  specimens  of  this  pest  having  been  taken  withm  the 
past  week  in  Hamilton  county." 

Thus  it  appears  that  its  average  annual  progress  towards  the  east 
has  been  upwards  of  seventy  miles.  At  the  same  rate  of  progression  it 
will  touch  the  Atlantic  ocean  in  about  ten  years  Irom  now,  or  A.  v, 

^"  But  "  it  will  be  asked,  "  how  could  any  entomologists  make  the 
mistake  of  supposing  that  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle  had  always  ex- 
S  n  the  Northwestern  States  V    The  answer  is,  that,  as  was  proved 
three  years  ago  in  the  article  already  referred  to  they  inadvertently 
confL'nded  together  two  entirely  distinct  but  very  closely  aU.ed  spe 
eies  the  bogus  Colorado  Potato-beetle  (Dor;/p/wraju,iota,  Cxermarj, 
ani'      e  true  Colorado  Potato-beetle   {Donjphora  lO-hneata,^  bay). 
The  fo  mer  of  these  has  existed  in  the  Sonth-west  from  tnne  unme- 
mtial  and  has  Ipng  since  been  known  to  feed  in  tl-arva  state  upo 
the  horse-nettle  (Solanum  caroUnmse^hinn,)  ^viM  plant  whicli  is 
exceed  ngly  adundant  in  our  own  State.    In  1863  Mr  Glover  stated 
ft     h    "ha'd  found  an  insect  similar  to  the  Ten-striped  Speamanor^ 
true  Colorado  Potato^beetle]cuithecom,nonhors.ne^^^^^ 

lAnr.  DoparimenlRep.,]}-^'^)-  In  1*1  "«  assureu 
nsect,  found  by  him  on  the  horse-nettle  in  Georgia  fe"  y^;;%^f°7; 
was  the  bogus  Colorado  Potato-beetle  iD-Juncta)jn^  Montgomery 
Walter  had  also  found  it  feeding  upon  the  I^-'Pla  "  Me"^;-"'^^^^^: 
Alabama."  I  discovered  this  same  species  •"/«"'"  ;^J"^fJ^'  3 
ing  in  conjunction  with  its  larv,e  "P°"  VP^,^"*v'Vl  T  Lt  w ith  in 
been  nothing  else  but  the  horse-nettle  ;  and  last  f^"  ^  ^^""'^'Vd 
ffreat  numbers  in  St.  Louis  and  Jefferson  counties  in  this  State,  ieed 
SruportU^-me  plant,  in  company  ^  larvre;  and  in  one  in- 


^^^  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 


Stance  the  larvae  of  both  the  true  and  the  bogus  species  occurred  in 
company.    Thus  it  appears  to  inhabit  at  least  five  southerly  re<^ions 
namely  South  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Georgia  and  AlabanTa.      ' 
The  true  Colorado  Potato-beetle  as  has  been  already  stated  only 
immigrated  into  Illinois  in  1864,  and  in  its  native  home,  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  feeds  naturally  upon  another  wild  species  of  potato,  which 
IS  quite  distinct  from  the  horse-nettle,  and  is  peculiar  to  the  Eocky 
Mountain  region.     Again,  the  former  species  has  never  yet   been 
known  to  attack  the  cultivated  potato,  and  in  all  likelihood  never  will 
do  so  ;  for,  as  it  has  existed  in  all  likelihood  never  will  do  so  •  for    as 
it  has  existed  in  Illinois,  for  at  least  14  years,  and  in  Georgia  for  at 
least  44  years,  without  ever  having  been  known  to  attack  this  plant 
which  has  been  growing  all  that  time  in  these  two  States,  it  is  not  at 
all  probable  that  it  will  do  so  at  any  future  time.    The  latter  species 
on  the  other  hand,  acquired  this  habit,  as  was  shown  before  in  the' 
region  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  when  for  the  first  time  the  pot'ato  was 
introduced  there,  some  twenty  years  ago;  and  from  that  region  the 
potato-feeding  race  of  this  insect  has  since  been  spreadin-  further 
and  further  every  year  towards  the  east.    Finally  the  bogus  Colorado 
Potato-beetle  is  more  peculiarly  a  southern  species,  occurrin-  in  the 
more  southerly  portion  of  Illinois,  and  in  Missouri,  Kentucky  Geor-ia 
and  probably Alabama,while  the  true  ColoradoPotato-beetle  is  ori  final- 
ly an  Alpme  species,its  native  home  being  the  canons  (kanvons)  of  the 
Kocky  Mountains,  and  it  therefore  thrives  best  and  spreads  fastest  in 
the  more  northerly  regions,  such  as  Nebraska,  Iowa,  Minnesota   Wis- 
consin  and  North  Illinois ;  while  in  South  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Kan- 
sas, it  neither  thrives  so  well  nor  spreads  so  rapidly. 

The  question  whether  the  true  Colorado  Potato-lDeetle  has  existed 
tor  an  indefinitely  long  time  in  the  country  that  lies  to  the  east  of  the 
Mississippi  river,  or  whether  it  is  not  the  bogus  Colorado  Potato- 
beetle  that  has  there  been  mistaken  for  it,  while  the  true  Colorado 
Potato-beetle  has  in  reality  immigrated  into  that  country  from  the 
Rocky  Mountain  region  within  the  last  four  or  five  years,  may  seem  to 
some  of  merely  theoretical  interest.    It  is,  however,  of  great  practi- 
cal importance.     On  the  first  supposition  it  is  not  probable  that  this 
bitter  enemy  of  the  potato  will  travel  onwards  and  onwards  towards 
the  Atlantic;  on  the  second  supposition  it  will  most  likely  traverse 
Ohio  within  a  year  or  two,  spread  like  a  devouring  flame  through  the 
great  potato-growing  State  of  Michigan,  and  finally  pass  eastwards 
into  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  New  England.    I  shall,  therefore 
briefly  point  out  the  minute  but  invariable  characters  which  distin- 
guish them  both  in  the  larva  and  perfect  beetle  states. 
■        I  had  an  excellent  opportunity  of  comparing  the  larvae  ofjunGfa 
with  those  of  10-li7iea(a,  from  alcoholic  specimens  which  were  kindly 
sent  to  Mr.  Walsh  by  Mrs.  H.  C.  Freeman,  of  Cobden,  Illinois,  and 
from  numerous  living  specimens  which  I  found  around  St.  Louis.' 
At  Figure  46,  the  true  ColoradoPotato-beetle  is  represented  in  all 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


105 


its  yaried  stages ;  5,  5,  h  representing  the  larvns  of  three  different 


growths 


and  sizes.  In  the  an- 
nexed Figure  47,  5,  5,  represents 
the  full  grown  larvae  of  the  bo- 
gus Colorado  Potato-beetle.  It 
I  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the 
head  of  the  former  is  black,  that 
the  first  joint  behind  the  head  is 
pale  and  edged  with  black  be- 
hind only,  that  there  is  a  double 
row  of  black  spots  along  the  side  of  the  body,  and  that  the  legs  are 
black,  the  ground-color  of  the  body  being  of  a  Venetian-red.  In  the 
other  larva^CFig.  47  J),  on  the  contrary,  the  head  is  of  a  pale  color, 
the  first  joint  behind  the  head  reddish-brown  and  edged  all  round 
with  black;  there  is  but  a  single  row  of  black  spots  along  the  side  of 
the  body  and  the  legs  are  pale,  while  the  ground  color  of  Ihe  body  is 
of  a  pale  cream,  tinged  with  pink  or  flesh  color.  Such  are  the  distin- 
guishing characteristics  of  the  two  larva?;  but  itis  an  interesting  fact 
that  these  characters  are  not  always  constant.  Thus  the  individuals 
of  the  second  (last  summer's)  brood  of  10-Uneata  larvae  which  fed 
on  the  horse-nettle  in  my  garden  were  all  of  them  much  paler  than 
were  those  of  the  first,  potato-feeding  brood,  from  which  they  had  de- 
scended ;  and  furthermore  the  lower  row  of  spots  was  very  indistinct 
and  in  many  entirely  obsolete,  while  the  head,  instead  of  being  black 
was  entirely  brown.  Whether  this  variation  from  the  normal  type 
w^as  due  to  the  food-plant  or  not,  I  shall  not  at  present  offer  an  opin- 
ion, but  I  should  have  been  doubtful  about  the  species  had  I  not  bred 
the  perfect  beetle  (10-Uneata)  from  them.  Again  as  I  shall  immedi- 
ately show  the  young  larva  of  J/' i^ic^ti^  similates  in  its  markings  the  ma- 
ture larva  of  IC-Uneata. 

The  eggs  of  10-lineata  (Fig.  46,  a,  a)  are  of  a  translucent  orange- 
red  color,  while  those  oi  junota  (Fig.  47,  a,  a)  are  whitish,  with  a  faint 
tinge  of  flesh-color,  and  still  more  translucent.  The  newly  hatched 
larvse  of  the  former  are  of  a  dark  Venetian-red,  and  they  become 
lighter  as  they  grow  older,  while  the  newly  hatched  larvae  of  the  lat- 
ter have  the  body  as  light  as  the  full  grown  individuals.  Singularly 
enough,  however,  the  newly  hatched  larvaa  oijuncta  instead  of  having 
the  light  yellow  head  and  the  single  row  of  spots  of  the  mature  in- 
dividuals, have  a  brown  head  and  hoo  rows  of  spots,  the  lower  bemg 
less  distinct  than  the  upper  row,  and  placed  exactly  in  the  same  posi- 
tion as  the  lower  row  on  the  mature  larvae  of  lO-lineata  (see  Fig.  46  h, 
lower  figure 3. 

I  subjoin  a  more  full  description  of  Doryphora  juncta.  That  of  the  larva  of  Boryphora  10- 
Uneata  will  be  found  in  Dr.  Fitch's  N.  Y.  Reports,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  231-2.  According  to  Dr.  Fitch, 
the  ground  color  of  this  last  larva  is  "pale-yellow"  in  the  mature  state  ;  according  to  Dr.  Shimer, 
in  his  excellent  article  on  the  preparatory  stages  of  this  insect,  it  is  "orange."  In  the  immature 
larvw  it  is  almost  always  of  a  dull  Venetian-red,  though  in  the  mature  larva  the  color  becomes 


lOS  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

lighter.  Indeed  in  some  instances  it  becomes  almost  as  pale  as  that  of  D.  June  fa.  I  saw  a  num- 
ber oE  such  pale  individuals  among  the  late  broods  of  last  summer,  though  I  had  never  seen  them 
60  pale  before,  notwithstanding  I  have  witnessed  great  numbers  of  them  every  .year,  since  1863. 

DouypHORA  JUXCTA,  Germar. — Mature  /arua.— General  color  a  pale  yellowish  flesh-color.  Head 
bright  gamboge-yellow,  with  the  antenna?  placed  behind  the  base  of  the  mandibles,  short  and  rery 
robustly  conical,  three-jointed,  joints  2  and  3  black.  Precisely  as  in  lO-lineata,  there  are  six  small 
fiinide  black  eyes  upon  each  side,  one  pair  longitudinally  arranged  and  placed  below  the  antenna* 
the  other  two  pairs  arranged  in  a  square  and  placed  a  little  above  and  behind  the  antenna  ;  tip  of 
the  mandibles  black.  Body,  with  the  dorsum  of  joint  1  composed  of  a  separate  transverse  horny 
plate,  rounded  at  the  sides,  of  a  rich  shiny  vandyke-brown,  with  the  edges  somewhat  raised,  and 
jet  black  and  with  a  fine  line  of  a  lighter  color  running  through  the  middle  from  the  posterior  to 
the  anterior  edge.  Joints  1—3  each,  with  a  lateral  horny  black  tubercle,  that  of  joint  1  placed 
below  and  behind  the  horny  prothoracic  plate,  and  enclosing  a  spiracle.  Joints  4—11  each  with  a 
similar  lateral  tubercle  enclosing  a  spiracle;  but  the  row  composed  of  these  eight  tubercles  is 
placed  a  little  above  the  row  of  three  tubercles  on  joints  1—3,  and  the  last  four  of  the  eight  are 
gradually  smaller  and  smaller,  until  that  on  joint  8  is  reduced  to  a  simple  black  spiracle.  Legs  pale 
j'ellow  ;  coxic  exteriorly  dark  brown,  the  two  hinder  pairs  each  more  and  more  so,  with  a  geminate 
horny  plate  above  each,  which  becomes  more  and  more  brown  in  each  successive  pair.  An  exterior 
dusky  dot,  or  small  spot,  on  the  tip  of  the  femur  and  of  the  tibia.  Tarsus  small,  one-jointed, 
brown,  and  witli  a  black  claw. 

The  body  has  a  distinct  translucent  dorsal  heart-line,  and  has  usually  a  shade  of  the  same  color 
both  above  and  below  the  lateral  row  of  black  tubercles  ;  while  there  are  two  transverse  dark- 
brown  bands  across  the  extreme  tip  of  the  body,  which  is  used  as  an  anal  proleg.  This  larva,  when 
well  fed,  is  very  smooth  and  swollen,  though  it  soon  becomes  wrinkled  after  fasting.  The  pink 
tint  of  the  body  is  more  intense  on  the  neck  and  between  the  legs. 

Now  let  us  see  what  are  the  differences  in  the  perfect  beetle  state 
of  these  two  insects,  in  which  state  even  a  practised  entomologist 
would,  at  first  sight,  be  apt  to  confound  them  together.  Indeed,  so 
minute  are  the  differences,  that  in  a  drawing  of  the  natural  size,  it  is 
scarcely  possible  to  exhibit  them,  but  with  the  greatly  enlarged  leg 
and  wing-case  of  each  species,  which  are  given  in  the  foregoing  figures 
we  shall  readily  be  enabled  to  do  so.  Figure  46,  (/,  J,  exhibits  the  true 
Colorado  Potato-beetle ;  Figure  47,  c,  the  bogus  Colorado  Potato-beetle, 
each  of  its  natural  size.  Figure  46,  e,  shows  the  left  wing-case  enlarged, 
and  Figure  46,  Z',  an  enlarged  leg  of  the  former;  Figure  47,  a,  tlie  left 
wing-case  enlarged,  and  Figure  47,  e,  an  enlarged  leg  of  the  latter. 
On  a  close  inspection  it  will  be  perceived  that  in  the  former  (Fig.  46, 
e)  the  boundary  of  each  dark  stripe  on  the  wing-cases,  especially  to- 
wards the  middle,  is  studded  with  confused  and  irregular  punctures, 
partly  inside  and  partly  outside  the  edge  of  the  dark  stripe ;  that  it  is 
the  third  and  fourth  dark  stripes,  counting  from  the  outside,  that  are 
united  behind;  and  that  in  the  leg  both  the  knees  and  the  feet  are 
black.  In  the  latter  (Fig.  47,  d),  or  the  contrary,  the  dark  stripes  are 
accurately  edged  by  a  single  regular  row  of  punctures  placed  in  a 
groove  {st7Ha)]  it  is  the  second  and  third  stripes — not  the  third  and 
fourth — counting  from  the  outside,  that  are  united  behind,  the  space 
between  them  being  almost  always  brown;  and  the  leg  is  entirely 
pale,  except  a  black  spot  on  the  middle  of  the  front  of  the  thigh. 

The  spots  on  the  thorax,  in  either  of  the  above  two  species,  are 
normally  eighteen  in  number,  arranged  in  the  same  very  peculiar 
pattern  which  may  be  seen  both  in  Figure  46, 6?,c?,  and  in  Figure  47,  g\ 
and  precisely  the  same  variations  in  this  complicated  pattern  occur  in 
either  species. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  ^^* 


Tims,  these  t^o  beetles  differ  essentially  from  one  another  upon  a 
strict  comparison ;  but  the  general  resemblance  is  so  grea  tlmt  t  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  two  have  been  confounded  together 
by  several  otherwise  well  qualified  observers. 

Habits  of  the   Colorado   Potato-beetle. -This  insect  ca7i  ny, 
though  it  does  so  very  reluctantly  and  only  during  the  heat  ot  the 
div     Its  wings,  like  those  of  several  allied  species,  are   ol  a  bngUt 
rose'-color,  and  ^ith  its  cream-colored  body,  and  the  five  black  stripes 
upon  each  wing-case,  it  presents   a  beautiful   appearance   as  it  flies 
abroad  in  the  clear  light  of  the  sun.    Its  translonnations  ^Y^;;^  fiist 
made  known  by  myself  in  the  Prairie  Fanner  lor  August  b,  1863. 
Subsequentlv,  in  18G6,  Dr.  Shimer,  of  Mt.  Carroll,  detailed  some  addi- 
tional particulars  bearing  on  its  habits,  in  a  paper  which  he  pubhshe^d 
in  the  Practical  Entomologist  (vol.  1,  pp.  S4-85).     In  the  latitude  of 
St  Louis  there  are  three  broods  during  the  year,  the  last  brood  win- 
tering over  in  the  beetle  state  underground.    They   are  usually  dug 
up  in  the  spring  of  the  year  in  land  that  had  been  planted  to  potatoes 
the  vear  before.    The   beetles  issue  of  their  own  accord  Irom  the 
ground  about  the  first  of  May,  and  the  last  brood  of  beetles  enters  the 
ground  to  hybernate  during  the  month  of  October.    Though  m  gen- 
eral terms,  this  beetle  may  be  said  to  be  three-brooded,  yet  it  may  be 
found  at  almost  any  time   of   the   year  in   all  its  different  stages^ 
This  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  female  continues  to  deposit  her  eggs 
in  patches  from  time  to  time— covering  a  period  of  about  forty  days ; 
and  also  from  the  fact  that  among  those  larvae  which  all  hatch  out  in  one 
day  some  will  develop  and  become  beetles  a  week  and  even  ten  days 
earlier  than  others.    Thus  it  may  be  that  some  of  the  late  individuals 
of  the  third  brood  pass  the  winter  in  the  pupa  state,  though  the  nor^ 
mal  habit  is  to  first,  transform  to  beetles.    Each  female  is  capable  ot 
depositing  upwards  of  a  thousand  eggs  before  she  becomes  barren, 
and  in  from  thirty  to  forty  days  from  the  time   they  were  deposited, 
they  will  have  produced  perfect  beetles.    These  beetles   are   again 
capable  of  depositing  eggs  in  about  two  weeks  after  issuing  from  the 
ground,  and  thus,  in  about  fifty  days  after  the  egg  is  laid,  the  oflsprmg 
bedns  to  propagate.    The  pupa  of  the   Colorado  Potato-beetle  is  re- 
presented at  Figure  4G,  c.    It  is  formed  in  a  little  cavity  which  the 
larva  had  made^perfectly  smooth  and  hard,  and  it  is  of  the  same  color 
as  the  larva.    The  beetle,  on  first, emerging  from  it,  is  quite  p^^le  ana 
soft,  without  any  markings  whatever. 

Unlike  many  other  noxious  insects,  this  larva  is  not  a  general 
feeder,  but  is  confined  to  plants  belonging  to  the  potato  family  {^ota^ 
vacece\  and  especially  to  the  genus  to  which  the  potato  belongs 
(Solanum).  Occasionally  it  feeds  on  the  tomato,  on  the  ground-cher- 
xy{Physalis\2.n^  on  the  imported  Jamestown-weed,  or  gympson- 
weed  (Datura).  Itprefers  the  horse-nettle  {SoJamtm  oaroUnense)  to 
some  varieties  of  the  potato,  and  were  it  not  that  the  nettle  is  con- 
Eidered  a  nuisance,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  eradicating  it  when 


108 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 


once  introduced,  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  encircle  a  potato  field 
with  a  row  of  nettles,  so  as  to  concentrate  the  insects,  and  thus  more 
readily  destroy  them.  It  is  also  even  more  destructive  to  the  egg- 
plant than  to  the  potato.  Now,  the  egg-plant,  the  horse-nettle,  aTd 
the  potato,  all  three  of  them  belong  to  the  same  genus  {Solanvm), 
as  the  wild  plant  upon  which  the  larva  originally  fed  in  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region;  but  the  egg-plant  and  the  horse-nettle  are  botani- 
cally  more  closely  related  to  the  last  than  is  the  potato  ;  being,  like 
the  Rocky  Mountain  potato,  covered  with  thorny  prickles,  while  the 
cultivated  potato  is  perfectly  smooth.  On  the  other  hand,  the  culti- 
vated potato  is  much  more  nearly  related  to  the  Rocky  Mountain 
species  than  is  the  tomato ;  which  last  has,  by  modern  botanists,  been 
removed  from  the  genus  to  which  the  other  two  appertain,  and  placed 
in  a  genus  by  itself.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  closer  a  plant 
comes  to  the  natural  food-plant  of  the  insect,  the  better  the  insect 
likes  it. 

The  beetles  have  been  sent  to  me,  as  taken  from  other  plants,  and 
even  from  the  raspberrj^,  but  I  could  never  succeed  in  making  them 
feed  on  any  plant  that  did  not  belong  to  the  potato  family,  though  I 
am  informed  by  my  friend,  Edgar  Sanders,  of  Chicago,  that  they 
greedily  attack  the  tubers  after  they  are  dug,  and  he  has  found  as 
many  as  six  in  a  single  potato. 

It  is  undoubtedly  a  most  singular  and  noteworthy  fact  that,  out  of 
two  such  very  closely  allied  species  as  the  bogus  and  the  true  Colo- 
rado Potato-beetles,  feeding  respectively  in  the  first  instance  upon 
very  closely  allied  species  of  wild  potato  {Solatium  rostratum  and 
S.  caroUneiise),  the  former  should  have  pertinaciously  refused, 
for  about  half  a  century,  to  acquire  a  taste  for  the  cultivated 
potato,  with  which  it  was  all  the  time  in  the  closest  and  most  im- 
mediate contact,  while  the  latter  acquired  that  taste  as  soon  as  ever 
it  was  brought  into  contact  with  that  plant.  But,  after  all,  this  is  not 
so  anomalous  and  inexplicable  as  the  fact  that  the  Apple-maggot  Fly 
{Tryjyeta  pomonella,  Walsh),  which  exists  both  in  Illinois,  New  York, 
and  New  England,  and  the  larva  of  which  feeds  in  Illinois  upon  the 
native  haws,  and  has  never  once  been  noticed  to  attack  the  imported 
apple  there,  should,  within  the  last  few  years,  have  suddency  fallen 
upon  the  apple,  bothin  New  York  and  New  England,  and  in  many  lo- 
calities there,  have  become  a  more  grievous  foe  to  that  fruit  than 
even  the  imported  Apple-worm  {Carpocapsa pomonella,  Linn.)* 

Thinking  that  the  bogus  Colorado  Potato-beetle  might  be  com- 
pelled to  feed  on  the  potato  in  a  state  of  confinement,  I  gave  it  every 
opportunity;  but  though  the  larvae,  when  transferred  from  the  horse 
nettle,  fed  more  or  less  on  potato  leaves,  they  invariably  became  sickly 
and  eventually  died.  But  even  if  they  had  actually  fed  upon  potato 
leaves  quite  freely  in  a  state  of  confinement  and  developed  into  bee- 

■•■■  See  on  this  subject  the  First  Annual  Report  on  the  Noxious   Insects  of  Illinois,  by  Benj.  D. 
Walsh,  pp.  29-30,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural  Sociotv  lor  1867. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  109 

ties  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  mother  beetle  would  deposit  her 
eggs  upon  the  potato  in  a  state  of  nature,  and  thereby  compel  her  fu- 
ture progeny  to  feed  upon  that  plant.  That  she  will  do  so  upon  her 
natural  food-i)lant,  the  horse-nettle,  we  know;  and,  according  to  Mr. 
Walter  of  Alabama,  she  will  do  so  upon  the  egg-plant,  which  is  thorny 
like  ihe  horse-nettle.  But  apparently  she  is  indisposed  to  go  one  step 
further,  and  lay  her  eggs  upon  a  smooth  species  of  the  same  botanical 
genus,  namely  the  potato. 

Natural  Remedies. — Persons  not  familiar  with  the  economy  of 
insects  are  continually  broaching  the  idea  that,  because  the  Colorado 
Potato-beetle  is  in  certain  seasons  comparatively  quite  scarce,therefore 
it  is  about  to  disappear  and  trouble  them  no  more.     This  is  a  very  fal- 
lacious mode  of  reasoning.    There  are  many  insects — for  instance,  the 
notorious  Army-worm  of  the  north  {Leuoania  unipu7icta,  Haworth) 
— which   only  appear  in   noticeable   numbers  in    particular    years, 
though  there  are  enough  of  them  left  over  from  the  crop  of  every 
year  to  keep   up  the  breed  for  the  succeeding  year.    There  are  other 
insects — for  instance  the  Canker-worm  (Anisopierr/x  vernaia^  Peck) — 
which   ordinarily  occur  in   about  the   same  numbers  for  a  series  of 
years,  and  then,  in  a  particular  season  and  in  a  particular  locality, 
seem  to  be  all  at  once  swept  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth.    These 
phenomena  are  due  to  several  different  causes,  but  principally  to  the 
variation  and  irregularity  in  the  action  of  cannibal  and  parasitic  in- 
sects.   We  are  apt  to  forget  that  the  system  of  Nature  is  a  very  com- 
plicated one — parasite  preying  upon  parasite,  cannibal  upon  cannibal, 
parasite  upon  cannibal,  and  cannibal  upon  parasite — till  there  are 
often  so  many  links  in  the  chain  that  an  occasional  irregularity  be- 
comes  almost  inevitable.    Every  collector  of   insects  knows,  that 
scarcely  a  single  season  elapses  in  which  several  insects,  that  are  or- 
dinarily quite  rare,  are  not  met  within  prodigious  abundance;  and 
this  remark  applies,  not  only  to  the  plant-feeding  species,  but  also  to 
the  cannibals  and  the  parasites.    Now,  it  must  be  quite  evident  that 
if,  in  a  particular  season,  the  enemies  of  a  particular  plant-feeder  are 
unusually  abundant  the  plant-feeder  will  be  greatly  diminished  in 
numbers,  and  will  not  be  able  to  expand  to  its  ordinary  proportions 
until  the  check  that  has  hitherto  controlled  it  is  weakened  in  force. 
The  same  rule  will  hold  with  the  enemies  that  prey  upon  the  plant- 
feeders,  and  also  "with  the  ememies  that  prey  upon  those  enemies, 
and    so    on    ad    iniinitxini.     The   real    wonder  is,    not    that  there 
should  be  occasional  irregularities  in  the  numbers  of  particular  spe- 
cies of  insects  from  year  to  year,  but  that  upon  the  whole  the  scheme 
of  creation  should  be  so  admirably  dove-tailed  and  fitted  toget/'ier, 
that  tens  of  thousands  of  distinct  species  of  animals  and  plants  are 
able  permanently  to  hold  their  ground,  year  after  3''ear,  upon  a  tract 
of  land  no  larger  than  an  ordinary  State. 

To  illustrate  the  decrease  in  its  numbers  which  took  place  in  the 
State  of  Iowa  from  1867-8, 1  will  state  that  Mr.  Henry  Tilden,  of  Da- 


110  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

venport,  who  had  previously  made  tomato  and  potato  growing  a  spec- 
ialty, was  forced  to  go  to  raising  small  grains  on  its  account,  in  1S67, 
having  lost  30  acres  of  potatoes  by  its  ravages  in  1866;  while  in  1867 
Mr.  Suel  Foster,  of  Muscatine,  Iowa,  offered  a  large  premium  to  any 
one  who  would  insure  his  crop  of  potatoes.  Now  I  have  received 
numbers  of  letters  which  go  to  show  that  the  damage  done  to  pota- 
toes in  Iowa  in  1868  was  comp  aratively  very  slight,  and  the  following 
article  which  Mr.  Foster  published  in  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  May 
16th,  1868,  sufficiently  demonstrates  that  Mr.  F.  would  have  been  the 
loser,  had  any  insurance  company  seen  fit  to  insure  his  crop  on  his 
own  terms : 

"'  For  three  years  past  I  have  given  the  most  discouraging  accounts 
of  the  ruinous  destruction  of  our  almost  indispensable  potato  crop^ 
I  now  have  a  word  of  encouragement.  Last  year  I  planted  very  spar- 
ingly of  potatoes ;  the  year  before,  by  great  perseverance,  I  succeed- 
ed in  raising  a  few  Early  Goodrich  and  Harrison,  by  continual  pick- 
ing and  killing  the  bugs,  and  last  year  planted  the  product  on  a  new 
piece  of  land  where  no  potatoes  had  been  raised;  but  the  bugs  found 
tliem  as  soon  as  they  were  up;  I  picked  the  bugs  awhile,  then  gave 
them  up  to  their  destruction,  and  the  potatoes  were  nearly  destroyed. 
About  the  first  to  the  tenth  of  June  the  bugs  began  to  diminish.  AVe 
found  the  little  red  and  black  spotted  lady  bug  quite  numerous  and 
active,  eating  the  eggs  of  the  potato  bug.  I  didn't  believe  those  little 
lady  bugs  could  possibly  destroy  enough  of  the  eggs  of  the  potato 
bugs  to  materially  check  their  increase;  but  there  were  but  very  few 
of  the  second  brood  that  hatched  in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  our 
late  and  strong  growing  potatoes  were  a  full  crop. 

"What  became  of  the  bugs  that  were  so  numerous  in  May  and  the 
first  of  June  ?  The  lady  bug,  with  a  little  assistance  from  a  few  other 
insects,  destroyed  their  eggs.  Last  May  the  weather  was  very  wot 
and  cold,  yet  the  bugs  increased,  and  although  more  stiff  and  clumsy 
than  in  dry,  warm  weather,  they  were  hearty  at  their  food.  Had 
June  been  cold  and  wet,  I  should  have  thought  their  disappearance 
was  caused  by  that;  but  June  was  a  very  favorable  time  for  their  in- 
crease and  spread  on  the  wing  by  night.  The  Colorado  potato  bugs 
nearly  all  disappeared  here  in  June,  and  not  a  bug  have  we  seen  in 
plowing  and  digging  in  the  ground  this  spring,  while  in  former  sea- 
sons we  used  to  fird  them  plentifully.  I  believe  some  will  make  their 
appearance  this  year,  but  I  fully  believe  that  the  same  cause  which 
destroyed  them  so  early  last  year— the  lady  bug  and  others,  some  of 
wiich  preyed  upon  the  young  potato  bugs— will  prevent  their  increase 
this  year.  If  the  above  are  not  the  facts  in  this  case,  can  any  one  tell 
us  facts  and  theories  that  are  more  reliable  ?  It  is  true,  I  am  not  as 
positive  about  this  as  if  I  had  met  a  regiment  of  rebels,  and  had 
counted  the  dead  and  prisoners,  to  tell  what  had  become  of  them. 
But  we,  in  this  region,  do  not  expect  the  bug  this  year,  and  are  plant- 
ing potatoes  with  very  little  hesitation.     Your  readers  may  reJy  upon 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  Ill 

this  as  the  fate  of  the  potato  bug  for  the  present,  and  1  will  write  you 
again  in  a  month,  or  as  soon  as  I  get  additional  news  from  him, 

"•  The  Illinois  correspondent  of  the  Country  Oentleman^  writing 
from  Champaign  countj^,  says: 

"Those  plowing  old  potato  ground  where  these  creatures  operated 
extensively  last  year,  find  the  ground  full  of  the  dormant  wretches. 
We,  at  Muscatine,  Iowa,  will  lend  them  our  Benson's  Horse  Tower 
Potato  Bug  Killer,  but  we  can't  spare  our  lady  bugs." 

The  following  enemies  of  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle,  are  among 
the  most  prominent  which  have  been  instrumental  in  checking  its 
ravages  during  the  past  summer. 

THE  COLORADO  POTATO-BEETLE  PARASITE— LyrfeZ/a  dorj-ijAo^cp,  N.  Sp. 
(Diptera  Tachinidae.) 

This  fly  (Fig.  48)  has  probably  been  more  efficient  in  checking  it 

than  any  one  other  insect,  at  least  in  our 
own  State.  Until  last  year  no  parasitic  in- 
sect whatever  was  known  to  prey  inter- 
nally upon  it,  but  this  fly  destroyed  fully 
ten  per  cent,  of  the  second  brood  and  fifty 
per  cent,  of  the  third  brood  of  potato- 
beetles  that  were  in  my  garden.  It  bears 
averj'-close  resemblance,  both  in  color 
and  size,  to  the  common  house  fly,  but  is 
readily  distinguished  from  the  latter  by 
its  extremely  brilliaut  silver-white  face. 
It  may  be  seen  throughout  the  summer  months  flying  swiftly  from 
place  to  place,  and  deftly  alighting  on  fence  or  w^all,  where,  basking 
in  the  sun,  its  silvery  face  shows  to  good  advantage.  As  \vith  the  rest 
of  the  family  to  w^hieh  it  belongs,  the  habit  of  the  female  is  to  attach 
a  single  egg  externally  to  the  body  of  the  Potato-beetle  larva.  This 
egg  subsequently  hatches  into  a  little  footless  maggot,  which  burrows 
into  the  body  of  its  living  victim,  and  eventually  destroys  it,  but  not 
until  it  has  gone  underground  in  the  usual  manner.  The  victimized 
larva  instead  of  becoming  a  pupa,  and  eventually  a  beetle,  as  it  would 
have  done  had  it  not  been  attacked,  begins  to  shrink  as  soon  as  it  en- 
ters the  ground,  and  gradually  dies;  while  inside  its  shriveled  skin 
the  parasitic  maggot  contracts  into  a  hard  brown  pupn,  and  in  due 
time  issues  forth  in  the  shape  of  the  fly  which  I  have  figured.  I  am^ 
indebted  to  Mr.  Wm.  LeBaron,  of  Geneva,  Illinois,  for  the  generic  de- 
termination of  this  fly.  It  belongs  to  the  genuis  (or  sub-genus  Lydella 
Macquart,  and  is  very  closely  allied  to  lacMna  proper,  with  which  it 
could  properly  be  united,  did  not  the  great  number  of  species  require 
a  division  as  a  matter  of  necessity.  I  subjoin  a  more  detailed  des- 
cription of  the  fly : 

LvDKLLA  BORYPHOR/E,  New  Species.— Length  0.25.  Alar  expanse  0.4S.  Antenna;  black. 
Palpi  fulvous.  Face  silvery  white.  Front  siivery,  tinted  with  pale  golden-brown,  with  a  broad 
middle  stripe  black.     Thorax  cinereous  with  imperfect  black  stripes.     Abdomen  black  and  silvery- 


112 


FIRST  ANSUAL   EEPORT  OP 


ash,  changing  into  each  other  when  viewed  from  different  angles.  "When  viewed  from  ahove  :  first 
segment  deep  black  with  a  posterior  border  of  silver-ash  very  narrow  in  the  middle,  much  widened 
laterally,  but  abreviated  at  the  sides  of  the  abdomen.  The  other  segments  with  the  basal  half  sil- 
very-ash, terminal  half  black.  Legs  black.  Fourth  longitudinal  vein  of  the  wings  straight  after 
the  angle.  Posterior  transverse  vein  arcuate. 
Described  from  numerous  bred  specimens. 

Ladybirds.— In   the  egg  state  the  Colorado  Potato-  beetle  is  preyed 

upon  by  no  less  than  four  distinct  species  of  Ladybirds.    Foremost 

[Fig.  49.]      [Fig.  50.]      [Fig.  51.]    among  them    is  the    Spotted  ladybird 

{Il'q^podamia maculata^DeGeer)  which 
,  jH,jg||,i^  is  one  of  our  most  common  species  and 
1  (i*ra'}  is  of  a  pink  color,  marked  with  large 
black  spots  as  in  Figure  49.  Next  conies 
the  Kine-spotted  ladybird  ( Coccinella  9-notaia,  Rerhst)  which  is  of 
a  brick-red  color  and  marked  with  9  small  black  spots  as  in  Figure 
60.  Next,  the  Thirteen-spotted  ladybird  (JIippoda7nia  Vi-jnniciata, 
Linn.)  which  is  also  of  a  brick-red  color  but  marked  with  13  black 
spots  as  in  Figure  5L  And  last  but  not  least,  the  little  species  fig- 
ured at  52,  «,  which  may  be  known  as  the  Convergent  ladybird  (/Z/^- 
[Fig.  52.]  podamia    convergens^    Guer.)  and   which    is    of  an 

orange-red  color  marked  with  black  and  white  as  in 
the  figure.    This  last  species  alone  has  been  of  im- 
mense benefit  in  checking  the  ravages  of  the  Pota- 
to-beetle.   Its  larva  is  represented  of  the  natural 
c     size  at  Figure  52,  a  its  colors  being  blue,  orange  and 
black  ;  when  full  grown  it  hangs  by  the  tail  to  the  underside  of  a  stalk 
or  leaf  and  transforms  into  the  pupa  represented  at  Figure  £2,  h.    In 
this  state  it  is  of  the  exact  color  of  the  Colorado  beetle  larva  and  is 
doubtless  quite  often  mistaken  for  that  larva  and  ruthlessly  destroyed. 
It  may  readily   be   distinguished  however  by  its  quiescence,  and  let 
every  potato  grower  learn  vrell  to  recognize  it  and  spare  its  life  !    The 
larvae  of  all  these  ladybirds  are  more  bloodthirsty  in  their  habits 
than  the  perfect  beetles,  and  the  larva  of  the  little  Convergent  lady- 
bird is  so  essentially  a  cannibal  that  whenever  other  food  fails,  it  will 
turn  to  and  devour  the  helpless  pupas  of  its  own  kind.    It  is  a  rather 
cruel  and  withal  a  somewhat  cowardly  act  to  thus  take  advantage  of 
a  helpless  brother ;  but  in  consideration  of  its  good  services,  we  must 
overlook  these  unpleasant  traits  in  our  little  hero's  character!    All 
these  larvre  bear  a  strong  general  resemblance,  and  with  the  aid  of 
Figure  52  a  and  the  annexed  Figure  53,  a  good  idea  may  be  obtained 
[Fig.  63.]    of  them.    They  run  with  considerable  speed,  and  may  be 
found  in  great  numbers  upon  almost  all  kinds  of  herbage. 
The  larvae  of  certain  species  that  prey  upon  the  Hop  Plant- 
louse  in  the  East  are  well  known  to  the  hop-pickers  as 
"  black  niggers"  or  "  serpents,"  and  are  carefully  preserved 
by  them  as  some  of  their  most  efficient  friends. 

The  eggs  of   ladybirds  greatly  resemble  those  of  the 
Colorado  Potato-beetle,  and  are  scarcely  distinguishable   except  by 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


113 


their  smaller  size  and  by  a  much  smaller  number  being  usually  col- 
lected together  in  a  single  group.  As  these  eggs  are  often  laid  in  the 
same  situation  as  those  of  the  potato-feeding  insect,  care  must  be  ta- 
ken by  persons  who  undertake  to  destroy  the  latter,  not  to  confound 
those  of  their  best  friends  with  those  of  their  bitterest  enemies. 

The  Spjnkd  Soldier-bug. — In  the  larva  state  the  Colorado  Potato- 
beetle  is  extensively  depredated  on,  both  in  Illinois,  Missouri  and 
Iowa,  by  the  Spined  Soldier-bug  i^^s-  55.] 
(A)  7)) a spi)iosa,  jyaWas),  which  is  of 
an  ochre-yellow  color  and  is  repre- 
sented with  one  pair  of  Avings 
closed  and  tlje  other  pair  extend- 
ed, in  the  annexed  Figure  54. — 
^Thrusting  forwards  his  long  and 
stout  l,)eak,  he  sticks  it  into  his  victim,  and  in  a  short  time  pumps  out 
all  the  juices  of  its  body  and  throws  away  the  empty  skin.  He  be- 
longs to  a  rather  extensive  group  (^Scutellera  family)  of  the  true  bugs 
{Ilcteropterd)^  distinguishable  from  all  others  by  the  very  large  scutel, 
which  in  this  genus  is  triangular,  and  covers  nearlj'-  half  his  back. 
Most  of  the  genera  belonging  to  this  group  are  plant-feeders,  but 
there  is  a  sub-group  {Spissirosires)  to  which  our  cannibal  iriend  be- 
longs, characterized  by  the  robustness  of  their  beaks,  and  all  of  these, 
seem  to  be  cannibals.  To  illustrate  to  the  eye  the  dilference  between 
the  beaks  of  the  cannibal  sub-group  and  the  plant  feeding  sub-groups 
of  this  family,  Figure  54  a  gives  a  magnified  view  of  the  beak  of  our 
insect  seen  from  below,  and  Figure  54  c  a  similarly  magnified  view  of 
that  of  a  plant-feeder  belonging  to  the  same  family  {Euschistus 
pu7iciipes,Siij),  which  is  so  nearly  of  the  same  size,  shape  and  color 
as  our  cannibal  friend,  that  at  first  sight  many  persons  would  mistake 
one  for  the  other.  The  Spined  Soldier-bug,  however,  may  be  at  once 
distinguished  from  all  allied  bugs,  whether  plant  feeders  or  cannibals 
by  the  opaque  brown  streak  at  the  transparent  and  glassy  tip  of  its 
wing  cases. 

It  has  sometimes  been  reported  that  the  common  Squash-bug 
{Coreus  tristis,  DeGeer)  preyed  upon  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle ;  but 
there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the  Spined  Soidier-bug  has  in  these 
instances  been  mistaken  for  it.  The  colors  of  the  two  are  somewhat 
similar  but  in  the  eyes  of  an  entomologist  the  Squash-bug  looks  as 
different  from  the  Spined  Soldier  bug  as  a  cow  does  from  a  horse ! 
The  figure  (55,  a)  of  the  former  which  is  given  above,  opposite  to 
that  of  the  latter,  will  enable  any  one  to  recognize  the  difference 
while  its  magnified  beak  (Fig.  55,  I  )  indicates  by  its  sienderness  that 
it  is  a  plant-feeder. 

The  Spined  Soldier-bug  by  no  means  confines  himself  to  Potato- 
beetle  larvfB,  but  attacks  a  great  number  oi  other  insects. 
8  R  s  E 


114 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OP 


[Fig.  56.]  ^  The  Bordered  Soldier-bug. — This  is  another  insect 

which  attacks  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle.  It  belongs 
to  the  same  sub-group,  and  has  the  same  kind  of  short 
robust  beak  as  the  preceding,  but  unlike  that  species,  it 

ItJiS^m'UK  J^^  ^^  conspicuously  and  prettily  marked  that  it  cannot 
y^SM)  easily  be  confounded  with  any  other.  Its  colors  are  dark 
f^^^'^   olive-green  and  cream-color,  marked  as  in  Figure  56. 
It  is  not  so  common  as  the  preceding  species. 

The  Many-banded  Kobber.— Another  true  bug,  still  more  elegantly 
marked  than  the  preceding,  (Barpactor  cinctus,  Fabr.,)  was  observed 
[Fig.  57.]  by  D;\  Shimer,  of  Mt.  Carroll,  Illinois,  to  attack 

the  Colorado  larvfe,  and  I  found  it  attacking 
the  same  larva  in  our  own  State  the  present 
year.  Like  the  Spined  Soldier-bug,  this  species 
lis  common,  and  inhabits  trees  more  commonly 
jthan  herbaceous  plants.  But  it  belongs  to  an 
entirely  different  group  of  the  true  Bugs  {Eedu- 
vlns  family),  all  of  which,  without  exception, 
6  are  cannibals,  and  are  characterized  by  a  short, 
robust,  curved  beak  (Fig.  57,  5,  profile  view,  magnified).  Figure  57, 
«,  gives  a  magnified  view  of  this  bug,  the  colors  being  yellow,  white 
and  black,  and  it  may  be  known  by  the  name  of  the  Many-banded 
Robber. 

The  Rapacious  Soldier-bug.— Still  another  bug  belonging  to  the 
very  same  group  as  the  preceding  [Rediivius  raptatorius^  Say),  I 


[Fig.  58]. 


have  found  sucking  out  the  juices  of  the  Colorado  lar- 
va, and  specimens  were  sent  to  me  by  S.  H.  Kriedel- 
baugh,  of  Clarinda,  Iowa,  who  found  it  with  the  same 
commendable  habit  in  that  State.  This  bug  is  repre- 
sented at  Figure  58.  It  is  of  a  light  brown  color,  and 
maybe  known  by  the  name  of  the  Rapacious  Soldier- 
bug. 

The  above  four  insects  are  all  of  them  true  bugs,  and  attack  the 
larvEe  of  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle  with  the  only  offensive  weapon 
that  they  have— their  beak.  The  four  following  (Figs.  59  to  62)  are  all 
beetles,  and  are  consequently  provided  with  jaws,  so  that  they  are  able 
to  eat  up  their  victims  bodily  ;  and  all  of  them,  except  the  first,  which  is 
confined  to  southerly  latitudes,  are  common  throughout  the  Western 
States.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  them  prey  indifferently  upon  the  Colorado 
larva  and  the  perfect  insect  produced  from  it. 


l^HE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


115 


ti^'ig.  590  The  VlR<5!l^'IAN  Tigku-ueetle. — 

This  beetle  {2'etracha   Vlrginica-> 
Hope)  is  of  a  dark  metallic  green 


[T?ig.60.] 


\ 

is  oi   a  black 
has  also  been 

[P  ig  62.] 


color,  with  brown  legs,  and  the  an- 
nexed cut  (Fig.  59)  will  enable  its 
■  recognition  without  much  difficulty. 
The  Fiery  Grou^^d- beetle. — 
This  beetle  {Calosoma  calidum^ 
Fabr,)  has  already  been  treated  of 
on  page  SO  where  its  larva  is  ill  us. 
trated  and  termed  the  *'Cut-worm  lion."  The  beetle 
'Color,  with  coppery  dots,  as  shown  in  Figure  60,  and 
found  to  prey  on  the  Colorado  larva. 

[Fig;-  €!•]  The  Elongate  Q  Re UND-BEETLs. — 

This  pretty  and  conspicuous  insect 
{Pasii'uac^us  elovgatus^  Leo.)  is  an^ 
other  enemy  of  the  Colorado  Pota- 
to-beetle, It  is  of  a  polished  black 
color  edged  with  deep  blue,  and  is 
■of  a  rather  elegant  form,  being  re- 
presented at  Figure  61. 

The  Murky  Ground  beetle. — 
Finally  this  beetle  {Ilarpalus  cali- 
'ginosns^  Say)  which  is  of  a  dull  black  color,  and  which  is  represented 
life-sise  at  Figure  62,  has  the  same  commendable  habit  as  the  other 
three.  There  are  ten  or  twelve  other  beetles  mostly  of  small  size, 
which  have  the  same  habits  as  the  above;  but  they  would  not  be 
veadily  identified  from  an  uncolored  drawing. 

Blisier,  BEETLES.--Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Striped  Blister- 
toeetle  (Fig.  39,  p.  97),  and  the  Ash  gray  Blister-beetle  (Fig.  40,  a,  p.  OS), 
Which  have  already  been  described  as  very  injurious  to  the  potato, 
seem  to  have  the  redeeming  trait  of  also  preying  occasionally  on  the 
larva  of  the  Colorado  Potato- beetle.  It  was  at  first  difficult  to  believe 
or  reconcile  the  statements  to  this  effect  which  were  reported  during 
the  summer,  but  there  have  been  so  many  of  them  that  the  fact  may 
now  be  considered  as  indisputable,  and  these  two  Blister  beetles  may 
therefore,  with  propriety,  be  placed  in  the  list  of  the  enemies  of  the 
Colorado  beetle.  I  by  no  means  advise  their  protection,  however,  on 
this  account;  tori  believe  that  what  little  good  they  accomplish  is 
inuch  more  than  outweighed  by  the  injury  they  do  us.  As  authorities 
for  these  statements  may  be  quoted,  among  many  others,  Abel  Proc- 
tor, of  Jo  Daviess  county,  111.,  and  T.  D.  Plumb,  of  Madison,  Wis. 

"When  dog-  €&ts  dog-,  then  comes  the  tag  of  war;" 

when  rogues  fall  out,  honest  men  come  by  their  own.  And  now  that 
certain  potato-beetles  have  taken  to  feeding  upon  other  potato-beetles, 
the  American  farmer  may  justly  lift  up  his  voice  and  shout  for  joy. 

Neitherducks,  geese,  turkeys  nor  barndoor  fowls  will  touch  the 
iarva  of  the  Colorado-beetle  when  it  is  offered  to  them ;  and  there  are 


116 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 


mimerons  jinthentic  cases  on  record,  where  persons  who  have  scalded 
to  death  quantities  oi  these  larvae,  and  inhaled  the  fumes  from  their 
bodies  have  been  taken  seriously  ill,  and  even  been  confined  to  their 
beds  for  many  days  in  consequence. 

Artificial  Eemedies.— It  only  remains  to  say  something  on  the 
most  approved  method  of  fighting  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle.  A 
great  deal  may  be  effected  by  raising  your  potatoes  at  a  point  as  re- 
mote as  possible  from  any  ground  where  potatoes  were  raised  in  the 
preceding  year.  A  great  deal  may  also  be  accomplished,  where  there 
are  no  other  potato  patches  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  by  killing 
every  beetle  found  upon  the  vines  in  the  spring,  as  fast  as  they  emerge 
from  the  ground.  By  this  means  the  evil  is  nipped  in  the  bud,  and  a 
pretty  effectual  stop  is  put  to  the  further  propagation  of  the  insect 
But  if  there  are  potato  patches  near  by,  where  no  attention  is  paid  to 
destroying  the  beetles,  they  will  keep  perpetually  flying  in  upon  you 
in  spite  of  all  you  can  do. 

I  have  already  stated  that  this  insect  cannot  be  driven  as  can  the- 
blister  beetles,  and  we  have  to  rely  on  other  measures.  I  might  oc- 
cupy page  after  page  in  detailing  the  experiments  that  have  been 
tried  by  myself  and  by  others.  But  of  all  the  mixtures  recommended 
I  can  seriously  recommend  none.  They  are  impracticable  on  a  large 
scale,  and  require  too  frequent  repetition  to  be  efficient,  as  the  beetles 
issueVrom  the  ground  day  after  day.  White  hellebore,  paris  green, 
slaked  lime,  etc.,  etc.,  I  have  proved  by  experiment  to  be  valueless, 
though  the  two  first  will  kill,  if  thoroughly  applied,  a  certain  propor- 
tion of  the  larvfB,  but  will  not  affect  the  beetles  ;  and  even  cresylic 
acid  soap,  which  is  the  best  wash  of  the  kind,  does  not  kill  them  alL 
Hot  water  affects  the  pests  as  fatally  as  any  of  these  applications, 
and  when  I  state  that  I  have  known  the  beetles  to  bore  through  three 
inches  of  hard  unleached  ashes,  the  folly  of  their  application  to  the 
Tines  becomes  at  once  apparent. 

I,  therefore,  again  impress  upon  ray  readers  the  importance  of  pre- 
[Fig.  63.]  vention  by  killing  every  beetle  which   first 

appears  in  the  spring.  There  is  no  better 
way  of  doing  this  than  by  crushing  them  on 
the  spot,  and  for  this  purpose  a  very  simple 
pair  of  pincers  may  be  constructed.  At 
Figure  63  I  represent  a  pair  that  were  used 
last  summer  by  S.  H.  Ford,  of  Rolling  Prairie, 
Wisconsin,  and  which  were  kindly  sent  to 
me  by  L.  L.  Fairchild  of  the  same  place. 
Their  construction  is  so  simple  that  it  needs 
no  explanation,  two  pieces  of  wood,  a  screw, 
and  two  small  strips  of  leather  being  the  only 
things  needed. 

In  parts  of  Iowa,  the  ravages  of  this  in- 
sect were  so  serious  in  1866,  that  a  horse- 
machine  was  invented  for  their  destruction 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  117 

by  Mr.  Benson,  of  Muscatine  in  that  State.  As  this  machine,  or  soma 
improvement  on  it,  may  prove  advantageous  where  potato-growing  is 
cariied  on  extensively,  I  subjoin  an  account  of  it. 

"The  cost  of  the  machine  was  about  thirty  dollars.  It  consists  of 
a  irame-work,  which  moves  astride  the  row  of  potatoes,  on  v/hich  is 
mounted  longitudinally  a  reel  somewhat  like  the  one  on  McCormicks' 
old  Reaper,  which  knocks  the  bugs  otf  the  plants  into  a  box  on  one 
side.  This  box  is  of  course  open  on  the  side  next  the  row  nearly  down 
to  the  ground,  but  is  some  two  feet  high  on  the  outside  and  at  the 
ends.  The  reel  works  over  the  inner  edge  of  the  box,  and  the  bugs 
are  whipped  oif  the  vines  pretty  clean;  and  the  most  of  them  are 
thrown  against  the  higher  side  of  the  box,  which  converges  like  a 
hopper  over  two  four-inch  longitudinal  rollers  at  the  bottom,  between 
which  the  bugs  are  passed  and  crushed.  These  rollers  are  some  three 
or  four  feet  long. 

"Those  insects  which  are  perched  low  down  on  the  plants  are  fre- 
quently knocked  on  to  the  ground;  but  I  think  they  would  soon 
crawl  up  again;  and  repeating  the  operation  at  intervals  would  very 
greatly  reduce  their  numbers,  and  lessen  very  much  the  labor  of  hand- 
picking,  which  I  think  would  be  advisable  in  conjunction  with  the  use 
of  the  machine,  in  order  to  destroy  the  eggs  and  diminish  the  young 
brood,  which  is  most  destructive  to  the  foliage  of  the  plant." 

Much  may  be  done  by  a  proper  choice  of  varieties,  the  Peach- 
blow  having  the  same  immunity  from  the  attacks  of  this  Colorado 
Potato-beetle,  as  from  those  of  the  Blister-beetles.  I  have  known 
several  instances  where  Neshannocks,  raised  side  by  side  with  Peach- 
blows^  have  been  entirely  destroyed,  while  the  latter  were  untouched; 
and  I  therefore  strongly  recommend  the  planting  of  Peach-blows  in 
those  section.s  that  liave  been  visited  by  the  beetle. 

In  conclusion  let  me  give  another  word  of  caution.  Our  friends 
of  the  Eastern  States  wiU,  doubtless,  in  the  course  of  events,  become 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  this  beetle.  As  already  stated,  it  is  now 
in  Ohio,  and  will  continue  from  year  to  year  to  spread  eastward.  Lefc 
us,  of  the  West  then,  not  hasten  its  introduction  by  our  carelessness. 
Farmers  are  in  the  habit  of  sending  insects  through  the  mail  to  the 
■editors  of  Eastern  papers  for  identification.  Wherever  insects  are  thus 
sent,  they  should  be  thoroughly  secured  so  as  to  prevent  any  possible 
escape.  Specimens  of  this  beetle  were  last  year  sent  to  the  office  of 
the  Amerieaii  AgricuUurist^in  New  York, packed  in  a  very  insecure 
manner.  Had  but  a  single  impregnated  female  contrived  to  escape 
from  the  package,  it  might  have  been  the  means  of  prematurely  intro- 
ducing this  mischjevous  pest  into  that  State.  A  word  to  the  wiseia 
£52J91cieiit. 


118 


yiRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


THE  APPLE-EOOT  ^LANT-LOVSE—Friosoina  {pempTiigusl  p-^i^ 

Fitch. 

(HoBaoptera,  Aphidje.) 
[Fig.  64.] 


■^^ij^    « 


The  roots  of  the  apple  tree  are  yery  often  found  to  rot,  and  this® 
cause  the  death  of  the  tree.  Of  these  rots  there  appear  to  be  three 
distinct  kinds.  One  kind  is  that  popularly  known  as  ''rotten  root"  in 
Southern  Illinois,  and  seems  to  he  a  simple  decomposition  of  the 
vegetable  tissue,  analagous  to  the  rotting  of  the  root  of  a  cabbage 
for  instance.  Its  cause  is  not  clearly  understood,  though  it  seems  to- 
be  a  consequence  of  certain  conditions  of  the  soiL  The  other  rot  was 
discovered  the  past  summer  by  Dr.  Hull,  of  Alton,  Illinois,  and  is  a 
fungoid  grov/th,  which,  after  covering  the  root  v;ith  a  thin  layer  of 
white  fibrous  substance,  causes  a  sort  of  dry  rot  of  the  root,  and  which 
is  common  to  both  the  pear  and  the  apple.  Some  of  the  symptoms  of 
this  rot  are  ;  a  ratlier  earlier  development  or  maturity  of  the  branches  ; 
an  excess  of  fruit  buds,  and  a  shortening  or  thickening  of  some  twigs^ 
Specimens  of  the  affected  roots  were  brought  to  Dr.  T.  II.  Hilgard,  of 
St.  Louis,  for  experiment,  but  all  that  he  was  able  to  ascertain  was,, 
that  it  enters  the  healthy  wood  in  the  shape  of  a  brown  stringy  rot 
through  the  canals  made  by  missing  fibres. 

In  a  paper  read  by  Dr.  Hull,  before  the  Illinois  State  Horticultu- 
ral Society,  at  its  13th  annual  meeting,  a  communication  was  quotedi 
from  Judge  A.  M.  Brown,  of  Villa  Ridge,  in  which  the  latter  gave  it 
as  his  firm  belief  that  rotten  ajpple  tree  roots  were  never  caused  by 
root-lice,  but  by  this  particular  fungus.  With  due  deference  to  Judge 
Brown^s  opinion,  I  have  to  differ  with  him  most  emphatically,  fori  am 
convinced  that  this  Eoot  louse  does  eavse  tAe  roots  to  rot.  I  exam- 
ined on  the  15th  of  May  last,  hundreds  of  young  apple  trees  on  the 
nursery  of  Mr.  J.  M.  Jordan,  of  St.  Louis.  Mr.  J.  had  been  greatly 
troubled  with  root-lice  on  his  young  apple  stock  during  the  year  18 iT, 
and  had  A\^^  up  and  thrown  thousands  of' young  trees  into  a  heap,  by 
"which  means  ho  expected  to  kill  the  lice  and  prevent  their  spreading 
onto  new  stock.  He  covered  this  heap  with  earth  a  foot  deep,  and 
had  the  gratification  of  finding  that  nearly  all  the  lice  had  died  bj 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  119 

the  next  spring.  Many  rows  of  trees — mostly  one  year  grafted — had 
been  left  in  the  ground,  however,  and  on  examining  these,  I  found 
that  wherever  the  previous  year  the  lice  had  been  numerous  enough 
to  cover  and  deform  the  whole  root,  there  that  root  had  invariably 
rotted.  In  many  instances  all  trace  of  the  knots  and  deformities 
which  the  lice  cause,  had  disappeared,  while,  in  some  few  instances 
they  were  yet  traceable.  In  every  case  where  rot  had  ensued  the 
lice  had  entirely  left,  so  that  not  a  trace  of  them  could  be  found. 
From  these,  and  subsequent  observations  made  during  the  summer,  I 
conclude  that  the  rot  does  not  ensue  till  the  roots  have  been  com- 
pletely deformed  by  the  lice,  and  while  on  a  young  tree  a  colony  of 
lice  will  multiply  sufficiently  to  entirely  cover  it  in  a  single  season, 
and  thus  cause  it  to  rot  the  next  year;  on  larger  trees  they  may  be  at 
work  for  years  before  this  result  is  accomplished.  This  rot  from  root- 
lice  may,  I  think,  be  distinguished  from  both  the  other  kinds  by  its 
being  more  porous  and  soft,  approximating  the  brown  mould  of  a  rot- 
ting log.  The  unusual  swellings  and  knots  caused  by  the  lice,  though 
hard  originally,  seem  to  loose  their  substance,  and  very  frequently 
the  finer  roots,  and  almost  always  the  fibrous  roots  waste  entirely 
away. 

The  diagnosis  of  either  of  the  first  two  kinds  of  rot  must  remain 
hidden,  until  our  knowledge  of  these  impalpable  funguses  shall  have 
become  more  thorough,  and  until  then  no  remedy  can  be  suggested; 
but  with  the  last  kind,  having  traced  it  to  its  true  cause,  the  means  of 
prevention  are  at  hand,  and  I  will  now  give  the  history  and  descrip- 
tion of  the  Apple-root  Plant-louse  for  the  most  part  as  it  appeared  in 
the  American  Entomologist  for  January,  1869: 

For  the  last  twenty  years  a  Wooly  Plant-louse  has  been  known 
to  infest  the  roots  of  the  apple-tree,  causing  thereon  swellings  and 
deformations  of  almost  every  possible  shape,  and,  when  very  numer- 
ous, killing  the  tree.  In  the  more  northerly  parts  of  the  Northern 
States  this  insect  is  comparatively  rare,  but  in  southerly  latitudes  it  is 
exceedingly  destructive  in  apple  orchards.  According  to  Dr.  Hull,  "it 
is  one  of  the  worst  enemies  against  which  our  apple-trees  have  to 
contend,  and  is  much  more  common  in  our  region  than  is  generally 
supposed."  (Affr.  Rep^  Mo.^  Append.,  p.  451.)  As  long  ago  as  .1848, 
Mr.  Fulton,  of  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  found  this  root-louse  and 
the  knotty  swellings  produced  by  it  to  be  so  abundant  on  nursery- 
trees  in  his  neighborhood,  that  thousands  of  young  trees  had  to  be 
thrown  away,  and  it  became  difficult  to  supply  ihe  market.)  Down- 
ing's  Horticulturist,  III,  p.  394.)  And  in  August,  1858,  M.  L.  Dunlap 
{Rural)  stated  in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  that  in  an  orchard  near  Alton 
"the  Wooly  Aphis  infests  the  roots  in  immense  numbers,  and  by  suck- 
ing up  the  sap  destroys  the  trees,  which  in  its  elTect  has  much  the  ap- 
pearance of  dry  rot." 

Although  this  insect  usually  confines  itself  to  the  roots  of  the  tree, 
yet  a  few  may  occasionally  be  found  on  the  suckers  that  spring  up 


120  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

round  the  butt  of  the  trunk,  and  even  on  the  trunk  and  limbs,  espe- 
cially in  places  where  a  branch  has  been  formerly  amputated,  and 
nature  is  closing  up  the  old  wound  by  a  circle  of  new  bark.  AVhere  it 
works  upon  the  naked  trunk,  it  often  causes  a  mass  of  little  granula- 
tions to  sprout  out,  about  the  size  of  cabbage-seeds,  thus  producing 
on  a  small  scale,  the  same  effects  that  it  does  upon  the  roots.  Wher- 
ever the  insect  works,  small  as  it  is,  it  may  be  easily  recognized  by 
the  peculiar  bluish-white  cottony  matter  which  it  secretes  from  its 
bod}'-,  and  which  is  never  met  with  in  the  case  of  the  common  Apple- 
tree  Plant-louse  that  inhabits  the  leaves  and  the  tips  of  the  twigs. 

Figure  64  at  the  head  of  this  article,  fully  illustrates  the  Apple- 
root  Plant-louse.  A  portion  of  a  knotty  root  as  it  appears  after  the 
punctures  of  the  lice  is  represented  at  a,  the  larva  state  at  h,  and  the 
winged  state  at  c;  while  c?  represents  the  leg,  e  the  proboscis,  /"the 
antenna  of  the  winged  individual,  and^  that  of  the  larva,  all  highly 
magnified.  The  young  louse  is  of  a  deep  flesh  or  pink  color,  and  the 
proboscis  extends  the  whole  length  of  the  body,  while  the  older  spe- 
cimens have  a  deeper,  purplish  hue.  Of  the  winged  louse,  I  subjoin 
a  more  complete  description. 

Eriosoma  pyri,  Fitch — Color  black.  Antennae  2-5ths  as  long  as  the  body,  joints  1  and  2  al- 
most confluent,  short  and  robust;  joint  3  fully  J  the  entire  length  of  the  antenna;;  joints  4 — 6  sub- 
equal,  5  a  little  the  longest,  6  a  little  the  shortest.  Meso-thorax  polished.  Abdomen  opaque  with 
more  or  less  pruinescence.  Legs  opaque  black,  immaculate.  AVings  hyaline  ;  costal  and  subcostal 
veins  robust  and  black;  stigma  pale  brown,  2|  to  3  times  as  long  as  wide,  pointed  at  both  ends,  but 
more  acutely  sc  on  the  basal  end,  the  vein  bounding  it  behind  robust  and  black.  Discoidal  veins 
and  stigmal  vein  slender  and  black,  the  3d  or  forked  discoidal  hyaline  and  subobsolete  on  its  basal  J. 
Length  to  tip  of  closed  wings  0.13 — 0.14  inch. 

On  comparing  Figure  64  c  with  Figure  65,  which  represents  a 
[^'s-  G5.]  Plant-louse  that  inhabits  a  large  gall 

on  the  CottonwoodT^t  will  be  observed 
at  once  that  the  veining  of  the  front 
wing  is  very  dilferent.  In  Figure  64,  c, 
the  third  branch-vein  is  very  distinctly 
forked ;  in  Figure  65  it  is  simple.  Nor 
is  this  a  mere  accidental  variation,  but  a  peculiarity  of  the  genus  to 
which  either  insect  belongs.  (Fig.  64,  <?,  genus  Eriosoma ;  Fig.  65, 
genus  Pemphigus).  Now  Dr.  Fitf h  describes  and  names  the  Apple- 
root  Plant-louse  as  belonging  to  the  latter  genus  {Pempliigiis)'^  where- 
as winged  specimens  which  both  Mr.  Walsh  and  myself  obtained  last 
October,  at  Duquoin,  from  apple  roots  and  suckers  swarming  with 
larvie  ;  some  which  I  received  from  St.  Louis  county,  and  others  which 
Mr.  Walsh  bred  from  larvae  ;  all,  without  exception,  ^belong  to  the 
former  genus  {Eriosoma).  And  moreover.  Dr.  Fitch's  insect  is  de- 
scribed as  being  nearly  twice  as  large  as  ours.  How  does  this  come 
about?  We  can  only  account  for  it  in  the  following  way:  Dr.  Fitch's 
winged  specimens  were  but  two  in  number,  and  they  were  found  by 
him,  the  one  living,  the  other  dead,  upon  the  roots  of  an  infested 
young  apple-tree,  which  had  been  brought  him  from  an  adjoining 
county.    Hence  he  very  naturally,  but  as  we  think  erroneouslj^,  infer- 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


121 


red  that  these  two  winged  plant-lice  belonged  to  the  same  species  as 
the  minute  wingless  larvte  with  which  the  infested  roots  were 
swarming.  The  truth  of  the  matter  probably  was,  that  the  two  wing- 
ed plant-lice  got  upon  the  infested  apple-root  by  accident,  on  their 
road  from  the  nursery  to  Dr.  Pitch's  orchard.  Indeed  we  can  almost 
say  with  certainty  to  what  species  they  belonged  ;  for  on  comparing 
Dr.  Fitch's  very  minute  and  elaborate  description  with  the  Beech-, 
twig  riant-louse  {Pemphigus  imh'lGatoi\  Fitch),  which  comes  out  in 
the  winged  state  in  the  very  same  time  of  the  year  as  he  met  with  his 
two  specimens,  it  agrees  sufficiently  well  to  apply  to  that  species.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  compare  his  description  with  our  specimens,  it 
not  only  disagrees  generically,  as  already  explained,  but  neither  the 
size  nor  the  markings  will  correspond  at  all. 

We  consider  it,  therefore,  to  be  sufficiently  certain  that  the  Apple- 
root  Plant-louse  does  not  belong  to  the  genus  {Pemj^higus),  to  which 
all  subsequent  authors,  in  deference  to  Dr.  Fitch's  authority,  have 
hitherto  referred  it,  but  to  the  very  distinct  genus  {Eriosoma)  to 
whicli  the  notorious  Wooly  Plant-louse  of  Europe  belongs  {Eriosoma 
lanigera,  Hausm.) 

Natural  Remedip'S. — From  the  enormous  rate  at  which  all  Plant-lice 
multiply,  it  is  plain  that,  if  there  were  no  check  upon  the  increase  of 
the  Apple-root  Plant-louse,  it  would  in  a  few  years'  time  sweep  away 
whole  orchards,  especially  in  southern  latitudes.  Luckily  for  the 
fruit  growers  and  fruit-lovers,  there  exist  two  at  all  events,  and  pro- 
bably three  such  checks.  The  first  is  a  very  minute  parasitic  fly, 
which  Prof.  Haldeman  figured  and  described  in  1851  as  infesting  in 
the  larva  state  his  supposed  Wooly  Plant-louse.*     The  second  is  a 

footless  maggot  (Fig.  G6  a)  about 
one-half  an  inch  long,  and  of  a 
dirty  yellow  color.  It  is  gene- 
rally found  more  or  less  covered 
with  mud,  and  with  the  woolly 
matter  secreted  by  the  lice,  and 
is  not  by  any  means  easily  dis- 
cerned. It  changes  in  the  fall  to 
the  pupa  state  (Fig.  Q(!>,h)  Irom 
which,  in  the  following  spring,  there  emerges  the  perfect  fly  (Fig. 
66,  c)  which^may  be  known  as  the  Root-louse  Syrphus-fly.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  description  of  this  fly,  in  its  different  stages,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  American  Entomologist. 

The  Eoot-louse  Syrphus-Fly.  {Pipisa  radicum.  n.  sp.)  §  Shining  brown  black.  Head 
clothed  with  short,  rather  sparse,  white  hairs,  especially  the  lower  p:irt  of  the  anterior  orbits  and 
the  entire  space  below  the  antennsB.  Mouth  dark  rufous.  Anteimaj  compressed,  with  the  joints 
proportioned  as  2,  2,  5  ;  joint  2  twice  as  wide  as  1,  and  3  twice  as  wide  as  2  ;  of  a  dull  rufous  color, 
edged  above,  narrowly  on  the  inside,  widely  on  the  outside,  with  brown  black.  Thorax  very  finely 
rug-oso-punctate,  with  some  short  sparse  white  hairs,  especially  laterally.    Abdomen  finely  punctate, 

*  This  flj-  belongs  to  the  Cfialcis  family  in  the  Order  Hymcnoptcra,  and  was  named  Eriophilus 
mail  by  Prof,  ilaldeman.  The  figure  and  description  will  be  found  in  the  Farin  Journal  for 
1861,  pp.  130-1. 


122  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

with  long-er  white  hairs,  rufo-piceous  above  on  the  middle  J  of  joint  1 ;  venter  with  joint  1  piceous. 
Legs  with  all  the  6  knees,  and  in  the  4  front  legs  the  entire  tibia  except  a  spot  on  the  exterior 
middle,  and  also  all  the  6  tarsi  except  their  extreme  tips,  and  except  in  the  hind  legs  the  bassal  J  of 
the  first  tarsal  joint,  all  dull  pale  rufous.  Wings  hyaline  ;  veins  black.  Length  $  0.25  inch  ;  alar 
expanse  0.48  inch. 

One  5  ;  d*  unknown.  Bred  May  2.3  from  a  single  puparium  found  in  the  November  prece- 
ding. On  May  2  this  puparium,  which  in  the  preceding  autumn  had  been  lightly  covered  with  moist 
sand  and  deposited  in  a  cellar,  had  crawled  up  out  of  the  sand  a  distance  of  two  inches,  and 
attached  itself  to  the  stopper  of  the  bottle  in  which  it  was  inclosed.  Upon  being  replaced  under  the 
moist  sand,  it  was  found  two  days  afterwards  to  have  again  crawled  about  an  inch  up  the  side  of 
the  bottle.  We  have  observed  the  same  locomotive  powers  in  the  puparia  of  several  other  Syrphi- 
dous  insects,  though,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  this  very  anomalous  faculty  has  not  hitherto  been 
commented  on  by  authors. 

"We  are  indebted  to  Dr.  LeBaron,  of  Geneva,  Ills.,  who  has  paid  special  attention  to  the 
Order  (Diptera)  to  which  this  insect  belongs,  for  determining  the  genus  to  which  it  is  properly  re- 
ferable. According  to  him,  "the  genus  Pipiza  differs  from  Syrphus  in  the  absence  of  the  promi- 
nence in  the  middle  of  the  face,  in  the  comparatively  greater  development  of  the  posterior  legs, 
and  in  the  want  of  the  little  spurious  longitudinal  vein  in  the  middle  of  the  wing."  "The  only 
species  discovered  by  Macquart,"  he  adds,  "is  from  Carolina,  and  very  different  from  yours." 

Larva. — Dull  pale  flesh-color,  tinged  with  yellow.  Attenuated  and  somewhat  depressed 
anteriorly ;  more  blunt  posteriorly,  the  anal  segment  being  furnished  with  an  elevated  tube,  which 
is  of  a  light  polished  bro^vn  at  extremity.  Wrinkled  transversely,  with  a  prominent  fold  at  ante- 
rior and  posterior  edge  of  each  segment.  The  larger  segments  well  defined  ;  the  smaller  ones  less 
so.  First  segment  thoroughly  retractile,  and  sufficiently  translucent  when  extended,  to  show  the 
dark  triple-jointed  mouth.  A  few  soft,  fleshy  spines,  of  the  same  color  as  the  body,  and  especially 
distinct  on  anal  segments.  Generally  covered  and  disguised  by  the  soil  which  it  inhabits.  Length 
when  not  extended,  0.23  of  an  inch.  Described  from  two  specimens  taken  in  1866  and  three 
in  1868. 

Pupa. — Dull  dirty  yellow.  Gradually  formed  by  the  contraction  of  the  larva,  during  which 
time  the  wrinkles  are  obliterated,  and  it  at  last  becomes  quite  smooth.     Length  0.18. 

I  first  found  this  larva  in  December,  1866,  at  Cobden,  Ills.,  and 
have  found  it  at  several  different  times  since,  and  though  I  failed  to 
breed  any  to  the  perfect  state,  Mr.  Walsh  was  more  fortunate.  Won- 
derful indeed  must  be  that  instinct,  which  enables  the  mother-flj'^  to 
perceive  which  particular  trees  in  an  orchard  have  their  roots  swarm- 
ing Avith  lice,  so  as  to  know  exactly  where  to  dei)Osit  her  eggs ! 

The  third  insect  which  preys  upon  these  Root  plant-lice,  at  least 
in  Missouri,  is  a  small  species  of  ladybird,  belonging  to  the  genus 
Scymiius.  The  larva  of  this  beetle  is  still  more  difficult  to  recognize 
among  the  lice,  as  it  is  covered  on  the  back  with  little  tufts  of  wooly 
matter,  secreted  from  its  own  body.  It  is,  when  full  grown,  somewhat 
larger  than  the  lice,  and  altogether  more  active,  and  is  distinguished 
furthermore,  by  the  wooly  matter  being  of  an  even  length  and  dis- 
tributed over  the  back  in  transverse  rows.  Mr.  J.  F.  AVaters,  of 
Springfield,  Missouri,  sent  to  me  a  numbt;r  of  the  apple  root-lice,  with 
some  of  these  little  ladybird  larvae  among  them,  which  he  erroneous- 
ly supposed  to  be  the  old  lice.  In  due  time  I  bred  the  perlect  beetle 
from  them,  and  it  proved  to  be  a  species  which  the  French  entomolo- 
gist Mulsant,  had  described  as  Scymniis  cerv'tcalis.  It  is  a  very  in- 
conspicuous little  beetle,  about  0.05  of  an  inch  long,  and  of  a  deep 
brown  color,  the  thorax  being  of  a  lighter  brown.  From  subsequent 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Waters  I  learned  that  the  lice  upon  which 
these  little  friends  of  ours  were  preying,  were  taken  right  from  the 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  123: 

surface  of  the  ground,  so  that  it  is  possible  that  this  ladybird  only- 
attacks  them  when  it  can  get  at  them  above  ground;  though,  judging 
from  analogy,  I  strongly  suspect  it  also  seeks  them  out  in  their  under- 
ground quarters. 

Artificial  Remedies.— The  best  mode  to  get  rid  of  the  Apple  root 
Plant-louse  is  to  drench  the  roots  of  the  infested  tree  with  hofAvater. 
But  to  render  this  process  eifectual,  the  water  must  be  applied  in 
quantities  large  enough  to  penetrate  to  every  part  of  the  infested 
roots.  There  need  be  no  fear  of  any  injurious  result  from  such  an  ap- 
plication of  hot  water;  for  it  is  a  very  general  rule  that  vegetable  or- 
ganisms can,  for  a  short  time,  stand  a  much  higher  temperature  than 
animal  organisms,  without  any  injury  to  their  tissues.  In  laying  bare 
the  roots  for  the  better  application  of  the  water,  a  sharp  eye  should 
be  kept  for  the  friends  above  described,  and  when  espied  they  should 
be  tenderly  laid  aside  till  after  the  slaughter  of  the  enemy.  Mulching 
around  the  infested  trees  has  been  found,  by  Mr.  E.  A.  lliehl  and 
others,  of  Alton,  Illinois,  to  have  the  effect  of  bringing  the  lice  to  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  where  they  can  be  more  easily  reached  by  the 
hot  water. 

THE    WOOLY    ELM-TREE   LOUSE— Erioso ma  vhni,  N.  Sp. 
(Ilomoptera  Aphidas.) 

The  White  elm  is  subject  to  the  attacks  of  a  woolly  plant-louse 
belonging  to  the  very  same  genus  as  the  preceding.  This  insect  ap- 
pears to  be  quite  common  in  our  State  as  well  as  in  Illinois,  for  I  have 
known  several  elm-trees  on  Van  Buren  street  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
to  be  killed  by  it,  and  every  tree  of  this  description,  around  the  court 
house  in  St.  Louis  was  more  or  less  affected  with  it  last  summer. 
The  lice  congregate  in  clusters  on  the  limbs  and  the  trunks,  and  cause 
a  knotty  unnatural  growth  of  the  wood,  somewhat  similar  to  the 
knots  produced  on  the  roots  of  the  apple-tree  by  the  other  species. 
They  are  mostly  found  sunk  in  between  'he  crevices  formed  by  these 
knots,  and  the  punctures  of  their  little  beaks  cause  the  sap  to  exude 
in  the  shape'  of  little  silvery  globules,  which  may  generally  be  found 
dispersed  among  the  knots.  The  down  or  wooly  matter  is  secreted 
by  them  from  all  parts  of  the  body,  but  especially  from  the  posterior 
part  of  the  back.  It  is  of  an  intense  white  color,  and  is  secreted  in 
such  profusion  that  it  usually  covers  and  hides  the  lice,  and  whf^n  they 
are  numerous,  gives  the  limbs  from  a  distance  the  appearance  of 
being  covered  with  snow.  They  make  their  appearance  during  the  lat- 
ter part  of  May,  and  by  the  latter  part  of  June  the  winged  individu- 
als may  be  found  mixed  up  with  the  larvas  and  pupre.  I  have  experi- 
mentally found  that  a  washing  with  a  weak  solution  of  cresylic  acid 
soap  will  kill  them  all  instantly,  and  they  are  thus  easily  exterminated.. 
They  are  also  preyed  upon  unmercifully  by  the  laj-vfe  of  an  unde- 
scribed  species  of  Lacewing  fly  {Chrysojpa  eriosoma  oi  my  MS.), 


124 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


EaioscnfA  umr,  N.  Sp. — Color  dark  blue.  Length  to  tip  of  closed  wings,  exclusive  of  anten- 
nae, 0.12.  Wings  hyaline,  three  times  as  long  as  wiJe,  and  more  pointed  at  the  ends  than  in  E.pyi. 
Costal  and  subcostal  veins,  and  that  bounding  the  stigma  behind,  robust  and  black.  Discoiilal 
veins  together  with  the  3d  forked  and  stigmal  veins,  all  slender  and  black,  the  forked  vein  being  as 
distinct  to  its  base  as  are  the  others,  with  the  fork  but  J  as  long  as  the  vein  itself  and  curved  in  an 
opposite  direction  to  the  stigmal  vein.  Antennue  6-jointed  and  of  the  same  color  as  the  body ; 
joints  I,  2,  4,  5  and  6  of  about  equal  length,  joint  3  thrice  as  long  as  either.  Legs  of  the  same 
color  as  body. 

The  young  lice  are  narrower  and  usually  lighter  colored  than  the  mature  individuals,  varying 
from  flesh  or  pink  to  various  shades  of  bine  and  purple- 


INSECTS  INJURIOUS  TO  THE  GRAPE-VINE. 

The  culture  of  the  .c:raDe  forms  an  imoortant  branch  of  Missouri 
horticulture.  There  is  scarcely  another  State  in  the  Union  that  has 
such  natural  advantages  for  the  growingof  this  delicious  fruit.  While 
traveling  up  the  Missouri  river,  I  have  been  struck  with  the  great 
similarity  in  the  general  character  of  the  country  to  the  celebrated 
Grape-growing  districts  of  the  Rhine, in  Prussia.  The  Germans  have 
also  so  thoroughly  settled  the  country  along  the  Missouri  that  the  re- 
semblance is  made  still  more  striking.  As  another  evidence  of  the 
importance  of  this  branch  of  horticulture  in  our  State,  the  Ainerican 
Grajje  Cultnrist,  the  only  periodical  published  in  this  country  that 
is  solely  devoted  to  Grape-growing  and  wine-making,  has  just  been 
started  in  St.  Louis,  by  Mr.  George  Husmann.  It  becomes  us  then  to 
know  something  of  the  insects  injurious  to  the  vine. 

THE   NEW  GRAPE-ROOT    BOmm—Orthoso7na  cylindricum,   (?) 

Fabr. 

(Coleoptera,  Prionidse.) 

[Fig.  67.] 


The  ad  u)t:Tiin  committees  of  the  Illinois  and  Missouri  State 
Horticultural  Societies,  while  visiting  the  orchards  and  vineyards 
along  the  line  of  the  Iron  Mountain  Railroad,  discovered  that  sundry 
grape  vines  on  Dr.  C.  W.  Spaulding's  place  were  dying ;  and  on  digging 
up  such  vines,  the  roots  were  found  to  be  entirely  hollowed  out,  and 
in  many  instances  severed,  by  a  worm  which  is  faithfully  represented 
at  the  head  of  this  article — Figure  67.  At  about  the  same  time,  Mr. 
Walsh,  of  Rock  Island,  received  an  immense  specimen  from  W.  D.  F. 
Lummis,  of  Makanda,  Illinois,  with  the  same  account  of  its  habits, 
and  tlie  following  letters  which  I  haye  since  received  relate  to  the 
fiame  worm : 


THE  STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  125 

Mr.  Rilky — Dear  Sir:  Herewith  please  find  a  worm  or  grub, 
•which  has  bothered  my  grape  vines,  it  cuts  the  vine  off  about  3  or  4 
inches  under  ground  and  takes  out  about  an  inch.  Set  vines  last 
spring.    Put  stakes  ol  oak,  green. 

Respectfullv,  &c., 

ALFBED  BARTER. 

YiRQiL  City,  Mo.,  August  21,  186S. 

Pkof.  Riley,  State  Entomologist :  I  leave  here  for  you  a  specimen 
of  a  worm  which  has  proved  very  destructive  in  my  vineyard  this  season 
having  killed  24  vines,  usually  commencing  at  the  bottom  eye  and 
eating  the  entire  stem  almost  to  the  surface  of  the  ground.  I  have 
dug  up  all  the  vines  and  in  each  case  have  found  but  one  worm  some- 
times as  deep  as  18  inches  below  the  surface.  My  vineyard  was  planted 
this  spring  on  ground  previously  cultivated;  has  been  thoroughly  sub- 
soiled  and  is  well  drained;  the  vines  are  Hartford  Frolifics  aud  Con- 
cords. Please  send  any  information  ol  value  you  may  have  relating 
to  the  above  to  Col.  John  H.  Hogan,  Pevely  Station,  I.  M.  R.  R. 
Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  H,  IIOGAN. 

September  3, 1868. 

Mr.  JiiL'EY  Dear  Sir:  The  Grape-vine  borer  has  been  quite  de- 
structive in  our  vineyard  this  season,  having  killed  15  vines.  Except 
in  two  cases  we  found  and  dispatched  him  without  mercy.  We  first 
noticed  tlie  effects  of  the  borer  about  the  latter  part  of  July  and  fre- 
quently found  them  until  thelatter  part  of  August.  In  some  instances 
we  found  the  root  severed  within  ^  half  an  inch  of  the  surface,  while 
the*  borer  was  found  at  the  bottom  Of  the  root.  In  others  the  root 
was  eaten  off  from  5  to  8  inches  below  the  surface.  Only  Concord 
vines  have  been  affected,  and  only  those  that  we  obtained  from  a 
neighboring  vineyard  for  planting  last  spring.  Not  one  of  our  original 
vines  have  been  destroyed,  though  we  have  4  acres  equally  exposed 
to  the  attacks  of  this  new  destroyer.  Any  information  that  you  may 
be  able  to  give  us  upon  this  subject  will  be  thankfully  received. 

Very  respectfully, 

SIMMONS  &  TILLSON. 

Sulphur  Springs,  September  10, 1868. 

Mr.  D.  C.  Peebles,  D.  D.  S.,  of  St.  Louis,  also  brought  me  a  large 
Concord  vine  that  had  been  entirely  severed  from  the  roots  and  killed 
by  this  worm,  and  I  also  received  specimens  about  1  grown  from  T, 
W.  Guy,  of  Glenwood. 

The  above  letters  convey  a  very  good  idea  of  the  manner  in  which 
this  borer  works.  It  seems  to  have  occurred  in  the  Concord  vines 
more  generally  than  in  those  of  any  other  variety,  but  I  think  that 
this  may  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  more  Concords  are  planted 
than  any  other  kind,  for  as  the  following  facts  will  show  the  borer  is 
evidently  a  very  general  feeder.    In  the  early  part  of  June,  1867,  Mr 


126  FIRST  ANNUAL  KEPORT  Off 

O.  B.  Galusha,  who  was  then  with  the  ad  interim  committee  visiting 
Southern  Illinois,  sent  me  a  worm  in  all  respects  similar  which  was 
found  boring  into  the  rool  of  an  apple  tree.  I  have  also  received 
Osage  orange  roots  from  Kansas  v/hich  were  being  bored  b}'  the  same 
fellow,  and  he  is  evidently  partial  to  rotten  oak  stumps  for  not  only 
have  several  persons  who  are  well  able  to  judge,  assured  me  that  they 
have  found  him  in  such  stumps,  but  Mr.  A.  Bolter,  of  Chicago,  also  found 
it  in  such  stumps  in  Kentucky,  and  sent  me  the  specimens  lor  identi- 
fication. At  the  meeting  of  our  State  Societ}'',  at  Columbia,  Mr.  I.  N. 
Stuart  even  avowed  that  he  had  found  it  partly  grown,  not  only  in  seed* 
ling  apples  but  in  the  roots  of  corn  stalks,  while  Chas.  Connon,  of 
"Webster,  assures  me  that  he  has  found  it  in  the  .heart  of  felled  hick- 
ory, and  I  ascertained  that  he  was  perfectly  capable  of  distinguishing 
at  from  the  common  borer  {Ceraspfiorus  cifiGtKS.Drniy),  whicli  infests 
hickory  when  felled,  and  which  causes  what  is  known  as  "powder 
post,"  he  being  quite  familiar  with  this  last  named  insect.  There  are 
several  large  beetles  in  the  West  which  must  have  larvoi  very  similar 
in  appearance  to  tiiis,  and  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  different  insects 
hare  here  been  confounded,  but  the  figure  at  the  head  of  this  article, 
w^ith  the  following  description  of  this  Grape-Root  borer,  will  enable 
any  one  to  recognize  it  in  the  future. 

Larva  of  Orthosoka  cYLiNDRictjir,  (?)  Fabr.— Average  length  when  full  grown,  3  inches. 
Color  pale  yellowish  white,  partly  translucent,  with  glaucous  and  bluish  shadings,  and  a  distinct 
dorsal  line  of  the  last  color.  Segment  1  rather  horny,  rather  longer  than  2,  3  and  4  together, 
broadening  posteriorly,  slightly  shargreened  and  whiter  than  the  rest  of  the  body,  with  a  rust- 
colored  mark  anteriorly.  Segments  2  and  'i  shortest  and  broadest,  the  body  tapering  thence  grad- 
ually to  extremity,  though  there  is  usually  a  lateral  ridge  on  segment  12  which  dilates  it  rather 
more  than  the  segments  immediately  preceding  it.  This  segment  12  is  also  the  longest,  the  terminal 
•one  being  quite  small  and  divided  into  three  nearly  equal  lobes.  A  swelled  hump  crossed  with  two 
impressed  trnnsverse  lines,  on  segments  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9  and  1 0.  Stigmata 
rust-colored,  9  in  number,  the  first  and  largest  being  placed  on  a  fold  in 
(Jiie  suture  between  segments  1  and  2.  Head  brown,  verging  to  black  on 
anterior  edge.  Mandibles  large,  strong,  black,  with  one  blunt  rounded 
tooth,  giving  them  a  somewhat  triangular  appearance  ;  annten»  .3-jointed 
and  brown,  especially  at  tip;  labrum  fulvous,  fuzzy  and  with  a  brown 
base ;  maxillary  palpi  4-jointed,  the  basal  joint  much  swollen,  the  ter- 
uiinal  joint  brown,  and  a  ring  of  the  same  color  at  sutures  of  the  other 
joints;  la.bial  palpi  3-jointed,  the  basal  joint  also  swollen,  and  the  ter* 
minal  joint  and  sutures  of  the  others  brown.  Six  rudimentary  2-jointed 
fuscous  feet  as  shown  at  Figure  68.  V^enter  tubercled  as  on  the  back,  these  tubercles  being  especi- 
ally prominent  on  segments  6,  7,  8  and  9,  where  they  recall  prolega.  The  young  larva  difters  only 
in  lacking  the  rust-colored  mark  on  segment  1. 

Now,  to  what  insect  does  this  borer  belong?  It  is  manifestly  the 
larva  of  some  long-horned  beetle  of  the  family  Prionid>^,  but  of  what 
particular  species  cannot  be  positively  stated  till  the  beetle  is  reared 
from  grape-root-boring  larves.  Before  another  year  shall  have  passed 
away,  I  hope  to  definitely  determine  this  point,  but  meanwhile,  I  have 
every  confidence  that  it  will  produce  the  Cylindrical  Orlhosoma  (  Or- 


TUE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


127 


tJiosoma  cyUndricum^  Fabr.),  a  large  flattened, 
long-horned  light  bay-colored  beetle  which  is 
common  throughout  the  country  and  especially  in 
the  Mississippi  valley,  and  which  is  represented  of 
the  natural  size  at  Figure  69.  True,  according  to 
Westwood,  the  larvre  of  the  Pkionid.e  have  tlie 
second  segment  enlarged  and  broadened,  while 
the  closely  allied  family  OEKAMBYciDyE,has  the  first 
segment  thus  enlarged  as  in  our  insect;  but  from 
a  larva  resembling  ours  in  every  respect  so  far  as 
his  description  goes,  and  which  he  found  in  Sep- 
tember, 1867,  in  decaying  pine  wood,  Mr.  Walsh 
actually  bred,  about  the  last  of  June,  186S,  the  Cy- 
lindrical Orthosoma.  The  only  accounts  on  record 
which  pretend  to  give  the  natural  history  of  this  beetle,  are  by  Dr. 
Fitch  and  S.  S.  Rathvon,  that  of  the  former  in  his  4th  Report,  §  239, 
and  that  of  the  latter  in  the  Agricultural  Reportfor  1861,  pp.  611-612, 
Dr.  Fitch  describes  the  larva,  which  he  supposed  belonged  to  this 
beetle,  but  which  he  did  not  breed,  as  occurring  in  pine  trees,  and  as 
having  the  tirst  ring  longest  and  the  second  broadest;  while  Mr. 
Rathvon  figures  it  with  the  first  ring  infinitely  shorter  than  the  sec- 
ond, but  confesses  that  the  drawing  was  made  from  memory,  and  he 
doubtless  trusted  to  the  authority  of  Westwood.  Furthermore  Mon- 
sieur E.  Ferris  has  figured  at  Plate  6,  Figure  362,  of  the  "Annales  de  la 
Soci6t6  Entomologique  de  France,"  for  1856,  the  larva  of  Prionus  oh 
scu'nis^  Oliv.  which  bores  into  the  pine  and  which  very  closely  re- 
sembles our  larva,  the  first  and  not  the  second  segment  being  en- 
larged. 

Until  the  past  summer  nothing  had  been  published  about  the 
attacks  of  this  insect  on  Grape  roots,  and  yet  upon  inquiry  I  find  that 
it  has  been  known  for  several  years.  Mr.  Spaulding  informs  me  that 
the  first  that  was  seen  of  it  in  his  neighborhood  was  in  1866,  when  his 
man  found  an  enormous  one  in  a  wild  vine  which  he  was  about  to 
graft;  but  Mr.  Geo.  Husmann,  of  Hermann,  has  been  acquainted  with 
it  since  1850,  and  has  known  it  to  occur  around  Hermann  since  1854. 
Indeed  Mr.  Husmann  informs  me  that  he  has  never  observed  the  old 
Grape-vine  Borer  which  has  16  legs  and  which  produces  a  moth  {^£- 
geria  poUstiformis,  Harris)  but  that  in  speaking  of  the  Grape-root 
Borer  he  has  always  referred  to  this  species.  Mr.  J.  H.  Tice  found  it  in 
apple  roots  in  1860  on  the  place  of  James  Sappington  of  St.  Louis, 
while  the  following  item  by  A.  J.  H.,  of  Vineland,  N.  J.,  which  appeared 
in  the  January  (1869)  number  of  the  Gardener's  Monthly,  would  in- 
dicate that  it  has  the  same  habit  all  over  the  country  : 

"On  page  354  October  number  of  Agriculturist,  reference  is  made 
to  a  "vine  borer"  in  Missouri  that  cuts  off  vines  below  the  surface. 
It  is  also  mentioned  and  partially  described  in  the  last  Gardener's 


128  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

Monthly.  This  "  borer  "  is  an  old  friend  (?)  of  mine.  It  is  found  prin- 
cipally in  old  rotten  oak  stumps;  I  hardl}-^  ever  dig  one  out  without 
finding  several  of  these  worms.  They  are  about  two  inches  long,  ta- 
pering from  head  to  tail,  white  bodies  and  black  heads.  I  lose  on  an 
average  about  60  vines  and  dwarf  pears  annually  by  these  little  vil- 
lains;  probably  twice  as  many  pears  as  vines.  I  have  had  several 
apple  trees  cut  off  by  them,  and  one  standard  pear.  The  tree  roots 
seem  often  to  be  eaten  entirely  up,  but  the  vine  roots  are  only  cut 
through  as  if  they  had  obstructed  the  line  of  travel. 

This  is  no  new  insect,  but  will  I  think  probably  be  found  trouble- 
some whenever  dwarf  pears  and  vines  are  planted  among  decayed 
oak  stumps." 

Remedies. — Little  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  extirpating  these  un- 
derground borers,  when,  as  in  the  present  instance,  their  presence  is 
only  indicated  by  the  approaching  death  of  the  vine.  Still,  every 
vineyardist  should  make  it  a  rule  to  search  for  them  wherever  they 
find  vines  suddenly  dying  from  any  cause  unknown  to  them,  a)id  upon 
finding  such  a  borer  should  at  once  put  an  end  to  his  existence.  The 
beetle  which  may  frequently  be  found  during  the  summer  months, 
should  also  be  ruthlessly  sacrificed  wherever  met  with.  I  should  also 
advise  not  to  plant  a  vineyard  on  land  covered  with  old  oak  stumps, 
and  not  to  use  oak  stakes  where  those  made  of  cedar  can  be  had  as 
conveniently. 


THE  GRAPE    CUROVUO—Cceliodes  incequalis,  Say. 

(Celeoptera,  Curculionidaj.) 

The  larva  of  this  Curculio  infests  the  grapes  during  the  months  of 
June  and  July,  causing  a  little  black  hole  in  the  skin,  and  usually  a 
[Fig.  70.]  disfigurement  and  discoloration  of  the  berr}'-, 

^^N,,,^^^^^  immediately  around  it  as  in  Figure  70,  a.    The 

^'^^i^A      ^    larva  (Fig.  70,  h)  is  whitish  as  long  as  the  berry 
^"""^^  ^^  is  green,  but  generally  partakes  of  the  color  of 

iM     '™l         T    ^2  ^'^®  berry  as  it  matures.    It  is  footless  and  like 
I  ^-i        1  '    ^^   the  larvffi  of  all  snout-beetles  is  incapable  of 

\^    ^    ^'cc  W^ spinning  a  web.    In  1887  I  found  this  insect 

"^'^^  quite  common  in  Southern  Illinois,  and  as  will 

he  seen  from  the  excellent  account  of  it  given  by  Mr.  Walsh  in  his 
first  report,  it  was  very  common  in  the  States  of  Illinois,  Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  and  it  also  occurred  in  our  own  State,  as  I  am  informed  by 
Mr.  Peabody.  From  the  middle  to  the  last  of  July,  this  larva  leaves 
the  berry  and  buries  itself  a  few  inches  in  the  ground.  Here  it 
changes  to  a  pupa  within  a  small,  smooth  earthen  cavity,  and  by  the 
beginning  of  September  the  above  named  beetle  issues  from  the 
ground,  and  doubtless  passes  the  winter  in  the  beetle  state,  ready  to 
punctu.-e  the  grapes  again  the  following  May  or  June.    This  beetle  is 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


129 


[FiS--  71.] 


small  and  inconspicuous,  being  of  a  black  color  with  a 
grayish  tint.  It  is  represented  enlarged  at  Figure  71,  the 
if?^^  hair  line  underneath  showing  the  natural  size.  It  is'dis- 
v^U'ifit:  V.|Vtinguished  from  all  other  curculios  that  are  known  to  at- 
tack our  fruits  by  having  a  rectangular  thorn  or  tooth  on 
the  upper  and  outer  edge  of  the  four  front  shanks  (tibice)ais 
shown  at  Figure  72;  this  character  being  peculiar  to  the 
genus  {Cceliodes)  to  which  it  belongs. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  in  1S6S  there  seems  to  have  been 
an  almost  entire  immunity  from  this  Grape  curculio,  for  I  have 
neither  met  with  it  in  a  single  instance,  nor  heard  ot  its  oc- 
currence. No  doubt  this  immunity  has  been  caused  principally  by- 
parasites,  for  I  failed  entirely  to  breed  the  perfect  Uurculio  in  1867, 
on  account  of  some  small  Ichneumon  which  killed  the  larva  as  soon 
as  the  latter  had  entered  the  earth,  and  spun  for  itself  a  tough  silken 
cocoon  in  the  place  where  the  Curculio  larva,  jf  unmolested,  would 
have  undergone  its  transformations.  It  is  thus  that  Nature 'works  • 
"eat  and  be  eaten,  kill  and  be  killed,"  is  one  of  her  universal  laws,' 
and  we  can  never  say  with  surety  that  because  a  particular  insect  is 
numerous  one  year,  therefore  it  will  be  so  the  next ! 


THE  GRAPE-SEED  CURCULIO. 

(Coleoptera,   Curculionidse.) 

A  minute  maggot  was  discovered  last  August  infesting  the  seeds 
of  the  Grape  in  certain  parts  of  Canada,  by  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders  of 
London.  It  causes  the  berries  to  shrivel  up  and  utterly  ruins  them 
Specimens  which  had  been  received  from  Canada,  were  sent  to  me  by 
my  friend  A.  S.  Fuller,  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  annexed  Figure  73 
[Fig.  73.]  Bhows  a  highly  magnified  view  of  the  maggot,  its 

natural  size  being  represented  underneath.  The 
head  is  of  the  same  translucent,  milk-Avhite  color 
as  the  body,  but  the  jaws,  which  are  finely  pointed,, 
are  light  brown,  and  there  is  a  patch  of  brown  at 
their  base.  It  has  exactly  thirteen  segments  exclusive  of  the  head, 
and  every  segment  has  a  few  white,  fleshy  hairs,  these  hairs  being 
thickest  near  the  head  and  longest  on  the  under  part  of  the  first  three 
segments,  thus  imitating  feet,  as  is  often  the  case  with  footless  larv^ 
of  this  character. 

It  is  evidently  the  larva  of  some  curculio,  and  though  it  is  not 
yet  known  to  occur  in  the  States,  I  append  the  following  account  of 
it  from  Mr.  jaunders  himself,  for  the  benefit  of  our  Grape-growers:* 

.;««!l'^!!f'r''°'"l^  ''  taken  from  a  papor  puhli.h9d  by  Mr.  Saunders  in  the  "Report  of  the  Comtnii^ 
sioner   of  Agriculture  and  Arts  of  the  Province  of  Ontario/'  for  1868-pp.  203-5.         ^'^^  ^°°»«»i«- 

i^  R  S  B 


130  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

"On  the  20th  of  August  last  we  ol3served  that  many  of  the  berries 
in  the  bunches  of  a  Clinton  vine  under  our  care  were  shriveling  up. 
On  opening  the  grapes,  we  observed  that  most  ot  the  smaller  berries 
—that  is  those  which  had  shriveled  earliest— contained  only  one  seed, 
and  that  of  an  unusually  large  size.  Some  of  the  larger  shriveled 
grapes  contained  two  seeds,  much  swollen,  each  having  a  dark  spot 
somewhere  on  their  surface.  On  cutting  the  seeds  carefully  open,  the 
kernel  was  found  almost  entirely  consumed,  and  the  cavity  occupied 
by  a  small  milk-white  footless  grub  with  a  pair  of  brown  hooked  man- 
dibles, a  smooth  and  glossy  skin  with  a  few  very  fine  short  white 
hairs.  When  at  rest  it  is  nearly  oval  in  form,  but  when  in  motion  its 
body  is  elongated,  varying  in  length  from  one-fifteenth  to  one-twelfth 
of  an  inch.        *        *        * 

"  The  Clinton  vine  on  which  this  pest  was  first  discovered  suffered 
considerably,  fully  ten  per  cent,  of  the  crop  was  lost  from  the  shrivel- 
ing of  affected  berries.  At  first  we  supposed  that  the  work  of  the 
insect  was  confined  to  berries  of  this  appearance,  and  that  by  destroy- 
ing these  the  destruction  of  the  crop  of  insects  for  the  season  would 
be  complete,  but  further  examination  showed  that  many  of  the  ripe 
berries  contained  aftected  seeds.  The  proportion  thus  affected  on 
the  vine  referred  to  was  about  ten  or  eleven  per  cent.  Within  a  few 
feet  of  this  vine  an  Isabella  was  fruiting ;  on  this  there  were  no  shriv- 
eled berries,  but  about  three  per  cent,  of  those  which  had  ripened 
were  injured.  About  the  same  distance  in  another  direction  was  a 
Hartford  Prolific,  and  about  ten  feet  further  ofi"  a  Concord,  both  of 
which  fruited  well.  On  neither  af  these  were  there  any  shriveled 
berries,  nor  could  we  find  any  affected  seeds  among  those  which  had 
ripened.  The  fruit  of  a  Delaware,  about  fifty  feet  distant  from  the 
Clinton,  was  also  examined  without  discovering  any  traces  of  the  in- 
sect. 

"About  the  middle  of  September  we  visited  the  grounds  of  Mr. 
Charles  Arnold,  of  Paris,  and  there  we  found  that  this  insect  had  pre- 
vailed to  a  greater  extent  than  it  had  with  ourselves,  afi^ecting  the 
Clinton,  Delaware,  one  of  Rogers'  Hybrids,  and  also  Mr.  Arnold's  new 
seedlings.  In  Hamilton, in  the  garden  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Mills,  we  found 
an  affected  seed  in  a  berry  of  Rogers'  No.  4.  On  the  2ith  of  Septem- 
ber we  visited  the  vineyard  of  the  Vine  Growers'  Association  at 
Cooksville,  but  could  not  find  any  traces  of  the  insect  there.  Thus 
tar  its  depredations  are  most  apparent  about  London  and  Paris,  but 
probably  further  examination  will  show  that  it  is  widely  distributed. 

"Where  any  shriveled  berries  are  found  their  seeds  should  be 
carefully  opened  and  examined,  as  itis  important  to  know  how  far  the 
insect  prevails.  The  affected  berries  are  usually  swollen,  somewhat 
soft  and  have  a  dark  spot  somewhere  on  their  surface ;  any  of  this 
character  observed  among  the  ripe  berries  should  also  be  exammed. 

"In  the  case  of  the  shriveled  berries,  where  one  seed  only  is  af- 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  J31 

fectefl,  the  others  are  dwarfed  and  imperfect;  and  ivhore  t^yo  lar-^e 

fected  and  the  other  remains  heal.hv,  the  one  normal  seed  carries  the 
berry  through  m  an  apparently  healthy  state  to  ripeness.    As  tar  as 

liahre'lTnTr't  T''  't  '^"'"""  '""'  "^  ^'"''''^  ^""'  "'■"  ^'^-^  -^  ">"'« 
nd  C     :ord    "  '"""  "'"  '''"'''  ''"'"'  ^-"  -^""--^  !'"• 


THE  GRAPE-CANE  GALL-CURCULIO,  Jfadaru.  vM.,Ne^  Species 

(Coleoptera,  Curculionidw.) 

on  fh!'l  T''  f  ""  ^T"""^  ^^  '■"■''  '■■■«■'l"<'ntl.^'  found  to  have  sails 
on  the  last  year's  srowth,  in  the  .hape  ofan  elongated  knot  or  swe 
ns  whK-h  ,s  generally  sitnated  immediately  ab-^-e  or  helo,v  a  ioin 

"f    r  ■  r        ."°     ■"^"'''^'-^  ■>  longitudinal  slit  or  depression  01,0^6 

de,d,nd,ng  that  side  into  t«.o  cheeks,  which  gener.allv  h>^4  a  rosy 

tint.    Ihe  gall  IS  caused  by  a  little  footless,  whfte  cylindricariarva 

wuch  measures  0.28  of  an  inch,  and  has  a  vellowish  head  am  4,  e' 

«hat  darker  tawny  jaws.    It  is  minntelv  wrinkled  transfer  eh-  a, d 

parse  y  covered  whh  minnte  white  bristles;  the  three  seZe„t'n"t 

tt  cl  Tto  h""1  T"""""^'  '"°"^"  underneath  an^te      i^ti: 

tent  trfl        T    ,       '''"'•^  '"""''  ''■'^"'^  '<'?''•  =>""  ''""I't'^'^^  'o  «ome  ex- 

ose^en!  ,1  IT""'"  "' '"■■"■    '^''"'^  '"■■™  "'^^^'l  bears  a  very 

1  ated\   r'n^F       "T'°  "f  "'  ""  P"'^'"  Stalk-weevil,  illns"^ 

t.a  e,i  a,  page  fe  Figure  Si  a.  and  when  taken  out  of  its  gall  in  medi- 

,,r '■!  r,"      ,"'  "'  "  ,""*  "S"'^-    "'"'"e  tbe  latter  part'of  J  Z  ut 

t  fi  :;;:rrrr "" ""  Tr  *" "  p'-p--  ^'^°  ^-'"'y  — ^  g 

knt  1   rf    ,i  r .         ?"?  '""^  ''*^'  '■*'"<■''  "™''  t'.ree.fourths  the 
length  o(^  the  body  instead  of  but  one-half  as  in  that  species     Two 

"Ip  fr?"";,''  '"^  "IZ  '™-'»"»^d  it  becomes  a  beetle  belonging": 
]Zl  "  ^?''\  ^""'^'''  f^»"'j'-  B'=f'"-«  this  insect  had  ever 
I.een  bred  to  the  perfect  state  I  predicted  that  it  would 
produce  a  Cureulio,  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  page 
111  oflhe  Transactions  of  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural 
Society  for  1867.  Tnis  beetle  is  represented  enlarged  at  Fi-- 
.    ure  H,  Its  natural  length  being  0.10.    It  is  of  a  uniform 

"»'"y«"owish-brownwiihont  any  markings  whatever  It 
IS  closely  a  lied  to  the  Potato  Stalk-weevil,  but  belongs  to  the  g^nus 
J/adarm  which  differs  from  BanrUus  in  the  peculiar  undulalino-  ap- 
pearance of  the  wing-cases,  and  more  especially  in  their  being  highly 
polished,  the  word  Madm-us  meaning  glossy  or  polished.    This  little 


132  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

Curculio  was  considered  a  new  species  by  Dr.  Le  Conte,  in  1861,  and  as 
it  has  not,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  been  described  since  that  time,  I  sub- 
join a  more  complete  description  of  it: 

Madarus  vitis,  N.  Sp. — Length,  exclusive  of  rostrum  0.10.  Color  uniformly  rufous,  without 
maculations,  the  eyes  aloue  being  darker.  Highly  polished  ;  rostrum  arcuated,  stout  and  about  as 
long  as  thorax  ;  thorax  and  body  with  extremely  minute  and  distant  punctures,  anterior  margiu 
of  thorax  abruptly  narrowed,  especially  laterally,  into  a  collar  ;  elytra  slightly  undulate,  with  4 
distinct  elevations,  one  on  the  extreme  outer  margin  close  to  the  thorax,  and  one  on  the  middle  of 
each,  near  the  extremity. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  great  similarity  in  the  habits  of  insects 
belonging  to  the  same  genus,  I  will  state  that  there  is  a  small  black 
Curculio,  belonging  to  the  genus  Madarus  and.  differing  from  this 
Grape-cane  Gall-curculio  in  no  other  respect  but  in  color,  whose  larva 
lives  in  a  somewhat  similar  gall  found  on  the  common  creeper  {Am- 
pelopsis  quinquefolia)  which  is  very  closely  related  to  the  vine.  This 
black  species  is  also  undescribed  and  is  marked  Madarus  ampelopsis 
in  Mr.  Walsh's  collection.       ' 

I  think  it  highly  probable  that  the  gall  of  the  Grape-cane  Curculio 
is  caused  more  by  the  punctures  which  the  female  beetle  makes  in  de- 
positing her  egg,  than  by  the  irritations  ot  the  larva;  fori  have  found 
the  larva  where  it  had  burrowed  two  and  three  inches  up  the  cane, 
away  from  the  gall,  without  its  having  caused  a  corresponding  swell- 
ing; though  this  has  always  been  in  the  one-year-old  cane. 

Remedy. — If  these  gall-bearing  canes  are  cut  off  and  burned  du- 
ring the  winter  there  need  be  little  fear  of  this  insect's  work,  the 
more  especially  as  it  is  not  secure  from  parasites,  even  in  its  snug  re- 
treat, for  I  have  bred  a  species  of  Clialcis  fly  from  the  galls,  which 
had  evidently  destroyed  the  true  gall-maker. 


THE  GRAPE-VINE  mV>lk.—Fidia  viticida,  Walsh. 

(Coleoptera,  ChrysomelidsD.) 

One  of  the  worst  foes  to  the  grape-vine  that  we  have  in  Missouri 

[Fig.  75.]      is  the  Grape-vine  Fidia  which  is  represented  in  the  an- 

*'^^^"''^;;|5'''y^nexed  Figure  75.    It  is  of  a  chestnut-brown  color,  and  is 

Jf^£    T  ^^^s^y  covered  with  short  and  dense  whitish  hairs  which 

.<*^i  illV    S^^^  ^^  ^  hoary  appearance.    I  have  found  it  very  thick 

(ifllPr^    -^  inmost  of  the  vineyards  which  I  visited,  and  it  is  almost 

y       /       universally  miscalled  the  "I\ose-bug,"  which  is,  however, 

a  very  different  insect.    The  Grape-vine  Fidia  was  first  described  by 

Mr.  Walsh  in  the  May,  1867,  number  of  the  Practical  Entomologist.  It 

is  found  in  the  woods  on  the  wild  grape-vine  and  also  on  the  leaves  of 

the  Cercis  Canadensis  ;  but  of  the  tame  vines  it  seems  to  prefer  the 

Norton's  Virginia  and  Concord.    It  makes  its  appearance  during  the 

month  of  June,  and  by  the  end  of  July  has  generally  disappeared,  from 

which  fact  we  may  infer  that  there  is  but  one  brood  each  year.    The 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  '  133 

manner  in  which  it  injures  the  vine  is  by  cutting  straight  elongated 
holes  of  about  -g  inch  in  diameter  in  the  leaves,  and  when  numerous 
it  so  riddles  the  leaves  as  to  reduce  them  to  mere  shreds.  The  pre- 
paratory stages  of  this  beetle  are  not  yet  known. 

Remedies. — Luckily  this  beetle  has  the  same  precautionary  habit 
of  dropping  to  the  ground,  upon  the  slightest  disturbance,  as  has  the 
Plum  curculio,  and  this  habit  enables  us  readily  to  keep  it  in  check. 
The  most  efficient  way  of  doing  this  is  by  the  aid  of  chickens.  'Mr. 
Peschell,  of  Hermann,  on  whose  vines  this  beetle  had  been  exceed- 
ingly numerous,  raised  a  large  brood  of  chickens  in  1S67,  and  had  them 
so  well  trained  that  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  start  them  in  the  vine- 
yard with  a  boy  in  front  to  shake  the  vines,  and  he  himself  behind  the 
chicks.  They  picked  up  every  beetle  which  fell  to  the  ground,  and  in 
this  manner  he  kept  his  vines  so  clean  that  he  could  scarcely  find  a 
single  beetle  in  1868. 


THE  GKAPE  CODLING,  Penthina  vitivorana,  Packard.— Plate  2, 

Figs,  29  and  30. 

(Lepidoptera,  Tortricidoe.) 

Although  the  preceding  insect  has  been  so  scarce  in  1868,  yet  the 
Grape  has  been  worked  upon  in  a  somewhat  similar  manner,  and  even 
to  a  greater  extent,  by  the  insect  now  under  consideration.  Indeed 
there  is  very  little  doubt  that  Mr.  Walsh,  not  being  acquainted  with 
this  insect,  confounded  its  work  with  that  of  the  Grape-curculio,  in 
some  ot  the  instances,  of  the  damage  done  by  this  last,  which  are 
quoted  by  him  in  his  report,  and  this  is  especially  the  case  in  the  in- 
stance of  Mr.  M.  C.  Read  of  Hudson,  Ohio. 

I  first  received  this  insect,  with  an  account  of  its  workings,  from 
Huron  Burt,  of  Williamsburg,  and  subsequently  during  the  month  of 
July,  found  it  universal  in  the  vineyards  along  the  lines  of  the  Pacific 
and  Iron  Mountain  Railroads.  It  was  found  equally  common  around 
Alton  in  Illinois,  while  Dr.  Hull  informs  me  that  it  ruined  50  per  cent. 
of  the  grapes  around  Cleveland,  Ohio,  the  Concord  and  Ives  Seedling 
being  the  only  varieties  which  appeared  to  resist  its  attacks.  It  also 
occurs  in  Pennsylvania,  judging  from  articles  which  appeared*  in  the 
November  and  December  numbers  of  the  Praof/ical  Farmer.  In 
these  numl)ers  my  esteemed  correspondent,  Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon,  of  Lan- 
caster, Pennsylvania,  gives  an  account,  with  description,  of  some 
worms  which  were  sent  to  him  by  the  editors,  answering  in  every  re- 
spect to  this  Grape  codling.  Concluding,  from  its  similarity  to  the 
common  Apple  worm,  that  the  insect  belonged  to  the  genus  Carpo- 
capf^a^  he  proposed  for  it  the  name  of  Carpooapsa  vliisella,  without 
having  bred  the  parent  moth.    la  the  June  number  of  the  American 


134 


FIRST   AxNKtJAL   REPORT   OF 


JSfaturalist  (p.  220)  is  quoted  an  account  of  it  by  Mr.  M.  G.  Read,  of 
Hudson,  Ohio^  who  says  that  it  is  '*  already  so  abundant  there  that  it  is 
necessary  to  examine  every  bunch  of  ripe  grapes,  and  clip  out  the  in- 
fested berries  before  sending  them  to  the  table." 

The  larva  of  this  Grape  codling  may  at  once  be  distinguished 
from  that  of  the  Grape  curculio,  by  its  having  6  scaly  legs  near  the 
head,  8  lleshy  legs  in  the  middle,  and  2  at  the  extremity  of  the  body, 
and  hj  spinning  a  fine  web,  by  which  it  lets  itself  drop  whenever 
handled.  It  is  also  larger,  of  a  darker  color,  and  bears  a  very  close 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  Strawberry  leaf-roller,  to  be  hereafter  fig- 
ured and  described. 

Its  presence  is  soon  indicated  by  a  reddish-brown  color  on  that 
side  of  the  yet  green  grape  which  it  enters.  On  opening  the  grape,  a 
winding  channel  is  seen  in  the  pulp,  and  a  minute  white  worm  with  a 
dark  head  is  seen  at  the  end  of  the  channel.  It  continues  to  feed 
upon  the  pulp  of  the  fruit,  and  when  it  reaches  the  seeds,  eats  out 
their  interior.  As  it  matures  it  becomes  darker,  being  either  of  an 
olive-green  or  dark  brown  color,  with  a  honey-yellow  head,  and  if  one 
grape  is  not  sufficient  it  fastens  the  already  ruined  grape  to  an  adjoin- 
ing one  by  means  of  silken  threads,  and  proceeds  to  burrow  in  it  as  it 
did  in  the  first.  When  fall  grown  it  leaves  the  grape  and  form's  its  co- 
[^''--  "'''•^  roon  on  tlie  leaves  of  the  vine.    This  operation  is  per- 

'  •  >rmed  in  a  manner  essentially  characteristic:  the 
orm  cuts  out  a  clean  oval  flap,  leaving  it  hinged  on 
ne  side,  and,  rolling  this  flap  over,  fastens  it  to  the 
eaf,  and  thus  forms  ibr  itself  a  cozy  little  house  which 
it  lines  on  the  inside  with  silk.  One  of  these  cocoons 
is  represented  at  Figure  7H,  J,  and  though  the  cut,  is  sometimes  less 
regular  than  shown  in  the  figure,  and  I  have  had  them  spin  up  in  a  silk 
handkerchief  without  making  any  cut  at  all,  it  is  undoubtedly  tlie 
normal  habit  of  the  insect  to  make  just  such  a  cocoon  as  represented. 
In  this  cocoon,  within  two  <lays,  it  changes  to  a  chrysalis,  such  as  is 
represented  at  Figure  76.  a,  of  a  hoaey-yellow  color  with  a  green 
shade  on  the  abdomen  ;  and  in  about  ten  days  more  the  moth  makes 
its  escape,  the  chrysalis  having  first  pusiied  itself  almost  entirtly  out 
of  the  cocoon.  The  moth  is  of  a  slaty-brown  color  with  corky-yellow 
markings,  and  is  represented  enlarged  at  Plate  2,  Figure  29,  and  of 
the  natural  size  at  Figure  30. 

Specimens  of  this  moth  were  sent  by  Mr.  Walsh  to  the  English 
Lepidopterist,  H.  T.  Stainton,  who  could  not  refer  it  to  any  known  ge- 
nus; but  Dr.  Packard,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  refers  it  to  Penthina 
a  genus  very  closely  allied  to  Carpocapsa,  t  >  which  our  Apple  Cod- 
ling moth  belongs.  He  has  also  kindly  furnished  me  with  advanced 
sheets  of  Part  V  ol  the  "Guide  to  tne  Study  of  Insects,"  in  which  (p. 
330)  he  describes  and  figures  it  under  the  name  of  Penthina  vitivor- 
ana.    The  description  is  quite  brief,  however,  and  the  figure  not  ^ood, 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  135 

and  I  therefore  subjoin  a  more  detailed  description  of  it  in  its  differ- 
ent stages: 

Penthina*  ViTivoRANA,  Packard — Larva. — Average  length  0.35.  Largest  on  segments  10  and 
11,  tapering  thence  gradually  to  thfe  head  and  suddenly  to  anus.  Color  either  dark  shiny  olive- 
green,  glaucous,  or  brownish.  Head  and  cervical  shield  honey-yellow,  the  latter  with  a  darker  pos- 
terior margin.     Piliferous  spots   scarcely  distinguishable.     Described  from  10   specimens. 

Crysalis — 0.18 — 0.20  long.  Of  normal  iurm.  Quite  variable  in  color.  Usually  of  a  light  honey- 
yellow,  with  a  green  shade  on  the  abdomen,  and  black  eyes,  but  sometimes  entirely  dark-green, 
with  light  eyes.  The  chrysalis  skin,  after  the  moth  has  left,  is  always  deep  honey-yellow,  with 
the  green  abdominal  mark  distinct. 

Pirfect  insect — Average  length  0.17  ;  alar  expanse  0.37.  Head,  thorax,  palpi  and  basal  half  of 
antenniB  fulvous  lerminal  half  of  antennic  darker.  Legs  fulvous,  becoming  darker  on  tarsi. 
Ground-color  of  fore  wings  pale  slate-blue,  with  a  slight  metallic  lustre,  which  becomes  lighter  and 
somewhat  silvery  interiorly  and  posteriorly.  A  dark  rich-brown  band,  with  a  light,  somewhat 
silvery  annulation  proceeds  from  the  middle  of  the  costa  towards  the  inner  margin,  becoming 
paler  interiorly ;  its  basal  margin  being  indistinct,  but  running  almost  straight  across  the  wing, 
its  outer  margin  well  defined,  curving  to  a  rounded  point  which  reaches  to  the  middle  of  the  outer 
third  of  the  wing  and  thence  running  obliquely  inwards,  nearly  to  the  middle  of  the  inner  margin. 
Beyond  this  middle  band  is  a  large,  deep  brown,  somewhat  oval  spot,  also  lighter  below  than  above, 
and  with  a  pale  annulation,  which  is  broken  on  the  outer  side  above,  allowing  the  spot  to  extend 
to  the  margin  of  the  wing.  Above  this  large  spot,  at  the  apex,  is  a  small  perfectly  round  dark 
spot,  with  a  bright  annulation  inclining  to  orange  color.  The  space  enclosed  by  the  middle  band, 
and  these  two  spots  just  described,  is  brown  above,  with  usually  four  lighter  fulvous  costal  marks  quite 
distinct,  each  mark  divided  at  costa  by  a  slight  touch  of  brown.  Another  somewhat  triangular 
brown  spot,  with  a  light  annulation  above,  runs  from  the  posterior  angle  up  between  the  middle 
band  and  large  oval  spot.  The  blue  space  from  the  middle  band  to  the  base  of  wing  is  generally 
brownish  near  the  base,  with  a  brown  line  across  the  middle  from  costa  to  inner  margin,  and  with 
two  other  costal  brown  marks.  The  fringes  partake  of  the  ground-color.  Hind  wings  slate- 
brown,  darkest  near  the  margins  ;  fringes  same  color.  Body  brownish  with  frequently  a  clear 
green  tint.  The  male  differs  prmcipally  in  its  somewhat  smaller  size,  and  especially  in  the  smaller 
size  of  the  abdomen.     Individuals  vary  greatly. 

Described  from  5  J  and  2  (^  specimens,  all  well  preserved  and  fresh. 

Remedies. — This  insect  threatens  to  become  a  grievous  pestunless 
checked  by  some  unforseen  means,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Grape 
curculio.  Luckily,  there  is  at  least  one  parasite  which  attacks  it,  in 
the  shape  of  a  yellowish,  footless  maggot,  with  a  green  tint  and  14 
segments.  I  obtained  such  maggots  from  two  of  the  caterpillars,  one 
having  crawled  out  of  its  host  before,  and  the  other  after  he  had  spun 
up.  Absence  from  home  prevented  my  breeding  this  parasite,  but  it 
would  doubtless  have  produced  some  4-winged  fly  belonging  to  the 
Chalcis  family  (see  PI.  2,  Figs.  6  and  9).  According  to  Mr.  Read,  the 
firstbrood  of  caterpillars  ieed  on  the  leaves,  appearing  in  May  (in  Ohio) 
or  as  soon  as  the  leaves  are  grown.  The  worms  which  appear  in  our 
grapes  in  July  are,  therefore,  the  second  brood,  and  there  is  doubtless 
a  third  brood,  for  Mr.  Rathvon  received  them  in  October,  and  I  have 
taken  the  worm  out  of  a  grape  as  late  as  the  22d  of  September.  The 
broods,  in  all  probability,  run  into  one  another  and  the  last  passes  the 
winter  within  the  cocoon,  either  in  the  larva  or  pupa  state.  They 
should,  therefore,  be  searched  for  early  in  the  season  on  the  leaves. 
The  second  brood  of  worms,  or  those  which  infest  grapes,  can  easily 
be  espied  and  destroyed  in  a  healthy  vineynrd  ;  but  where  a  vineyard 

*Heinemann  and  Lederer  unite  the  genus  Penlhina  wrth  Grapholitha,  under  the  latter  name, 
and  I  believe  Mr.  C  T.  Robinson,  of  New  York,  follows  then)  in  this  respect. 


136 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


is  affected  with  what  Prof.  Turner,  of  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  designates 
as  the  "American  Grape  rot,"  the  grape  attacked  by  the  Codling  are 
not  so  easily  distinguished,  as  they  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
rotting  ones.  Care  should  be  taken  in  gathering  the  infested  grapes 
for  the  worm  being  very  active  wriggles  away  and  easily  escapes. 


THE   EIGHT-SPOTTED   FORESTER,   Alypia  octomaculata,  Fabr. 

PL  1,  Figs.  18  and  i9. 

(Lepidoptera,    Zygjenidse.) 

At  Plate  1,  Figure  19,  is  represented  a  caterpillar  which  has  been 
sent  to  me  by  several  correspondents  with  the  statement  that  it  was 
found  on  their  grape  vines,  and  during  the  month  of  May,  I  found  the 
same  caterpillar  on  the  vines  of  Mr.  T.  R.  Skinner,  of  Cheltenham, 
and  of  Mr.  Peabody,  of  Sulphur  Springs.  It  grows  to  the  length  of 
li  inches,  and  is  transversely  striped  with  bluish-white  and  black, 
about 4  white  and  4  black  lines  on  each  segment,  with  two  small  black 
spots  in  the  middle  light  band  on  the  back.  The  head  and  a  shield 
on  the  first  segment  are  shiny  gamboge-yellow,  with  black  dots,  and 
on  the  11th  segment  there  is  an  orange  elevation,  not  shiny  and  with 
two  black  spots  in  it.  From  similar  caterpillars,  which  were  taken  from 
grape  vines  in  1865  I  bred  in  the  spring  of  1866  the  moth  figured  at 
Plate  1,  Figure  18,  known  as  the  Eight  Spotted  Forester  {Ahipia 
octomaGulata^  Fabr.)  It  is  recognized  at  once  by  its  conspicuous 
markings,  being  of  a  black  color  with  orange  shanks,  each  of  the  fore 
wings  with  two  large  light  yellow  spots  and  each  of  the  hind  wings 
with  two  white  spots.  The  caterpillars  leave  the  vines  during  the 
month  of  June,  and  descend  into  the  earth  where  they  form  for  them- 
selves slight  cocoons  of  earth  in  which  they  remain  through  the 
winter  and  from  which  the  moth  escapes  the  following  April. 

It  is  not  probable  that  this  caterpillar  which  may  be  called  the 
Blue  Caterpillar  of  the  vine,  will  ever  become  exceedingly  numerous, 
for  it  has  not  been  known  to  become  so  in  the  past,  and  this  hasty 
sketch  of  its  history  is  given  principally  for  the  gratification  of  the 
intelligent  grape-grower  who  takes  pleasure  in  thoroughly  understand- 
ing and  knowing,  in  all  their  different  guises,  the  creatures  he  has  to 
deal  with. 

There  are  two  other  caterpillars  very  much  resembling  this,  which 
also  feed  on  the  vine ;  but  they  produce  very  different  looking  moths, 
the  one  known  as  Eudryas  grata,  Fabr.,  and  the  other  as  EwJryas 
ii)ii<\  Hiibner.  Dr.  Fitch  in  his  3d  Report  §123  states  that  the  larva 
of  E.  grata  differs  only  from  that  of  A.  octomaculata  in  lacking  a 
white  spot  on  each  side  of  every  segment,  and  in  being  slightly 
humped  at  its  hind  end.    The  specimen  from  which  my  figure  was 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  137 

made  may  prove  to  be  E.  grata^  for  it  had  no  such  white  spots  and 
%oas  humped ;  hut  it  differs  essentially  from  the  most  excellent  de- 
scription of  this  last  larva  which  A.  S.  Packard,  Jr.,  has  given  in  his 
"notes  on  the  family  Zyga^nidtB,  pp.  27-29,  and  sufficiently  resembles 
those  from  which  I  actually  bred  the  8-si3otted  Forester. 


THE  GRAPE-VINE  PLUME,   Pterophorus  periscelidactylus,  Fitch. 
Plate  2,  Figs.  15  and  16. 

(Lepidoptera,  Alucitidae.) 

During  the  latter  part  of  May  and  beginning  of  June,  the  leaves 
of  the  grape-vine  may  often  be  seen  drawn  together  by  silken  threads 
and  in  the  retreat  thus  made  will  be  lound  a  small  hairy  caterpillar 
which  feeds  on  the  tender  leaves  of  the  vine.  This  caterpillar  grows 
to  the  length  of  about  half  an  inch;  the  color  of  the  body  is  very 
pale  green  and  has  four  elevated  white  spots  and  two  still  smaller 
dots  on  every  segment,  from  which  spring  stiff  white  hairs  in  all 
directions. 

This  caterpillar  was  quite  common  last  summer  in  many  sections 
of  the  State.  It  was  first  named  by  Dr.  Fitch,  who  found  it  on  the 
vine  in  the  State  of  New  York.  A  number  which  I  brought  home 
changed  to  chrysalids  during  the  first  days  of  June,  and  the  rnioths 
were  produced  from  them  in  about  8  days  afterwards.  The  worm  first 
spins  a  few  threads  of  silk  to  the  underside  of  a  leaf,  or  other  object, 
and  the  chrysalis  attaches  the  lower  part  of  the  terminal  segments 
to  them,  and  hangs  with  the  tail  somewhat  curved,  at  a  slant  of  40° 
from  the  object,  as  represented  at  Plate  2,  Figure  1(>.  This  chrysalis 
measures  0.35 — O.-IO  in  length,  is  of  a  light-green  color  and  of  peculiar 
form.  It  is  ridged,  with  remnants  of  the  tubercles  of  the  caterpillar. 
It  is  angular  and  cut  off  slantingly  and  bluntly  at  the  head,  but  is 
characterised  principally  by  two  sharp  and  angulated  projections 
from  the  middle  of  the  back,  and  which  are  enlarged  under  the  figure 
16,  in  Plate  2.* 

The  moth  (PL  2,  Fig.  15)  is  of  a  tawny  yellow  color,  the  wings 
marked  with  white  and  with  a  darker  shade.  The  caterpillars  disap- 
pear very  suddenly,  for  the  chrysalis  is  so  small  and  so  nearly  the 
color  of  the  leaf,  that  it  would  be  seldom  noticed,  even  it  were  not  so 
well  hidden.  There  are  probably  two  broods  in  the  year,  though  I 
failed  to  find  any  trace  of  them  after  the  first  had  disappeared. 

All  the  moths  of  the  family  (Alucitid.e)  to  which  this  belongs 
have  very  appopriately  received  the  name  of  Plumes.  In  the  genus 
Pterophorus  the  fore    wings    are    divided    into    two    and    the    hind 

*Dr.  Fitch  has  given  a  most  excellent  and  full  description  of  this  chrysalis  in  his  1st  Report 
pp.  140-111. 


138 


FIRST   ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 


wings  into  three  lobes,  and  to  show  how  very  different  insects  may 
be  in  the  larva  state,  both  in  habit  and  appearance,  even  when 
they  belong  to  the  same  genus  and  greatly  resemble  each  other  in 
the  perfect  state,  I  have  represented  at  Plate  2,  Figure  13,  another 
Plume,  which  I  shall  presently  describe  as  the  Thistle  Plume. 

Remedies. — Whenever  they  become  numerous,   as  they  did  last 
summer,  the  only  remedy  is  hand-picking. 


(Orthoptera,   Achetidso.) 

This  insect  is  represented  in  the  annexed  cuts.  Figure  77  showing 
the  male,  and  Figure  78  the  female.  The  general  color  is  a  delicate 
[Fig.  77.]  greenish,  semi-transparent  white,  though  some  speci- 
mens have  a  blackish  shade.  From  the  fact  that  it  is 
known  to  devour  plant-lice  and  likewise  the  eggs  of 
some  moths,  I  was  formerly  in  doubts  whether  it 
should  be    considered  [Fig-  78.] 

friend  or  foe,  but  the  ex- 
perience of  the  past  year 
settles  the  matter  defi- 
nitely, for  it  has  proved 
very  destructive  to  the  vine.  The  female  deposits  her  eggs  in  grape 
canes,  raspberry  and  blackberry  canes,  in  the  twigs  of  the  peach, 
White  willow,  and  a  variety  of  other  trees.  In  depositing,  she  makes 
a  straight,  longitudinal,  contiguous  row  of  punctures,  each  puncture 
about  the  size  of  that  which  would  be  made  by  an  ordinary  pin. 
From  each  of  these  holes,  a  narrow,  yellowish,  elongate  egg^  runs 
slantingly  across  the  pith.  The  twigs  or  canes  thus  punctured  almost 
invariably  die  above  the  punctured  part,  and  the  injury  thus  caused 
to  vines  is  sometimes  considerable. 

But  by  far  the  worst  habit  of  the  Tree-cricket  is  that  of  severing 
grapes  from  the  bunches  just  as  they  are  beginning  to  ripen,  audit 
sometimes  cuts  off  an  entire  bunch,  or  so  thoroughly  excoriates  the 
stem  that  it  fails  to  ripen  its  berries.  I  have  seen  the  ground  under 
some  vines  covered  with  grapes  which  had  been  thus  severed,  but 
should  never  have  accused  the  Tree-cricket,  had  I  not  found  it  in  the 
very  act,  and  received  specimens  with  accounts  of  this  same  habit, 
both  from  Mr.  B.  L.  Kingsbury,  of  Alton,  Illinois,  and  from  J.  H.  Tice, 
of  St.  Louis.  This  cricket  is  aided  in  this  destructive  work  by  another 
species  which  has  the  same  habit,  namely  the  Jumping  Tree-cricket 
(Oroc/mris  saltator^Uhler.)  This  last  insect  is  more  robustly  built 
than  the  former,   and  is  at  once   distinguished  by  its  uniform  light' 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  139 

brown  color,  and  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  deposits  its 
eggs  in  the  grape-vine  in  a  row  of  punctures,  each  of  which  is  about 
one-third  of  an  inch  apart,  and  each  of  which  leads  to  from  ten  to 
twelve  narrow  eggs,  about  a  tenth  of  an  inch  long,  and  deposited  on 
either  side  of  the  puncture,  length-wise  in  the  pith. 

IIemedt. — The  crickets  themselves  should  be  crushed  whenever 
met  with,  while  the  vineyardist  should  make  a  business  of  searching 
in  the  winter  time  for  all  punctured  twigs,  and  by  burning  them, 
prevent  their  increase  in  future. 


THE  RASPBERRY  GEOMETER,  Aplodes  riiUvora,  N.  Sp.  —PI.  2, 

Figure  25. 

(Lepidoptera  Geometrida3.) 

The  lovers  of  those  most  exquisite  fruits,  the  Raspberry  and  the 
Blackberry  are  often  greatly  disgusted  by  the  discovery  of  the  fact 
that  instead  of  the  delicious  berry  which  they  expected  to  enjoy,  they 
are  munching  the  small  caterpillar  now  under  consideration.  This 
caterpillar  was  quite  numerous  last  summer  on  both  the  above  named 
fruits  at  South  Pass,  Illinois.  It  has  the  peculiar  faculty  of  thorough- 
ly  disguising  itself  with  pieces  of  dried  berry,  seed,  pollen,  and  other 
debris  of  the  fruit,  which  it  sticks  to  a  series  of  prickles  with  which  it 
is  furnished.  Add  to  this  disguise  the  habit  which  it  has  ot  looping 
itself  into  a  small  ball,  and  it  almost  defies  detection.  It  is  most  nu- 
merous during  the  months  of  June  and  July.  Through  the  kindness 
of  Mr.  T.  A.  E.  Holcomb,  of  South  Pass,  I  was  enabled  to  breed  this 
insect  to  the  perfect  state.  From  two  specimens  of  the  larvoe  which 
he  sent  me,  I  bred  from  one,  July  9th,  the  little  moth  which  is  illus- 
trated at  Plate  2,  Figure  25,  the  other  being  infested  with  a  parasite 
which  formed  a  tough  cocoon,  very  much  like  that  of  a  parasitic  fly 
{Campoplex  fugitivus^^&.y)^  which  I  have  bred  from  milkweed  feeding 
larva?  of  EuGhoetus  egle^  Harris.  This  little  moth  is  of  a  delicate  light 
grass-green  color,  with  two  paler  lines  running  across  both  wings  as 
in  the  figure.  It  belongs  to  the  genus  Aplodes,  and  as  I  am  informed 
by  Dr  Packard,  comes  very  near  to  glaucaria  Guenee,  and  has  not 
hitherto  been  described.  In  the  proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History  (Vol,  IX,  pp.  300-2)  Mr.  Walsh  has  described  an  oak- 
feeding  Geometer  which  closely  resembles  this,  both  in  the  larva  and 
perfect  states.  He  erected  the  new  genus  HipparcMscus,  for  it  and 
gave  it  the  specific  name  vennstus.  It  is  a  much  larger  insect,  and 
differs  in  sundry  respects  from  the  species  under  consideration,  though 
the  moth  is  of  the  same  color  and  somewhat  similarly  marked. 

Aplodes  rdbivora,  N.  Sp.  ^Larva — Average  length  0.80.  Color  light  yellowish-grajs  darker 
just  hehind  each  joint,  and  very  minutely  shagreened  all  over.  On  each  segment  a  prominent 
pointed  straight  projection  each  side  of  dorsum,  and  several  minor  warts  and  prickles  below.  Two 
very  slightly  raised,  longitudinal  lighter  lines  along  dorsum,  between  the  prominent  prickles.  Ten 
legs, 


140  FIRST   ANNUAL   REPORT  OP 

Perfect  insect — Alar  expanse  0.50;  length  of  body  0.25.  Color  verdigris-green,  the  scales  be- 
ing sparse  so  that  the  wings  appear  sub-hyaline.  Fore-wings  with  two  transverse  lighter  lines  di- 
viding the  wing  into  three  parts,  proportionate  in  width  as  3,  4,  2  counting  from  base,  and  parallel 
■with  posterior  margin  ;  also  a  faint  line  between  these  two,  running  to  about  J  of  wing  from  costs. 
Hind  wings  with  two  similar  transverse  lines,  dividing  the  wing  in  like  proportion,  the  outer  line 
Dot  parallel  with  margin,  but  wavy  and  produced  posteriorly  near  its  middle.  Costa  pale  ;  fringes 
obsolete.  Head,  thorax  and  abdomen  greeu  above,  but,  together  with  anteunce  and  palpi,  white 
beneath. 

Described  from  one  $  specimen. 


THE  GOOSEBERRY  FRUIT-WORInI,  Femjyelia  ffrossidarice,  Pack- 
ard.—PI.  2,  Fig.  17. 

(Lepidoptera,  Phycidos). 

On  June  8th,  I  received  from  Mr.  Geo.  II.  Cherry  of  Hematite,  a 
number  of  diseased  gooseberries,  with  an  account  of  their  prema- 
turely turning  red  and  rotting.  The  cause  was  a 
smooth  thick  glass-green  worm  which  is  more 
fully  described  below.  Subsequently  on  the  12th 
of  the  same  month,  I  received  the  same  species 
of  worm  with  a  similar  account  of  its  work,  from 
Mr.  Stephen  Blanchard,  of  Oregon;  on  the  16th  from  Jos.  F.  Bryant, 
of  Bethany,  with  the  statement  that  it  was  "  feeding  on  and  hollowing 
out"  his  currants,  and  on  the  17th  from  Dr.  W.  A.  Monroe  of  Bloom- 
ington  with  the  statement  that  it  v/as  destroying  his  native  gooseber- 
ries and  Green  gage  plums.  Mr.  A.  Fendler  and  F.  R.  Allen,  both  of 
Allenton,  likewise  informed  me  that  it  entirely  ruined  their  currant 
crop,  and  I  afterwards  found  the  same  insect  on  the  currants  and 
gooseberries  wherever  I  went,  and  it  doubtless  occurs  over  the  whole 
country,  for  as  we  shall  presently  see,  it  attacks  the  gooseberry  both 
*  in  the  State  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  in  Canada. 

Dr.  Fitch,  in  his  3d  Report,  §149,  makes  brief  mention  of  it  though 
he  was  not  acquainted  with  the  parent  moth.  He  concludes  his  ac- 
count in  the  following  words  :  "  I  have  sometimes  seen  bushes  of  the 
wild  gooseberry  with  every  berry  withered  and  reduced  to  a  mere 
dry  hollow  shell,  with  a  cob-web  like  tube  protuding  from  the  orifice 
in  one  side.  And  the  present  summer  a  letter  to  the  Cotmty  Gentle- 
man., from  E.  Graves  Jr.  of  Ashfield,  Mass.,  states  that  for  three  years 
past,  his  '  Houghton's  seedling' gooseberries  have  been  a  total  fail- 
ure from  this  same  worm,  as  I  am  assured  by  the  account  which  he 
gives  of  it  and  the  specimens  accompanying  his  letter." 

As  soon  as  gooseberries  and  currants  are  well  formed,  this  worm 
begins  to  make  its  presence  known  by  causing  the  berries  wliich  it 
infests  to  prematurely  turn  red  or  dull  whitish.  After  eating  the  in- 
side of  one  berry,  leaving  a  hole  for  the  passage  of  the  excrement,  it 
enters  another  berry,  making  a  passage  way  of  silk,  until  it  draws  to- 
gether a  bunch  of  currants,  or  two  or  three  gooseberries  as  the  case 
may  ba.    The  berries  thus  attacked  sometimes  drop,  but  more  gener- 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  141 

ally  the  hollow  shell  mixed  with  cob-web-like  silk  shrivels  up  and 
hangs  on  to  the  bushes.  During  the  latter  part  of  June  the  worma 
descend  from  the  shrub  and  spin  for  themselves  brown  cocoons  (Fig. 
79,  a)  in  tlie  leaves  and  rubbish  on  the  ground.  Here  they  change  to 
brown  chrysalids  and  remain  in  this  state  through  the  winter  and 
come  forth  in  the  spring  as  moths.  Thus  there  is  but  one  brood  of  this 
insect  each  year,  and  yet  by  the  middle  of  July  there  is  never  a  worm 
to  be  found,  and  the  chrysalis  consequently  remains  quiescent  alike 
through  the  hottest  summer  and  the  coldest  winter  weather.  As  the 
worms  which  I  procured  are  still  in  the  chrysalis  ?tate,  ]  sliould  have 
been  unable  to  present  the  complete  history  of  this  pest,  in  this  my 
first  report,  had  it  not  been  for  the  kindness  of  Mr.  William  Saunders 
of  London,  Canada,  whom  I  met  in  Chicago,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
"  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  and  who 
very  fortunately  had  with  him  specimens  of  the  moth  which  he  had 
bred  from  gooseberry-feeding  worms,  found  in  Canada,  the  descrip- 
tion of  which  answered  exactly  to  those  of  mine.  Bat  to  make  doubly 
sure  that  the  insect  which  Mr.  Saunders  bred,  is  the  same  species  as 
ours,  I  purposely  forced  one  of  my  chrysalids.  On  the  25th  of  Jan- 
uary, 18G9,  the  markings  of  the  wings  showed  through  the  chysalis 
skin,  v/hich  was  loose  and  brittle.  These  signs  indicated  that  the 
i"orthcoming  moth  was  in  an  advanced  state  of  development,  and  on' 
carelully  taking  away  the  chrysalis  skin,  it  lay  before  me  v/ith  noth- 
ing lacking  to  bring  it  to  perfection  but  the  inflating  of  the  wings. 
Their  markings  were  however  perfect  and  distinct  and  agreed  entirely 
with  the  Canadian  specimen. 

This  moth  is  represented  at  Figure  79,  h  and  still  more  faithfully 
at  Flate  2,  Figure  17,  its  general  color  being  pale  gray.  It  belongs  to 
the  genus  Pempelia^  and  from  advance  sheets  of  Dr.  Packard's 
"  Guide"  I  learn  that  he  has  named  it  P.  grossidarice^  and  it  may  be 
knovv'n  in  English  as  tlie  Gooseberry  Pempelia. 

Remedies. — Care  should  be  taken  to  gather  and  destroy  the  worms 
while  they  are  yet  in  the  fruit,  as  they  are  afterwards  found  in  the 
chrysalis  state  with  great  difficulty.  If  chickens  are  allowed  to  run 
amongst  the  bushes  after  the  fruit  has  gone,  they  will  materially  as- 
sist in  checking  it  by  devouring  such  chrysalids  as  are  within  their 
reach. 

Pempelia  grossulari.e,  Packard — Larva — Average  length  0.65 ;  thickest  in  the  middle  of 
body,  tapering  thence  slightly  each  way.  Color  glass-green,  partly  translucent,  shiny,  and  with 
a  roseate  hue  on  the  upper  surface.  Head  of  a  light  gamboge-yellow,  with  tawny  lips.  Cervical 
shield  not  very  prominent  and  of  the  same  color.  No  other  markings  whatever.  A  few  very  fine 
white  hairs,  especially  near  the  head  and  tail.  16  legs,  the  thoracic  ones  the  same  color  as  head, 
the  others  green. 

Described  from  10  specimens. 

Chrysalis — Length  0.3S.  Of  the  normal  form,  and  dull  mahogany-brown  color.  The  spiracles 
appearing  like  small  tubercles  and  the  extremity  furnished  with  several  stiff  rufous  curled  bristles. 

Perfect  insect, — Length,  including  palpi,  0.40  ;  alar  expanse,  0.80.  Color  pale-gray.  Front 
wings  with  a  dark  transverse  diffuse  band  on  the  inner  third,  enclosing  a  zig-zag  white  line  not 
reaching  the  costa.    A  dark  discal  gpot,  constricted  in  the  middle,  the  upper  and   lower  edges  con- 


142 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


tinned  basally  in  tbe  shape  of  two  faint  lines  to  the  transverse  band  already  mentioned,  wbere  they 
almost  converge,  the  space  enclosed  by  them  being- whiter  tlian  the  rest  of  the  wing,  with  a  darker 
line  along  the  middle.  Beyond  this  discal  spot,  at  about  the  onter  fourth  of  tlie  wing  is  another 
dark  but  less  distinct  diffuse  transverse  band,  nearly  parallel  with  posterior  margin  and  with  a  white 
zig-zag  line  produced  into  an  acute  angle,  basally,  on  the  internal  margin,  the  space  between  this 
band  and  the  discal  spot  being  also  quite  light.  A  row  of  marginal  black  dots,  with  the  apex  light. 
Fringes  concolorous.  Hind  wings  somewhat  more  dusky  with  darker  margins  and  veins  and  lighter 
fringes.  Head,  thorax,  abdomen,  antenna^,  palpi  and  legs  all  pale  gray,  being  more  silvery  on  the 
under  than  on  the  upper  side. 

One  specimen  from  Wm.  Saunders. 


THE     STRAWBERRY    LEAF-ROLLER,    Anchylopera 
Walsh  and  Riley— Fl.  2,  Figs.  26  and  27. 


fragaAcB^ 


The  above  figure  represents  an  insect  which  devours  the  leaves 
of  our  strawberries.  A  more  perfect  picture  of  the  moth  is  given 
enlarged  at  Plate  2,  Figure  26,  and  of  the  natural  size  at  Figure  27. 
It  was  first  described  in  the  January  number  of  the  AmeriGan  Ento- 
mologist^ from  which  I  take  the  following  account  of  it. 

For  nearly  two  years,  we  have  been  acquainted  with  a  little  green- 
ish leaf-roller,  measuring  about  one-third  of  an  inch,  (Fig.  80,  a),  which 
in  certain  parts  of  North  Illinois  and  Indiana,  has  been  ruining  the 
strawberry  fields  in  a  most  wholesale  manner;  and  which  also  occurs 
in  Canada,  judging  from  an  account  in  the  Cariada  Farmer  of  Au- 
gust 1, 1867.  It  crumples  and  folds  the  leaves,  feeding  on  their  pulpy 
substance,  and  causing  them  to  appear  dry  and  seared,  and  most  usu- 
ally lines  the  inside  of  the  fold  with  silk.  There  are  two  broods  of 
this  leaf  roller  during  the  year,  and  the  worms  of  the  first  brood, 
which  appear  during  the  month  of  June,  change  to  the  pupa  state 
within  the  rolled- up  leaf,  Piid  become  minute  reddish-brown  moths 
(Fig.  80  c)  during  the  fore  part  of  July.  After  pairing  in  the  usual 
manner,  the  females  deposit  their  eggs  on  the  plants,  from  which  eggs 
in  duo  time,  hatches  a  second  brood  of  worms.  These  last  come  to 
their  growth  towards  the  end  of  Sei)tember,  and  changing  to  pupre, 
pass  the  winter  in  that  state. 

We  first  heard  of  this  leaf  roller  in  the  summer  of  1866,  when  it 
did  considerable  damage  at  Valparaiso,  Indiana,  and  we  Avere  in- 
formed by  Mr.  N.  R.  Strong,  of  that  place,  that  in  1S67  they  continued 
their  depredations  with  him,  and  destroyed  10  acres  so  completely  as 
not  to  leave  plants  enough  to  set  half  an  acre,  and  that  in  consequence 


Me  state  entomologist.  143 

of  this  little  pest  in  conjunction  with  the  White-grub,  he  has  had  to 
abandon  strawberry  culture. 

When  we  met  the  ad  interim  committee  of  the  Illinois  State 
Horticultural  Society  at  Lacon,  in  the  beginning  of  July,  1868,  we 
received  from  these  gentlemen  a  quantity  of  infested  strawberry 
leaves,  from  which  in  the  course  of  the  next  two  or  three  weeks  we 
bred  many  of  the  moths.  These  specimens  had  heen  collected  at  JMr. 
Bubaugh's  place,  near  Princeton,  Illinois,  where  they  were  said  to  be 
very  abundant,  and  to  have  completely  destroyed  one  strawberry 
patch  containing  several  acres. 

Subsequently  we  received  another  lot  of  specimens  from  Mr.  W. 
E.  Lukens,  of  Sterling,  Whiteside,  county,  Illinois,  with  the  following 
remarks  upon  this  very  important  subject: 

"Where  these  insects  are  thick  I  would  never  think  of  raising 
strawberries.  It  is  strange  that  I  have  not  noticed  any  of  their  work 
upon  this  side  the  river;  while  on  the  south  side  for  a  mile  up  and 
down  they  are  ruining  the  crops  of  berries.  Removing  the  plants 
does  not  take  with  them  the  moth  nor  the  eggs,  so  far  as  has  been  ob- 
served. A  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Kimball, at  Prophetstown,had 
his  crop  a  few  years  ago  entirely  destroyed  by  this  insect,  though  it 
amounted  in  all  to  two  or  three  acres.  I  hear  of  a  great  many  men  in 
other  places  having  their  crops  burnt  up  with  the  sun,  and  have  no 
doubt  that  it  was  this  leaf-roller,  and  not  the  sun,  that  was  the  real 
author  of  the  damage.  As  for  myself,  I  have  on  this  account  entirely 
quit  the  business  of  growing  strawberries." 

The  only  modes  of  fighting  this  new  and  very  destructive  foe  of 
the  strawberry — wiiich,  however,  seems  to  be  confined  to  northerly 
regions — are,  first,  to  plough  up  either  in  the  springer  in  the  fall,  such 
patches  as  are  badly  infested  by  it,  by  which  means  the  pupa?  will 
probably  be  buried  and  destroyed ;  and  second,  not  to  procure  any 
plants  from  an  infested  region,  so  as  to  run  the  risk  of  introducing  the 
plague  upon  your  own  farm. 

We  annex  brief  descriptions  of  this  insect,  both  in  the  perfect  and  larval  states.  We  are  in- 
debted to  the  distinguished  English  Microlepidopterist,  H.  T.  Stainton,  for  the  generic  determina- 
tion of  the  species,  and  for  the  farther  remark  that  "it  is  closely  allied  to  the  European  Anchylopc- 
ra  compiana  (Manual  Vol.  II,  p.  225),  which  feeds  on  various  Rosacea;,  such  as  Poterium  sangui- 
iorba,  Potentilla  verna,  and  Diyas  oclopelala." 

Anchylopera  fhagari.e.  New  species — Head  and  thorax  reddish-brown.  Palpi  and  legs  paler. 
Antenna;  dusky.  Tarsal  joints  tipped  with  dusky.  Front  wings  reddish-brown,  streaked  and  spot- 
ted with  black  and  white  as  in  the  figure.  Hind  wings  and  abdomen  dusky.  Alar  expan?e  0.40- 
O.'lo  inch.     Described  from  nine  specimens. 

The  Laiva  measures,  when  full  grown,  0.36  of  an  inch.  Largest  on  the  first  segment  taper- 
ing thence  very  slightly  to  the  last.  Color  varying  from  very  light  yellowish-brown  to  dark  olive- 
green  or  brown.  Body  soft,  somewhat  translucent,  without  polish  ;  the  piliferous  spots  quite 
large,  shiuing,  always  light  in  color,  contrasting  strongly  in  the  dark  specimens  with  the  ground 
color.  Hairs,  especially  lateral  ones,  quite  stout  and  stiff.  Spots  arranged  in  the  normal  form, 
segments  2  and  3  having  none,  however,  on  their  posterior  half  as  have  the  rest  (See  Fig.  80,  6) 
Head  horizontal,  of  a  shining  fulvous  color,  with  a  more  or  less  distinct  dark  eye-spot  and  tawny 
upper  lip.  Cervical  shield  of  the  same  shiny  appearani'e.  Anal  segment  with  two  black  spots 
(See  Fig.  80,  d)  at  posterior  edge,  being  confluent  and  forming  an  entire  black  edge  in  some  speci- 
mens.    Legs,  prolegs,  and  venter  of  the  same  color  as  the  body  above. 


144  FIRST  ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 

THE   WHITE-MARKED   TUSSOCK   MOTR—Orffi/ia    leucoaiigma, 

Sm.  &  Abbott. 

(Lepidoptera,  Arctiidse.) 
[Fig.  81.] 


ah  c  d/ 

During  the  winter  little  bunches  of  dead  leaves  are  sometimes 
found  to  be  quite  numerous  on  our  apple  trees.  They  are  generally 
fastened  to  the  twigs,  and  upon  examination  are  found  to  contain  gray 
cocoons.  The  greater  portion  of  these  cocoons  have  an  egg-mass 
glued  to  them,  which  is  composed  of  numerous  perfectlj'  round,  cream- 
colored  eggs,  of  about  0.03  diameter,  and  partly  covered  with  glisten- 
ing white  froth-like  matter ;  while  the  other  proportion  of  these  cocoons 
have  no  such  egg-mass. 

About  the  middle  of  the  month  of  May  these  eggs  begin  to  hatch, 
and  continue  thus  to  hatch  in  different  parts  of  the  orchard  for  over  a 
month.  The  young  caterpillar  which  hatches  from  these  eggs  is  rep- 
resented at  Figure  81,  5.  It  at  first  measures  0.10  in  length,  and  is  of 
a  dull,  whitish-gray  color  with  the  underside  paler  or  ot  a  dirty  white, 
and  with  the  tufts  on  the  back  of  a  dark  brown.  In  two  days  after 
hatching,  orange  spots  commence  to  appear  along  the  back,  and  espe- 
cially on  segments  2,  3,  8  and  9.  On  the  seventh  day  after  having  re- 
mained stationary  for  about  two  days,  fastened  to  some  part  of  the 
tree  with  silk,  it  casts  its  skin  for  tiie  first  time,  after  which  operation 
the  hairs  are  more  numerous,  the  dark  portions  more  intensely  black- 
the  orange  parts  of  a  brighter  orange  and  the  two  tufts  near  the  head 
longer.  As  it  approaches  the  time  of  the  second  moult,  the  underside 
becomes  more  glaucous,  a  yellow  line  begins  to  appear  at  the  sides, 
and  in  some  cases  the  orange  marks  become  yellow,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  small,  perfectly  round  spot  on  segments  9  and  10  which  al- 
ways remains  orange;  the  neck  or  first  segment,  where  it  joins  the 
head,  also  becomes  orange  or  yellow.  Six  days  from  the  time  of  the 
first  moult  the  second  moult  takes  place,  the  worm  having  become 
lighter  colored  each  day.  Immediately  after  the  sliedding  of  the  sec- 
ond skin  it  measures  0.30;  the  collar  is  more  intensely  orange  as  well 
as  the  head,  while  four  cream-colored  tufts  appear  on  the  back  of  seg- 
ments 4,  5,  6  and  T,  and  the  two  round  spots  on  segments  9  and  10  are 
of  a  very  bright  scarlet-orange.  As  it  grows  and  approaches  the  third 
moult,  the  orange  collar  becomes  more  conspicuous,  the  back  be- 
comes of  a  perfect  velvety  black ;    the  cream-colored  tufts  become 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


1^5 


smaller,  whiter,  and  the  fourth  frequently  obsolete;  a  transverse  row 
of  tour  yellow  warts  becomes  conspicuous  on  segments  2  and  3-  a 
subdorsal  yellowish  line  appears,  starting  from  segments  and  running 
and  diminishing  posteriorly;  the  upper  sides  become  of  a  dark  bluish- 
gray,  while  the  yellow  line  along  the  lower  sides  becomes  more  dis- 
tinct. Six  days  after  the  second  moult  the  third  moult  takes  place 
with  but  linle  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  caterpillar,  further 
than  that  the  different  colors  become  still  more  bright  and  distinct 
and  the  different  tufts  still  larger. 

Up  to  this  time  all  the  individuals  of  a  brood  have  been  alike,  and 
of  a  size,  so  tiiat  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish  the  sexes.  Six  days 
from  the  third  moult,  however,  the  males  measure  not  quite  |  of .  an 
inch,  and  begin  to  spin  their  cocoons;  while  the  females  undergo 
a  fourth  moult  about  this  time,  and  in  about  six  days  more  they  also- 
spin  up,  having  acquired  twice  the  size  of  the  male  when  he  spun  up. 
'^^''""  ^'  ^  The  annexed  Figure  82  rep- 

resents the  full  grown  female 
•aterpillar,  it  differing  from  the 
hilf  grown  male  only  in  its 
larger  size.  At  this  stage  of  its 
existence  the  caterpillar  is  a 
most  beautiful  object,  with  its 
vermillion-red  head  and  collar, 
its  cream-colored  brushes  and  its  long  black  plumes. 

When  young  these  caterpillars  make  free  use  of  a  fine  web  which 
they  spin,  and  by  which  they  let  themselves  down  when  disturbed, 
and  it  is  quite  amusing  to  watch  them  ascend  again  whenever  they 
have  become  sufficiently  assured  that  there  is  no  danger.  They  per- 
form this  feat  with  the  thoracic  legs,  using  those  of  each  side  alter- 
nately, the  body  and  head  being  thrown  from  side  to  side  in  harmony 
very  much  as  a  sailor  climbs  a  rope  "  hand  over  hand." 

It  may  puzzle  some  persons  to  divine  how  such  a  hairy  and  tufted 
caterpillar  can  possibly  cast  off  its  skin  and  yet  retain  these  pretty 
appendages.  Alter  having  remained  stationary  without  food  for  about 
two  days,  the  old  skin  becomes  dry  and  somewhat  loose.  If  at  this 
time  this  old  skin  be  carefully  removed,  it  will  be  found  that  an  en- 
tirely new  set  of  these  appendages  has  been  forming  underneath  it; 
the  two  long  plumes  curled  over  the  head,  down  by  the  feet  and  up 
again  to  near  the  scaly  collar;  the  four  white  brushes  folded  close 
together  inwardly  crossing  each  other;  the  anal  plume  folded  below 
the  anus,  and  all  the  other  hairs  laid  in  thread-like  bunches  close  to 
the  body  in  a  posterior  direction.  In  due  time  the  old  skin  splits  on 
the  back,  near  tbe  head,  and  the  caterpillar  gradually  works  it  off  pos- 
teriorly. The  moment  they  are  exposed  the  appendages  which  had 
been  compressed,  as  described,  to  the  body,  commence  to  straighten. 
10  R  8  B 


146  FIRST   ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

out,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  new  dress  is  displayed  in  all  its  beauty 
and  freshness.  The  long  plumes  at  the  head  do  not  straighten  out  of 
their  own  accord,  however,  for  the  caterpillar  by  a  curious  curling  of 
the  body,  while  resting  on  a  few  of  its  abdominal  prolegs,  cunningly 
brushes  them  with  its  tail  end,  first  on  one  side,  then  on  the  other.  It 
furthermore  presses  them,  for  the  same  end,  one  after  the  other 
against  any  surface  on  which  it  is  at  the  time  walking,  and  having  once 
thoroughly  straightened  out  its  toilet  it  rests  a  few  minutes  from  its  ef- 
forts and  then  commences  to  feed  with  surprising  vigor,  apparently 
determined  to  make  up  for  its  two  day's  fast. 

The  male  cocoon  is  white  or  yellowish,  and  sufficiently  tiiin  to 
show  the  insect  within  it.  It  is  formed  of  two  layers,  the  outer  one 
having  the  tufts  and  plumes  which  adorned  the  maker,  scattered 
through  it.  The  female  cocoon  is  twice  as  large  and  more  solid  and 
dense. 

Soon  after  completing  his  cocoon  the  male  changes  to  a  chrysalis, 
which  is  represented  of  the  natural  size  at  Figure  8^,  d     The  female, 
in  due  time,  changes  to  a  very  different  chrysalis,  which  is  also  repre- 
sented life-size  at  Figure  81,  g.        In  about  two  weeks  alter  spinning 
up,  the  moths  begin  to  issue.    In  this  state  the  sexes  are  still  more 
dissimilar.    The  male  produces  a  winged  moth,  which  is  represented 
Fig-  83.         at  Figure  83,  while  the  female  is  furnished  with  but 
the   merest  rudiments  of   wings,    and   is   destined  t-o 
simply  crawl  to  the  outside  of  her  cocoon,  where,  after 
the  male  has  met  her,  she  deposits  her  eggs,  gluing  and 
protecting  them  with  the  white  frothy  matter  already 
described,  which,  at  this  time,  has  every  appearance 
of  spittle.      She  is  faithfully  represented   at   Figure 
ol,  «,  and  after  depositing  her  eggs,  the  body  greatly 
contracts  and  she  soon  dies. 
Such  is  an  outline  of  the  natural  history  of  this  pretty,  but  de- 
structive caterpillar.    In  our  State   there  are  two  broods  each  year, 
the  moths  of  the  first  brood  appearing  during  the  latter  part  of  May 
and  fore  part  ot  June,  and  those  of  the  second  brood  in  September 
and  October.    The  periods  given  for  the  transformations  are  average 
periods,  and  in  further  illustration  of  the  difficulty  in  drawing  rigid 
lines  of  time  in  the  development  of  insects,  I  will  state  that  from  a 
hundred  larvn?  which  hatch  out  in  a  single  day,  some  will  have  pro- 
duced moths  while  others  are  yet  feeding  in  the  caterpillar  state. 

This  insect  seems  to  occur  more  or  less  over  the  whole  country, 
and  I  have  repeatedly  received  its  egg-masses  during  the  past  two 
winters.  It  is,  however,  as  we  might  expect  from  its  nature,  often 
confined  like  the  Canker-worm,  to  particular  orchards  in  a  particular 
neio'hborhood.  It  feeds  upon  different  kinds  of  trees,  such  as  the 
elm,  maple,  horse-chestnut  and  oak,  but  it  seems  to  prefer  the  apple, 
the  plum,  the  rose  and  the  pear. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


117 


"Remedies. — Dr.  Fitch  has  described  two  parisites,  wliich  attack 
this  caterpillar,  and  I  am  acquainted  with  seven  others,  making  in  all 
nine  distinct  parasites,  which  prey  upon  this  species.  It  was  my  in- 
tention to  have  described  and  figured  some  of  these  parasites,  but  the 
time  in  which  this  Report  must  be  ready  for  the  Public  Printer  for- 
bids my  doing  so,  the  present  year,  and  it  suffices  to  say  that  in  col- 
lecting the  cocoons  in  the  winter  in  order  to  destroy  them,  none  hut 
those  which  have  the  eg^-7nass^  on  them,  should  he  taken^  as  all  the 
others^  either  contain  the  ewpty  male  cJi  ry  sal  is  or  else  ^ome  friendly 
parasite!  From  the  fact  that  the  female  never  travels  beyond  her 
cocoon,  it  becomes  obvious  that,  since  the  insect  can  onlj'-  travel  in 
the  caterpillar  state,  it  would  require  over  a  century  for  it  to  spread 
«ven  a  hundred  miles.  Hencei  we  may  rightly  conclude  that  it  has 
been  introduced  to  different  parts  of  the  country  in  the  egg  state  on 
young  imported  trees.  How  essential  it  is  then  to  examine  every 
tree  in  planting  out  a  young  orchard,  and  how  easy  it  is  with  the 
proper  precautions  to  forever  keep  an  orchard  free  from  its  destruc- 
tive work.  As  already  stated,  the  young  worms  let  themselves  down 
wpon  slightly  jarring  the  tree,  and  though  after  the  third  moult  they 
lose  this  habit  to  a  great  extent,  yet  they  may  always  be  brought 
down  by  a  good  thorough  shake,  and  where  they  have  once  invaded 
an  orchard,  this  will  be  found  the  most  feasible  mode  of  killing  them; 
though  prevention  by  destroying  the  egg-masses  in  the  winter  when 
they  are  easily  discerned,  is  infinitely  the  best  aad  surest  remedy 
against  its  attacks. 


THE  BAG-WORM,  alias  BASKET-WORM,  alias  DROP-WORM- 
Tliyridopt^ryx  ephemerceformis^  Haworth, 

-(Lepi^opteTa,  Psychidat^. 


Out  shade  and  ornamental  trees  are  often  defoliated  by  various 
liisects,  and  I  will  give  brief  accounts  of  three  which  have  attracted 


148  FIKST   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

my  attention  during  the  past  summer.  Of  these,  the  insect  whose 
transformations  are  illustrated  above,  is  by  far  the  most  common  and 
injurious.  It  apparently  flourishes  better  south  of  latitude  39°  than 
north  of  that  line.  It  occurs  on  Long  Island,  and  in  different  localities 
in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Maryland,  District  of  Colombia,  the  Carolinas, 
Georgia.  Alabama,  Kentucky,  South  Illinois  and  in  the  southern  half  of 
our  own  State,  and  doubtless  in  some  of  tiie  other  Stales,  though  I 
have  no  records  to  judge  by  In  St.  Louis  county  it  is  very  plentilul. 
Year  after  year  shade  trees  are  planted  along  the  streets  and  avenues 
of  this  city,  and  year  after  year  a  great  proportion  of  them  dwindle 
and  die,  until  at  last  the  opinion  ver^^  generally  prevails  among  land- 
owners that  it  is  of  little  use  to  try  and  grow  them.  Consequently 
they  are  not  as  generally  planted  as  they  should  be,  and  St.  Louis, 
with  all  her  natural  advantages,  lacks  to  a  great  extent,  those  beau- 
tiful vistas  and  long  rows  of  trees  which  so  characterize  and  adorn 
Bome  of  our  more  Eastern  cities. 

Why  is  it  that  80  many  of  these  trees  dwindle?  No  one  seeing 
to  know!  Can  it  be  owing  to  the  character  of  the  soil,  or  of  the  cli- 
mate? Most  emphatically,  no  !— in  these  respect-*  there  is  no  more 
favored  city  on  the  continent,  and  for  the  proof  we  nee;i  only  to  visit 
Mr.  Shaw's  beautiful  gardens,  or  Lafayette  Park,  or  any  of  the  nur- 
geries  around  the  city.  What  then,  is  the  ciuse?  Why,  the  very  B.^g- 
worm  which  forms  the  subject  of  this  article.  It  swarms  all  over  the 
city  proper,  but  decreases  in  numbers,  as  a  general  rule,  as  one  ap- 
proaches or  gets  beyond  the  limits,  and  is  comparatively  rare  in  the 
above  mentioned  places.  The  reason  for  this  is  obvious  when  we 
understand  its  history,  for  it  can  sprearl  but  gradually,  and  has  naiur- 
ally  multiplied  most  in  those  places  where  it  h;is  longest  existed — 
namely,  in  the  older  parts  of  the  town. 

The  natural  history  of  the  insect  is  interesting,  and  may  be  thus 
briefly  given  : 

Thoughout  the  winter  the  w^eather-beaten  bags  may  be  seen  hang- 
ing from  almost  every  kind  df  tree.  Upon  plucking  them  many  will 
be  found  empty,  but  the  greater  ppportion  of  them  will,  on  being 
cut  open,  present  the  appearance  given  at  Figure  81,  e;  they  are  in 
fact  full  of  soft  yellow  eggs.  Those  which  uo  not  coniain  eggs  are 
the  male  bags  and  his  empty  chrysalis  skims  generally  found  protrud- 
ing from  the  lower  end.  About  the  middle  of  next  M  ly  these  eggs 
will  hatch  into  active  little  worms,  which,  fro  ii  ihe  flrst  moment  of 
their  lives,  commence  to  form  for  themselves  little  bags.  They  crawl 
on  to  a  tender  leaf,  and,  attached  to  their  anterior  leet  with  their  t  lils 
hoisted  in  the  air,  they  each  spin  around  tliemselves  a  ring  of  silk,  to 
which  they  soon  fasten  bits  ol  leaf.  They  continue  adding  to  the  lower 
edge  of  the  ring,  pushing  it  up  as  it  increases  in  width,  till  it  reaches 
the  tail  and  forms  a  sort  of  cone,  as  represented  at  Figure  84,^.  As 
the  worms  grow,  they  continue  to  iui.-.rease  their  bags  from  the  bot- 
tom, until  the  latter  bt^oiue  so  large  and  heavy    that  the  w^orms  let 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


149 


tKemhanij  instead  of  holding  them  upright,  as  they  did  while  they  were 
young.  By  the  end  ot  July  they  have  become  full  grown,  when  they 
presejit  the  appearance  of  Figure  84,  f.  The  worm  on  being  pulled 
out,  appearing  as  at  Figure  84,  a.  This  full  grown  condition  is  not 
attained,  however,  without  critical  periods.  At  four  dilferent  times 
during  their  growth  these  worms  close  up  the  mouths  of  their  bags 
and  retire  for  two  days  to  cast  their  skins  or  moult,  as  is  the  nature  of 
their  kind,  and  they  push  their  old  skins  through  a  passage  which  is 
always  left  open  at  the  extremity  of  the  bag,  and  which  also  allows 
the  passage  of  the  excrement. 

During  their  growth  they  are  very  slow  traveler^)  and  seldom 
leave  lhe°tree  on  which  they  were  born,  but  when  full  grown  they 
become  quite  restless,  and  it  is  at  this  time  that  they  do  all  their  trav- 
eling, dropping  on  to  persons  by  their  silken  threads  and  crossing  the 
sidewalks  in  all  directions.     A  wise  instinct  urges  them  to  do  this,  for 
did  they  remain  on  one  tree,  they  would  soon  multiply  beyond  the 
power  of  that  tree  to  sustain  them,    nd  would  in  consequence  become 
«.xtinct«    When  they  have  lost  their  migratory  desires,  they  fasten 
their  bags  very  securely  by  a  strong  band  of  silk  to  the  twigs  of  the 
tree  on  which  they  happen  to  be.     A  strange  instinct  leads  them  to 
thus  fasten  their  cocoons  to  the  tv^tgs  only  of  the  trees  they  inhabit, 
so  that  these  cocoons  will  remain  secure  through  the  winter,  and  not 
to  the  leaf-stalk  where  they  would  be  blown  down  with  the  leaf.*     Af- 
ter thus  fastening  their  bags,  they  line  them  with  a  good  thickness  of 
the  same  material,  and  resting  awhile  from  their  labors,  at  last  cast 
their  skins  and  become  chrysalids.    Hitherto  the  worms  had  all  been 
alike,  but  now  the  sexes  are  distinguishable,  the  male  chrysalis  (Fig. 
St,  h)  being  but  half  the  size  of  the  female  chryalis  (shown  inside  of 
the  hag  at  e).     Three  weeks  afterwards  a  still  greater  change  takes 
pla'^e,  the  sexes  differentiating  still  more.  The  male  chysalis  works  him- 
self down  to  the  end  of  his  bag  and,  hanging  half-way  out.the  skin  bursts 
and  the  moth  (Fig.  81,  d)  with  a  black  body  and  glassy  wings  escapes, 
and  when  his  wings  are  dry,  soars  through  the  air  to  seek  his  mate.— 
She   never  leaves   her  case,   but  issues   from   her  chrysalis  in   the 
shape   of  an   abortive,  footless  and   wingless  affair  (Fig.  8-1,  c)   and 
after  copulating,  works  herself  back  into  the  chrysalis  skin,  tills  its 
upper  but  posterior  end  with  eggs  and  stops  up  the  other  end  with 
what  little  there  is  left  of  her  body  when  she  gets  through.     These 
eirgs  which  are  quite  soft  and  yellowish,  pass  the  winter  protected  in 
the   bags,  and   produce  young   worms  again   the  following  spring, 
which  go  through  the  same  cycle  of  transformations  thus  hurriedly 

described. 

This  insect  is  essentially  polyphagous,  for  it  occurs  alike  on  ever- 

»1  have  n^ced  that  the  Allan  thus  treeTs  almost  entirely  ex.  uipt  from  the  attacks  of  this 
worm,  but  cannot  vet  tell  whether  th's  is  because  the  leaves  are  repulsive  to  it.  or  whether  the 
leave,  beiag  compound,  th*  worm's  instinct  fails  it,  in  that  it  lastens  its  cjvse  to  tne  mid-s  alk, 
which  falls  and  carries  the  case  with  it  to  the  -round.  I  incline  to  the  latter  belief  however,  from 
the  fact  that  the  insect  is  such  a  general  feeder,  and  that  a  few  isolated  cases  are  ^ometlUleg  seen  at- 
tached evpji  t.o  Aiianihug  twigs,  showing  that  they  can  feed  and  mature  oh  this  tree. 


150  FIRST  ANIVUAL  REfORT  OF 

green  and  deciduons  trees.  I  have  found  it  on  the  elms,  the  common 
and  the  honey  locusts,  Lombard}^  poplar,  catalpa,  Norway  spruce, 
arbor- vitas,  Osage  orange,  soft  and  silver  maples,  sycamore,  apple, 
plum,  cherry,  quince,  pear,  linden,  and  above  all  on  ihe  red  cedar, 
while  Mr.  Glover  has  also  found  it  on  the  cotton  plant  in  Georgia,  It 
is  also  exceedingly  hardy  and  ruddy,  and  the  young  worms  will  make 
their  bags  of  almost  any  substance  upon  which  they  happen  to  rest 
when  newly  hatched.  Thus  they  will  construct  them  of  leather,  pa- 
per, straw,  etc.,  etc.,  and  it  is  quite  amusing  to  watch  their  opera- 
tions. 

Natural  Remedies. — ^The  only  parasite  which  has  been  hitherto 
known  to  attack  this  Bag-worm  is  one  known  as  Cryptus  inqinsltor. 
Say,  which  Mr.  Glover  figures  on  Plate  11,  Figure  5,  of  his  yet  unpub- 
lished plates  of  four-winged  flies.  Last  September,  through  the  kind- 
ness of  Miss  M.  E.  Murtfeldt  of  St.  Louis,  I  discovered  another  parasite 
which  lives  in  the  body  of  the  worm  to  the  number  of  five  or  six  at  a 
time,  and  which  after  destroying  their  victim,  spin  for  themselves  tougli 
white  silken  cocoons  within  the  bag,  as  represented  at  Plate  2,  Figure 
10.  The  Ichneumon  fly  which  issues  from  these  cocoons  has  never 
been  described,  and  as  the  sexes  differ  remarkably,  I  subjoin  a  full 
description  of  each.  The  female  is  represented  at  Plate  i^,  Figure  11, 
and  the  male  at  Figure  12,  and  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  while  the 
wings  of  the  former  are  clouded,  those  of  the  latter  are  perfectly 
clear.  This  fly  belongs  evidently  to  the  genus  Ilemiteles  though  it 
difl'ers  from  most  species  in  having  the  areolet  wanting. 

Hemitrles  (?)  THYniBoPTERYX,  N.  Sp. —  $  Length,  0 .."6  ;  expanse0.50.  Ferruginous, opaque. 
Head  transverse,  rather  broader  than  thorax,  the  front  much  depressed  ;  face  prominent  centrally 
beneath  antennae,  closelj  punctured,  thinly  clothed  with  pale  pubescence;  clypeus  and  cheek  3 
Bhining-;  tips  of  mandibles  black ;  antenniv,  long,  slender,  filiform,  ferruginous,  blackish  at  tips; 
thorax  rugose  ;  scutellum  prominent,  with  sharp  lateral  margins  ;  metathojax  prominent,  quadrate, 
abrupt  laterally  and  posteriorly,  finely  reticulated  and  pubescent,  the  upper  posterior  angles  pro- 
duced on  each  side  into  a  long,  divergent,  flattened,  subacute  spine  ;  disk  with  two  longitudinal 
carinas,  from  which  diverges  a  central  transverse  carina;  tegulie  piceous :  wings  hyaline,  subiri 
descent ;  a  narrow,  dark  fuliginous  band  crosses  the  anterior  pair  a  little  before  the  middle,  and  a 
broad  band  of  same  color  between  middle  and  apex,  this  band  having  a  median  transverse  hyaline 
streak;  areolet  wanting,  second  recurrent  nervure  straight,  slightly  oblique;  apex  of  posterior 
wing  fnscons  ;  legs  long  and  slender,  ferruginuous,  more  or  less  varied  with  fuscous  ;  posterio'' 
coxae,  tips  of  their  femora,  and  their  tibia?  and  tarsi,  fuscous  ;  base  of  four  posterior  tibia?  more 
or  less  whitish,  forming  a  rather  broad  annulus  on  posterior  pair ;  abdomen  petiolated,  subconvex, 
densely  and  finely  sculptured,  blackish,  basal  segment  tinged  with  reddish,  the  second  and  third 
Begraents  distinctlj'  margined  at  tip  with  whitish  ;  ajiical  segments  smooth  and  shining,  thinly  pu- 
bescent; ovipositor  half  as  long  as  abdomen,  sheaths  blackish. 

^. — Not  at  all  like  the  5.  Length  0..?3,  expanse  0.44.  Long,  slender,  black,  polished' 
witliout  distinct  punctures,  thinly  clothed  with  white  pubescence;  palpi  white;  antenna>  long* 
slender;  scape  reddish  ;  mesothorax  gibbous,  with  two  deeply  impressed  longitudinal  lines;  meta- 
thorax  witli  well-defined  elevated  lines,  forming  several  irregular  areas  ;  sides  rugulose,  apex  with" 
out  spines  or  tubercles;  tegulee  white:  wings  whitish-hyaline,  subiridescent,  the  nervures  and 
etigma  wliite,  subhyaline,  neuration  as  in  $  ;  legs  long,  slender,  pale  honp_v-yellow  ;  coxa?,  poste- 
rior trochanters,  apex  of  their  femora,  and  their  tibiie  and  tarsi,  blackish :  base  of  posterior  tibiae* 
with  a  white  annulus;  abdomen  long,  slender,  flattened,  petiolated,  smooth  and  polished,  the  apical 
margin  of  second  segment  being  narrowly  whitish. 

Described  from  four  §  and  one  ^  specimens  bred  from  the  same  ccvcooa. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  151 

Artificial  Rfmedies.— From  the  natural  history  of  this  Bag-worm 
it  becomes  obvious,  that  by  plucking  tiie  cases  in  the  winter  time, 
and  burning  them,  you  can  effectually  rid  your  trees  of  them,  and  I 
advise  all  who  desire  healths  trees  to  do  this  before  the  buds  begin  to 
burst  in  the  spring.  Where  this  is  not  done  the  worms  will  continue 
to  increase,  and  partly  defoliating  the  tree  each  year,  slowly,  but 
surely,  sap  its  life. 

In  conversation  some  time  since  with  Mr.  Edward  Cook,  who  is 
superintending  the  improvements  in  Washington  I*ark,  St.  Louis,  I 
showed  him  that  every  one  of  the  young  trees  that  had  been  lately 
planted  there  had  from  six  to  a  dozen  of  these  Bag-worms  hanging 
from  their  twigs.  I  explained  to  him  that  the  trees  would  never  thrive 
with  these  parasites,  and  that,  prevention  being  easier  than  cure,  he 
had  better  have  them  plucked  off  at  once,  while  they  were  within 
reach.  He  informed  me  afterwards  that  he  had  gathered  two  barrels 
full  from  these  trees,  but  there  are  many  yet  left,  which  should  be 
removed  before  spring. 


THE  AILANTHUS  WORM— Larva  of  GAa  compta,  Clem.,  Plate  2, 

Figs.  22  and  l3. 

(Lepidoptera,  Tineidse.) 

The  Ailanthus  is  highly  prized  in  most  of  our  cities  as  a  shade  tree, 
and  though  there  certainly  are  other  trees  as  quick  growing,  and  as 
hardy,  which  might  advantageously  take  its  place,  yet  as  it  has  an  al- 
most perfect  immunity  from  the  attacks  of  the  Bag-worm  and  continues 
to  be  grown,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  know  what  insect  enemies  it  has. 
Fortunately  it  has  very  few,  but  every  St.  Louisan  must  have  noticed 
last  fall  that  nearly  all  the  young  Ailantlius  trees  around  the  city,  and 
in  the  parks,  looked  black  and  seared  as  though  they  had  been 
scorched  by  tire.  Few  probably  divined  the  cause  of  this  phenomen- 
on, but  it  was  the  work  of  the  worm  which  is  the  subject  of  this 
chapter. 

This  worm  is  slender  and  of  a  very  dark  olive  brown  color,  with 
white  longitudinal  lines.  During  the  months  of  August  and  Septem- 
ber it  may  be  found  of  all  sizes,  living  in  communities  of  from  five  to 
thirty  individuals  within  a  slight  silken  web.  Did  they  but  feed  on 
the  leaves  their  injury  to  the  tree  would  be  slight,  but  they  have  the 
miserable  habit  of  gnawing  the  leaf  stalk  in  two,  and  of  severing 
the  leaf,  and  causing  it  to  turn  black ;  thus  marring  the  looks  of  large 
trees  and  killing  many  seedlings  outright.  When  the  worm  is  full 
grown  it  suspends  itself  in  the  middle  of  the  loose  web  and  changes 
to  a  chrysalis  about  -V  inch  long  and  of  a  dull  smoky-brown  color. 
The  chiysalis  skin  is  so  very  fine,  that  as  the  future  moth  develops 


152 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


within,  the  colors  of  its  wings  show  distinctly  through  it.  The  chrysalis 
state  lasts  on  an  average  about  two  weeks,  at  the  end  of  which  time 
the  moth  bursts  forth.  In  this  state  it  is  one  of  the  neatest  and  most 
beautiful  little  moths  that  can  well  be  imagined.  At  Plate  2,  Figure  22 
it  is  represented  of  the  natural  size,  expanded,  and  at  Figure  23  with  the 
wings  closed.  The  fore  wings  are  of  a  bright  metallic  golden-orange, 
crossed  transversely  with  bands  of  very  pale  chrome-yellow,  marbled 
with  black;  while  the  underwings  are  smoky  black,  and  almost  trans- 
parent in  the  middle.  The  first  moths  begin  to  appear  during  the 
first  days  of  September,  and  continue  issuing  from  the  crysalids  till 
the  last  of  October.  From  the  fact  that  I  could  get  none  of  them  to 
deposit  eggs,  I  infer  that  they  pass  the  winter  in  the  moth  state— the 
more  readily  since  I  have  had  them  escape  from  the  cry.^alis  even  in 
November.  They  are  very  fond  of  flitting  over  and  clinging  to  the 
flowers  of  the  Golden  rod  and  of  the  Eupatoriiim  serotinum. 

This  insect  probably  occurs  throughout  the  Southern  States,  for 
Mr.  Glover  has  found  it  in  Georgia.  It  is  doubtless  confined  tothe  Ail- 
anthus  tree, though  when  pushed  lorfood  I  found  that  the  worms  were 
not  at  all  fastidious  about  devouring  their  brethren  that  were  in  the 
helpless  chrysalis  state.  It  was  named  Pmciloptera  compta  by  the 
late  Dr.  Breckenridge  Clemens,  but  as  the  genus  Peeciloptera  was 
pre-occupied  in  insects,  Mr.  A.  Grote,  of  V.ew  York,  proposed  the 
generic  term  (Eta,  and  we  thus  have  a  scientific  name  for  our  little 
moXh  —  CEta  G07)ipta—\Yh.\c\\  the  most  prejudiced  against  the  so-called 
"Crack-jaw-Latin"  can  hardly  find  objection  to. 

The  easiest  way  of  getting  rid  of  the  worms  is  to  cut  oft'  the 
branch  containing  the  nest  and  burn  it. 

(Eta  cojfPTA,  Clemens.— Lartja.— Average  length  when  full  grown  0.95.  Slender,  the  diame- 
ter  being  0.09.  General  color  very  dark  olive-brown  An  extremely  fine  pearly-white  dorsal  and 
subdorsal  line,  and  a  somewhat  more  distinct  stigmatal  line  of  the  same  color  ;  aU  three  of  them 
formed  by  minute  white  specks  and  lines.  Dorsum,  dull  olive-green.  A  longitudinal  line  some- 
what darker  and  in  many  cases  quite  black,  below  the  subdorsal  line.  Between  this  last  and  stig- 
matal line  is  a  stripe  of  the  same  color  as  dorsum,  but  speckled  with  white.  Immediately  below 
stigmatal  line,  it  is  rusty-yellow,  especially  on  the  middle  segments.  Venter  sometimes  olive- 
green,  sometimes  lead-color,  finely  speckled  with  white,  and  with  a  translucent  line  vi.sible  along 
the  middle.  This  larva  is  mainly  characterized,  however,  by  a  number  of  minute  white  piliferous 
spots,  in  strong  contrast  with  the  dark  body,  each  giving  forth  a  stiff  white  hair  at  right  angles 
from  said  body.  These  spots  are  thus  arranged  on  each  side  of  every  segment :  2  about  the  middle 
on  subdorsal  line  ;  1  under  the  anterior  of  these,  just  below  the  longitudinal  dark  line;  2  on  the 
stigmatal  line,  with  the  stigmata  which  is  of  the  same  color  between  them;  1  in  the  orange  part 
posteriorly;  2  small  ones  just  below  the  orange  part,  and  2  in  the  middle  of  venter  on  the  legless 
segments.  Head  of  a  beautiful  brown,  perpendicular,  marked  with  black  and  speckled  with  white, 
two  large  spots  being  especially  noticeable  on  the  upper  front.  Cervical  shield  velvety-black,  ir- 
regularly speckled  with  white.  Thoracic  legs  black;  abdominals  ej^tremely  small  and  of  the  same 
color  as  venter  ;  anals  somewhat  larger  and  brown. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens.  The  white  spots  are  usually  larger  near  the  head  while 
the  hairs  springing  from  them  lean  towards  the  head.  The  head  itself  is  sometimes  entirely  black, 
while  the  white  longitudinal  lines  are  occasionally  almost  obsolete. 

The  young  worm  is  pale  and  void  of  mai-kings. 

Chrysalis. — Average  length  0.53.  Not  polished,  but  with  the  markings  of  the  larva  still  appa- 
rent through  the  thin  skin.     General  color  dull  smoky-brown,  with  a  distinct  broad  dorsal  band  of  a 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


153 


light  rnst-brown  color  along  the  abdomen,  and  a  perfectly  round  spot  of  the  same  color  on  the  top 
of  the  thorax,  this  spot  generally  giving  forth  a  narrow  orange  line  posteriorly. 

Perfect  r-,sfc/.— Average  length  0.55;  alar  expanse  1.08.  Fore  wings  bright  lustrous  golden- 
orange,  crossed  transversely  with  irregular  bands  of  sulphur-yellow  spots  on  a  black  ground  a?  m 
the  fi-ure  ;  fringes  dense,  narrow  and  brown.  Hind  wings  smoky  black,  sub-hyaline  except  near 
apex  and  along  margins;  veins  dusky,  fringes  also.  Under  surface  of  front  wings  dusky  brown 
with  the  colors  of  the  upper  surface  partly  visible  ;  under  surface  of  lower  wings  concolorous. 
Head  black  with  sulphur-yellow  tufts ;  eyes  black ;  palpi  alternately  black  and  sulphur-yellow  ; 
antenn.o  filiform,  slightly  serrate,  black  with  a  white  shade  along  the  upper  terminal  third.  Tho- 
rax black  with  a  wavy  sulphur-yellow  collar,  golden  orange  shoulder-covers  with  a  spot  of  the 
same  color  between  them,  and  two  sulphur-yellow  spots  below  this  last.  Abdomen  steel-blue 
above,  with  a  large  brimstone-yellow  patch  on  each  segment  below.  Under  surface  of  thorax  black 
with  brimstone-yellow  patches  ;  legs  black,  the  front  pair  with  yellow  coxai  and  orange  thighs,  the 
other  four  with  more  or  less  yellow,  especially  on  the  thighs. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens.  No  particular  sexual  difference,  except  in  the  form  of 
the  body. 


THE  WALNUT  TORTRIX,  T.'rtrix  Rileyana,  Grote— PL  2,  Figs.  3 

and  4. 

(Lepidoptera,  Tortricidse.) 

During  the  month  of  May  large  bunches  of  the  leaves  of  the 
Black  Walnut  and  of  the  Hickory  may  be  tound  drawn  togetlier  by  a 
silky  web,  and  living  within  these  bunches,  a  nest  of  caterpillars  of  a 
[Fig.  85.]  yellow  color  and  marked  as  at  Figure  85,  a;  b  showing 
a  side  view  of  one  of  the  segments.  During  the  latter 
^^^^partof  the  month  they  change  to  little  honey-yellow 
irhrysalids,  within  the  nest,  and  by  the  middle  of  June 
these  last  work  their  way  through,  the  leaves  to  the 
outside,  by  means  of  rows  of  minute  teeth  which  they 
'^  have  on  the  back.  Here  they  hang  in  great  numbers 
by  the  tips  of  their  abdomens,  and  in  a  short  time  the  moths  escape. 
This  moth  is  represented  at  Plate  2,  Figure  3,  with  the  wings  ex- 
panded, and  at  Figure  4  with  wings  closed.  It  is  prettily  marked,  the 
fore  wings  being  ot  an  ochreous  color  with  a  golden  tint,  and  darker 
spots,  and  the  hind  wings  of  a  deep  golden  color.  It  was  first  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Grote,  of  New  York,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Amer- 
ican Entomological  Society,  Vol.  II,  p.  121.  It  was  quite  common  in 
18G8  ah  ng  the  Iron  Mountain  road,  and  seems  to  be  peculiar  to  Mis- 
souri. It  also  seems  to  prefer  the  young  Hickories  and  W^^lnuts  to 
the  older  or  larger  trees,  as  I  found  few  nests  that  were  out  of  reach. 
On  the  Snowberry  *  {Sj/mphoricarptis  vulgaris),  similar  nests 
may  be  found  at  the  same  time  of  year,  containing  caterpillars  agree- 
ing in  description  with  those  feeding  on  the  Walnut  and  Hickory,  ex- 
cept in  being  smaller.  They  go  through  their  transformations  in  the 
same  manner  and  produce  moths    similarly   marked  but  uniformly 

«- They  also  occur  on  the  Ironweed   {Vernonia  fasciculata),  though  I  have  not  bred  the  moth 
from  worms  feeding  on  this  plant. 


154  PIKST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

paler  in  color,  of  smaller  size  and  with  less  contrast  between  the  up- 
per and  lower  wings.  We  have  here  an  excellent  illustration  of  what 
Mr.  Walsh  has  called  Phytophagic  variation,  f  for  the  Snowberry 
and  Hickory  feeding  w^orms  were  evidently  oi  but  one  species,  and 
the  difference  in  the  moths  was  caused  in  my  estimation  by  the  differ- 
ence in  food.  Mr.  Grote,  it  is  true,  describes  the  small  form  as  the 
male  and  the  large  form  as  the  female,  but  the  difference  is  not  sex- 
ual, as  the  two  sexes  occur  alike  in  both  forms. 

ToRTRix  RiLETAMA,  Grote— Larvfl— Lpng-tli,  Hickory  feeding,  0.00-0. 80  ;  Snowberry  feeding, 
0.40-0.50.  Larg;est  on  segment  2,  tapering-  thence  gradually  to  anus.  Ground  color  dull  yellow. 
Covered  with  large,  distinct,  black,  sealing-wax-like,  slightly  elevated  spots,  each  giving  rise  to 
several  fine  bristles.  These  spots  are  thus  arranged  on  each  segment :  2  each  side  of  dorsum  the  pos- 
terior one?  widest  apart ;  1  at  sides  in  the  middle  of  the  segment,  containing  the  stigmata  in  its  lower 
hind  margin  ;  1  smaller  and  narrower  just  below  this,  on  a  somewhat  elevated  longitudinal  ridge,  and 
1  round  one  below  this  ridge  on  the  posterior  part  of  the  segment.  Segments  2  and  3  have  but 
one  spot  each  side  of  dorsum.  Two  distinct  wrinkles  on  all  the  segments,  more  on  2  and  3.  Head, 
cervical  shield  and  caudal  plate  black.     Venter  dirty  yellow  with  black  marks  ;  legs  ditto. 

Chrysalis — Honey-yellow,  robust  in  the  middle,  and  with  two  transverse  rows  of  minute  teeth 
across  the  back  of  each  segment. 

Perfect  Insect — From  Hickory — Average  expanse  1  inch,  length  of  body,  0.35.  Deep  ochreouB. 
Fore  wings  evenly  washed  with  purplish,  leaving  the  fringes  and  costal  edge  dark  ochreous.  The 
markings  take  the  shape  of  dark  velvety  brown  rounded  maculations,  generally  of  small  size  and 
faintly  shaded  with  ochreous  on  the  edges.  Three  of  these  subterminally  at  the  base  of  the  wing, 
subequal,  situated  interspaceally  between  the  nervures.  At  a  little  within  the  middle  of  the  costa 
are  two  fused  maculations,  the  most  prominent.  Before  and  beyond  these,  some  faint  costal  marks. 
At  the  extremity  of  the  discal  cell,  above  median  nervure,  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  maculations, 
normally  four  in  number  but  not  constant,  usually  uneven  in  size.  A  subterminal  series  of  spots 
is  inaugurated  on  costa  by  a  large, compound  shaded  maculation.  Below  this,  over  the  median 
nervules,  sweeps  an  outwardly  rounded  series  of  small  approximate  dots.  Two  dots  on  costa,  within 
and  at  the  apex,  and  a  faint  terminal  series  of  minute  streaks  is  shortly  discontinued.  Hind  wings 
of  a  lustrous  bright  deep  ochreous  ;  pale  along  the  costal  margin  and  darker  shaded  along  internal 
margin.  Beneath,  as  are  the  hind  wings  above ;  both  wings  immaculate,  fore  wings  the  darker. 
Body  and  appendages  concolorous,  bright  deep  ochreous.  Antennse  simple.  Numerous  bred 
specimens. 

From  Snowherry — var.  symphoricarpi — Much  paler,  the  fore  wings  not  being  as  dark  as  the 
hind  wings  of  the  above.  The  upper  surface  of  fore  wings  not  washed  with  purplish  but  merely 
of  a  darker  ochreous  than  the  hind  wing.  The  maculations  entirely  similar  but  ferruginous,  paler 
and  the  slighter  costal  marks  obsolete.  Legs  at  liase  and  under  thoracic  surface  almost  whitish 
Average  expanse,  0.62;  length  of  body,  0.30.  Described  from  numerous  specimens.  Under  sur. 
faces  exactly  alike  in  both  varieties. 


TREHEEBCOl^NMAGGOT.Anthomyia  2e«s— N.  Sp.— PI.  2,rig.  24. 

(Diptera  Muscidio.) 
DESTROYING   THE   SEED   AFTER   IT   IS   PLANTED. 

About  the  20th  of  last  June  I  received  the  following  letter  from 
A.  S.  Fuller,  of  Ridgewood,  New  Jersey: 

"Dear  Sir:  I  send  you,  by  mail,  a  small  box  containing  kernels 
of  sprouted  corn,  upon  which  you  will  find  small  white  worms.  Some 
of  the  corn  fields  in  this  vicinity  are  being  ruined  by  this  pest.  These 
worms  attack  the  corn  before  it  comes  up.     What  are  they  ?" 

'      tSee  his  paper  in  Proc.  PhiL  Ent.  Soc,  Vol.  V,  p.  194-216. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGrST.  155 

Subsequently  I  was  informed  that  the  seed-corn  in  other  fields  in 
Bergen  county,  New  Jersey,  was  being  destroyed  in  the  same  manner. 
The  cause  of  this  destruction  is  a  footless  maggot,  measuring  0.25  to 
0.30  of  an  inch  in  length,  of  a  yellowish  white  color,  blunt  at  the  pos- 
terior and  tapering  at  the  anterior  end.  It  is  a  new  foe  to  corn,  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  tiiat  it  is  confined  to  the  localities  above  mentioned. 
In  order  that  it  may  at  once  be  recognized,  I  give  the  following  brief 
account  of  it : 

This  maggot  is  shown,  enlarged,  at  Figure  S6  a,  the  hair  line  nn- 
[Fig.  86.]  derneath  giving  the  natural  size.     It  greatlj'  re- 

sembles the  Onion  maggots,  which  are  known  to 
attack  the  onion  in  this  country,  audits  work  on 
corn  is  similar  to  that  of  this  last  named  maggot 
^  on  the  onion;  for  it  excoriates  and  gnaws  into 
the  seed-corn,  as  shown  at  Figure  87,  and  finally 
causes  such  seed  to  rot. 

After  having  become  full  fed,  these  maggots  usually  leave  the  ker- 
nels for  the  surrounding  earth,  where  they  contract  into  smooth,  hard, 
1"^'""  ''■'  "I  light-brown  pupas,  of  the  size  and  form  of  Figure 

S6  &,  and  in  about  a  week  alterwards  the  perfect 
ly  pushes  open  a  little  cap  at  the  anterior  end, 
nd  issues  forth  to  the  light  of  day.  In  this  state 
it  is  a  two-winged  fly  belonging  to  the  order 
Diptera,  and  quite  inconspicuous  in  its  markings 
and  appearance.  Though  I  bred  but  two  females,  and  this  sex  fails 
to  exhibit  some  of  the  most  important  generic  characters,  yet  th(  re  is 
nothing  in  the  females  of  this  species  to  distinguish  it  from  the  genus 
AntJtomyia  proper,  oi  Meigen,  as  restricted  by  Macquart,  and  tliis 
Corn  maggot,  therefore,  belongs  to  the  same  genus  as  the  in)porled 
Onion  fly  {Anthomyid  ceparum.^  Meigen).  Upon  submitting  a  speci- 
men, for  inspection,  to  Dr.  Wm.  Le  Baron,  of  Geneva,  Illinois,  who 
has  paid  especial  attention  to  our  two-winged  flies,  he  informed  me 
that  it  is  distinct  from  any  hitherto  described  North  American  species, 
and  I  have,  therefore,  called  it  the  Corn  Anthomyia  {Antlujmyia 
zeas). 

Anthomyia  zeas  5,  N.  Sp.  (PI.  2,  Fig.  24).  Length  0.20  ;  alar  expanse  0.38.  Antenna?  blackj 
style  mircoscopically  pubescent;  front,  fulvous,  with  a  distinct,  rather  narrow,  brownish,  cinere- 
ous margin  ;  face  and  orbits  brownish-white  ;  palpi  and  proboscis  black  ;  ocellar  area  somewhat 
heart-shaped  ;  thorax  and  abdomen  pale  yellow-brownish  cinerous,  with  minute  black  points  at  th® 
insertion  of  the  bristles  ;  thorax  with  an  indistinct  middle  stripe  of  brown  ;  legs  black,  tinted  with 
cinereous  ;  poisers  pale  orchre-yellow  ;  scales  small,  the  upper  valve  larger  than  the  lower. 

It  is  difficult  to  suggest  a  remedy  for  this  pest,  as  its  presence  is 
not  observed  till  the  miscuief  is  done.  Hot  water  has  been  found  et- 
fectual  in  killing  the  Onion  maggot,  withort  injuring  the  onions,  and 
would  doubtless  prove  as  efl"ectual  ior  this  Corn  maggot,  where  a  few 
hills  of  some  choice  variety  are  attacked,  which  it  is  very  desirable  to 
save.  But  its  application  in  a  large  field,  even  if  one  knew  where  to 
apply  it,  would  be  impracticable,  and  1  can  only  suggest  soaking  the 


155 


FIRST   AN^UAL   REIORT  OP 


seed,  before  pianting,  in  g;is-tar  or  copperas,  and  hope  that  the  ex- 
periment will  he  tried  next  spring  by  those  of  our  Eastern  friends  who 
have  suffered  from  this  maggot. 

Thelarvjieof  the  genus  intJinmifia  live,  tor  the  most  part,  on 
vegetable  matter,  and  seem  to  prefer  it  in  a  state  of  decay.  Some, 
however,  breed  in  excrement.  Besides  this  corn  species  and  the  onion 
maggot  already  spoken  of,  there  is  one  in  this  country  that  attacks 
radishes,  and  another  that  attacks  the  steuj  of  cabbages.  Specimens 
of  this  last  species  have  been  sent  to  me  by  Professor  A.  N.  Prentiss, 
of  Michigan  Agricultural  College,  with  the  statement  that  they  were 
proving  very  injurious  to  this  esculent,  around  Lansing,  in  that  State, 
and  the  liies  produced  trom  tliem  seem  to  be  identical  with  the  species 
that  attacks  the  cabbage  in   }L\\yo{}Q  {Antfiom.yla  hrasslcce^ljouche.). 


THE  WHITE  GRUB. 
Larva  of  the   May-beetle,  Lachnostema    quercina^   Knoch. 

(Coleoptera,  Melolonthidit?.) 

t^'s-  8^-^  The  "White  Grub  is  one   of 

the  very  worst  and  insidious  of 
the  farmer's  foes  To  give  its 
iTietamorphoses  at  a  glance, 
and  to  obviate  the  necessity  of 
verbal  descriptions  of  so  com- 
mon an  insect,  I  have  prepared 
the  annexed  figure  (^88)  which 
illustrates  the  full  grown  larva 
(2),  the  pupa  (1),  a.id  side  and. 
back  views  o  the  beetle  (3  &4). 
The  following  letter  from 
Mr.  Jno.  P.  McCartney,  of  Cam- 
■ron,  is  a  sample  of  numerous 
accounts  of  its  depredations 
which  I  have  received  during  the  year. 

"  Camkhon,  Missouri,  Sept.  21, 1868. 
"Mr.  C.  V.  Riley,  Dear  Sir :  The  White  grub  worms  have  done 
lis  in  this  part  of  the  State  a  gieat  deal  of  damage.  Will  you  please 
give  us  a  history  of  the  insect's  habits.  The  grubs  are  now  full  grown, 
fine  f.-it  fellows.  Two  years  since  (18^0),  during  the  last  of  M.iy.  the 
beetles  were  very  plenty.  After  sundown  they  came  in  great  num- 
bers and  swarmed  around  the  toi)s  of  the  trees  on  the  lawn,  making 
a  noise  like  the  coming  up  of  a  storm  of  wind  and  rain.  Last  year 
(1867),  the  grubs  did  but  little  damage.  What  we  want  to  know  is, 
when  will  tfiey  leave  the  ground  ag  lin  as  beetles?  If  they  spend 
another  summer  in  the  ground  it  will  be  of  but  little  use  to  try  and 


TllK   STATE  ENT03IOJ.OGl!3T.  157 

raise  a  crop  on  the  land  that  is  now  full  of  them.    They   have  ruined 
all  the  meadow  in  tiiis  vicinity." 

It  is  characterislic  of  the  beetle  to  iippearin  vast  swarms  during 
the  month  of  May — earlier  or  later,  accoiding-  ta  season  or  latitude. 
The  beetle  is  quite  voracious,  and  often  greatly  injures  botii  fruit  and 
ornamental  trees.  1  have  known  the  Lombardy  poplar  to  die,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  utter  denudation  they  caused;  while  last  June  cer- 
tain groves  of  both  Pin  and  Post  oaks  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Flagg,  of 
Alton,  Illinois,  were  so  thoroughly  and  suddenly  denuded  by  them, 
that  ]\[r  Flagg  could  not  at  first  divine  the  cause.  Their  existence  in 
the  beetle  state  is  however  short,  and  as  they  are  contined4o  the  foliage, 
their  injuries  are  exceedingly  small  compared  with  those  which  their 
larvirinflictupon  us.  Our  meadows,  strawberry  beds,  corn,  vegetables, 
and  even  young  nursery  stock,  are  all  subject  to  the  attacks  of  these 
White  grubs,  and  often  ruined  by  them.  Soon  after  pairing,  the  female 
beetle  creeps  into  the  earth,  especially  wlierever  the  soil  is  loose  and 
rough,  and  after  depositing  her  eggs,  "lo  the  number  of  iorty  or  fifty — 
dies.  These  hatch  in  the  course  of  a  mouth,  and^  the  grubs  growing 
slowly,  do  not  attain  full  size  till  the' early  spring  of  the  third  year, 
when  they  construct  an  ovoid  chamber,  lined  with  a  gelatinous  fluid  ; 
change  into  pupa?,  and  soon  afterwards  into  beetles.  These  last  are 
at  first  white,  and  all  the  parts  soft  as  in  the  pupa,  and  they  frequently 
remain  in  the  earth  lor  weeks  at  a  time  till  thoroughly  hardened,  and 
then,  on  some  favorable  night  in  May,  they  rise  in  swarms  and  fill 
the  air. 

This,  is  their  history,  though  it  is  very  probable,  as  with  the  Eu- 
ropean Cock-chafer  (a  closely  allied  species),  that,  under  iavorable 
conditions,  some  of  the  grubs  become  pupas-,  and  even  beetles,  the  fall 
subsequent  to  their  second  spring;  but  growing  torpid  on  approach 
of  winter,  remain  in  this  state  in  the  eariii,  and  do  not  quit  it  any 
sooner  than  those  transformed  in  the  spring.  On  this  hypothesis, 
their  being  occasionly  turned  up  in  the  fresh  beetle  state  at  fall  plow^- 
ing,  becomes  intelligible. 

Kemedies.— As  natural  checks  and  destroyers  of  th's  grub,  may  be 
menlioned  the  badger,  weasel,  skunk,  marten,  the  crow,  and  the  differ- 
ent hawks,  but  especially  the  Ground  beetles  among  insects,  some  of 
which  have  been  figured  on  page  115  Hogs  are  fond  of  them,  and  a 
gang  may  be  turned  into  an  infested  meadow,  which  is  to  be  cultivated 
the  next  year,  with  good  advantage.  The  gi  ub  sometimes  so  thoroughly 
destroys  the  roots  of  meadow  grass  that  the  sward  is  entireh'  severed  ; 
in  such  cases  a  heavy  rolling  would  doubtless  kill  great  numbers  of 
them.  Applications  of  ashes  and  salt  have  been  recommended,  but  I 
think  they  are  of  doubtful  utility,  unless  sufficiently  applied  to  saturate 
the  ground  to  the  depth  of  more  than  a  foot.  A  field  or  meadow  is 
badly  injured  during  a  certain  year  by  the  full  grown  grubs. 
The  following  spring  the  owner,  ignorant  of  the  insect's  history,  applies 
some  substance  to  the  land  as  a  remedy,  and  finding  no  grubs  during 


15h  FIRST   ANNUAL   REPORT  OP 

the  summer  following,  will  naturally  conclude  his  application  was  ef« 
fectual,  when  in  reality  the  insects  lelt  of  their  own  accord  in  the 
beetle  state. 

During  their  periodical  visits  as  beetles,  they  should  be  shaken 
from  the  trees,  gathered  up,  scalded  and  fed  to  hogs.  As  an  illustra' 
tioii  of  what  may  be  done  in  the  way  of  hand-picking,  I  will  state  that 
under  the  efforts  of  M.  Jules  Reiset,  the  incredible  amount  of  1'. 0,000 
kilogrammes,  or  about  eighty  millions  of  similar  White  grubs  were  col- 
lected and  destroyed  in  a  portion  of  the  Seine-Inferieure  of  France, 
during  the  autumn  of  18G6. 

The  beetles  make  their  appearance  in  different  localities  with 
great  regularity  every  three  years,  and  in  a  case  like  that  communi- 
cated by  Mr.  McCartney,  I  should  advise  him  to  plant  freely  next 
spring  without  fear  of  their  ravages;  for  he  may  rest  confident  that 
they  will  issue  as  beetles  next  spring  and  not  be  very  troublesome 
again,  as  gr  lbs,  till  the  summer  of  1871.  At  Unionviile,  according  to 
Mr.  A.  L.  Winchell,  the  beetles  appeared  "in  millions"  last  spring, 
and  I  hope  soon  to  be  able  to  give  the  years  in  which  they  v*'i]l  appear 
in  the  different  localities  throughout  the  State.  The  White  Grub  is 
subject  to  the  attack  of  a  curious  fungus,  which  the  following  item 
from  the  Sedalia,  Pettis  county,  Press  very  well  describes  : 

"  W.  B.  Porter,  of  this  county,  has  left  at  our  office  a  specimen  of 
the  AVhite  Grub,  so  formidable  as  a  corn,  potato,  and  grass  destroyer. 
There  are  two  sprouts  of  green,  vegetable  growth,  growing  out  of  the 
head  of  the  gruh^  one  on  either  side,  of  nearly  half  an  inch  in  length, 
resembling  a  hog's  tusk  in  shape.  Mr.  Porter  informs  us  that  the 
one  i)resented  is  by  no  means  an  isolated  example,  but  that  myriads 
of  them  can  be  found  which  present  the  same  anomalous  combina- 
tion of  animal  and  vegetable  life.  Who  will  explain  this  aberration 
from  the  well  settled  laws  of  organic  life?" 

In  the  second  volume  of  the  late  Practical  Entomologist^  page 
16,  an  account  was  given  of  the  same  fungus,  great  numbers  of  the 
grubs  on  Mr.  Paulding's  place  at  Tiljton,  Iowa,  being  affected  with  it. 
Dr.  Kirtland,  of  Ohio,  also  evidently  refers  to  the  same  fungus  as 
[Fig.  m.}  being  well  known  to  science  in  the  Prairie  Farmer 
for  1865,  Vol.  XVI,  p.  71.  At  Figure  89, 1  represent  one 
.of  the  grubs  as  it  appears  when  attacked  by  this  fungus, 
drawn  from  specimens  received  from  Mr.  Porter.  The 
sprouts  are  almost  invariably  two  in  number  and  pro- 
ceed from  the  corners  of  the  mouth,  but  in  one  speci- 
men which  I  have,  there  is  but  one  near  the  mouth,  the 
other  protruding  from  the  middle  of  the  back. 

In  Virginia  the  grub  seems  to  be  attacked  by  another  fungus,  as 
the  following  letter  of  Mr.  Sam.  H.  Y.  Early,  which  was  communi- 
cated to  Mr.  Walsh  by  the  well  known  Entomologist,  Wm.  H.  Edwards, 
abundantly  shows : 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  159 

"There  is  a  white  mushroom  known  in  the  region  in  which  I  was 
raised,  as  poisonous  and  fatal  to   the  hogs  that  ieed  on  it.    I  believe 
it  is  common  in  all  localities  in  which  I  have  been.     Jn  the  sirring  of 
1842  I  observed  in  what  is  called  a  '  new  ground'  in  Virginia  a  great 
quantity  of  these  mushroom,  and  in  reply  to  some  remark  I  made 
about  them,  some  of  my  father's  negroes,  who  were  then  making  hills 
with  hoes  for  planting  tobacco,  inquired  of  me  if  I  knew  what  pro- 
duced these  mushrooms.     On  my  repljnng  in  the  negative,  I  was  in- 
formed that  they  grew  from  the  White  grub   worm.    I   think   there 
were  some  twelve  or  fifteen  negroes  present,  all  of  whom  curcurred 
in  the  statement,  and  said  it  w^as  no  new  thing  to  them.    They  had  no 
ditficiilty  in  establishing  the  truth  of  what  they  stated,  because  they 
dug  them  up  m  all  their  stages  of  germination  and  growth  before  my 
own  ej^es.     In  a  very  short  time  they  had  furnished  me  with  a  large 
number  of  the  worms  in  their  original  sliape,  features  and  size,  and 
as  distiuct  to  the  eye  as  if  the}'-  had  been  alive,  but  liaving  the  con- 
sistenc}'-,  color  and  smell  of  a  mushroom  ;  and  I  actually  broke  them 
up,  just  as  a  mushroom  breaks  in  one's  hands,  snapping  them  cross- 
wise and  sqarely  oif.    Many    others  I  found  to  be   enlarged   before 
germinating,  and  many  just  germirjating,  but  with  the  shape  of  the 
worm  preserved.    And  in   some   I   noticed   that   the  features  of  the 
worm  were  preserved  in  the  root,  even  after  the  mushroom  had  grown 
up  through  the  earth  and  attained  some  size.    I  gathered   a  good 
many  specimens  in  their  various  stages  into  my  handkerchief,  and 
carried  them  to  my  father's  house,  where   they  lay  on   the  mantel  for 
some  time.    They   seemed,   however,  to   be   no  novelty  to  many  to 
whom  I  exhibited  them.    In  fact  they  were  familiar  to  almost  all 
who  had  opportunities   of  investigation,  and  to  whom  I  mentioned 
them  at  the  time." 

Whether  there  is  any  relation  between  these  two  fungoid  growths 
further  investigation  will  alone  tell;  but  when  we  shall  have  become 
better  acquainted  with  them  we  may  possibly  be  able,  by  sowing  the 
spores  of  either  kind  to  effectually  kill  the  White  Grubs  in  our  fields. 


THE  AMEKICAN  MEB.OMYZA—2fero7ny2a    Americana,   Fitch.- 

Pl.  2,  Fig.  28. 

(Diptera  Muscidse.) 
ATTACKING  WHEAT. 

About  the  middle  of  the  month  of  June  last,  in  all  the  wheat  fields 
which  I  examined  between  Bluffton  on  the  Missouri  river  and  St. 
Louis,  I  noticed  that  a  great  many  of  the  ears  had  prematurely  ripen- 
ed, had  turned  yellow  and  were  stunted  and  shorter  than  the  rest,  and 
upon  examination  the  kernels  proved  to  be  withered  and  shrunken. 


IfO 


FIRST   ANNUAL  REIORT  OF 


In  most  fields  about  one  per  cent  of  the  ears  were  thus  afFected,  but 
in  two  fields  near  Hermann,  from  three  to  four  per  cent  were  injured 
in  this  manner.  Tliis  appearance  was  variously  attributed  to  Hessian 
fly,  Jlklidire,  etc,  etc.,  no  one  seeming  to  know  the  true  cause.  Upon 
[Fig.  90.]  examination  I  found  that  the  last  or  ear-bearing  joint  could 
invariably  be  pulled  out  of  its  sheath  with  but  a  slight  ef- 
tbrt,  and  that  it  was  perfectly  yellow  and  dry,  while  the 
lower  end  bore  an  irregular  and  gnawed  appearance. 
Upon  splitting  open  the  first  joint  of  the  stalk,  a  space  of 
about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  was  found  to  be  completely 
corroded,  so  lo  speak,  and  filled  with  excrementitious  mat- 
ter, as  shown  at  Figure  90. «.  In  this  space  would  generally 
be  found  a  pale  watery-green  maggot  of  the  form  of  Fig- 
ure 90,  J,  attenuated  at  one  end  and  blunt  at  the  other.  I 
took  a  number  ef  infested  stalks  home,  and  many  of  the 
maggots  changed  to  green  pupag  of  the  form  and  appear- 
ince  of  Figure  90,  c.  Before  changing  to  pupa  the  maggot 
'would  sometimes  crawl  away  from  the  joint  and  get  nearer 
the  head,  between  the  stalk  and  the  sheath.  The  pupa  state  lasted 
jrom  12  to  14  daj  s,  and  the  first  flies  emerged  during  the  first  week  in 
July. 

This  fly  is  represented,  magnified,  at  Plate  2,  Figure  28,  and  be- 
longs to  the  genus  Merovri/za  in  the  lamily  Muscid.e  of  the  order 
DiPfER^.  It  appears  to  be  the  very  same  species  which  Dr.  Fitch 
found  flying  about  wheat  fields  in  New  York  State,  and  which  he  de- 
scribed and  named  as  the  American  Mero.nyza  {Memmysa  Ameri- 
cana)^ on  page  299  of  his  1st  and  2d  Reports.*  He  did  not  ascertain 
the  habits  of  the  larva,  however,  anu  they  have  ever  since  remained 
unknown.  The  fly  measures,  on  an  average,  0.17  to  the  tip  of  the  ab- 
domen, and  expands  about  0.20.  It  is  of  a  pale  yellowish-green,  the 
head  being  more  inclined  to  straw  color.  The  eyes  are  black  and 
there  is  a  round  black  spot  between  them  on  the  top  of  the  head. 
There  are  three  broad  black  stripes,  with  a  bluish-gray  cast,  on  the 
thorax,  the  middle  one  straight  and  extending  anteriorly  to  the  pedi- 
cel of  the  neck,  the  outer  ones  slightly  rounded  outwardly,  not  ex- 
tending so  far  anteriorly,  but  extending  around  the  scutel  and  joining 
the  middle  one  posteriorly.  The  abdomen  also  has,  above,  three  broad 
blackish  stripes,  which  are  confluent  posteriorly  and  interrupted  at 
each  of  the  sutures.  Wings  prismatic,  hyaline  and  greenish  anterior- 
ly, their  veins  and  the  tips  of  the  feet  being  dusky. 

In  Europe  the  larvas  of  the  closely  allied  genera  Chlorops  and 
Osciiiis  have  long  been  known  to  attack  some  part  or  other  of  the 
stalks  of  wheat,  rye,  barlej^  and  other  small  grains.  Several  species 
are  figured  and  described  by  the  English  Entomologist  Curtis  in  his 

*  My  specimens  are  all  somewhat  smaller  than  Dr.  Fitch's  according  to  his  description,  and 
hare  black  eyes  instead  of  "  bright  green  ;"  but  upon  submitting  specimens  to  Baron  R.  Osten 
Sacken  who  makes  a  specialty  of  Diptera  he  referred  it  to  the  same  speciae. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


161 


"Farm  Insects,"  and  one  of  them — the  Oscinis  vastator — though  a' 
very  different  fly,  seems  to  have  almost  precisely  the  same  habit  as 
our  insect.  It  is  quite  probable,  also,  that  in  this  country  as  in  Eu- 
rope, there  are  two  broods  during  the  year,  the  second  brood  of  larvae 
attacking  grain  sown  in  the  tall,  but  further  investigation  alone  will 
decide  these  points. 

Remedies. — Much  can  be  done  in  an  artificial  way  by  cutting  off 
and  destroying  all  the  infested  stalks,  which  may  readily  be  recognized 
by  the  signs  already  described;  but  even  if  this  plan  should  faithfully 
be  carried  out,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  would  pay  in  a  country  where 
labor  is  so  scarce  and  demands  such  high  wages  as  in  ours.  We  there- 
fore have  to  fall  back  on  the  only  practical  means  within  our  reach, 
viz:  that  of  varying  the  culture  by  alternate  courses,  and  this  style  of 
cultivation  will  have  to  be  more  generally  adopted,  should  this  pigmy 
foe  sufficiently  increase  as  to  greatly  diminish  the  yield  of  the  "staff 
of  life."  There  is  every  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  Nature  has 
her  own  means  of  keeping  these  flies  wiihin  due  bounds,  for  they  are 
known  to  be  preyed  upon  by  parasitic  Ichneumon  flies  in  Europe,  and 
I  noticed  many  flies  of  this  last  description,  of  polished  hues  and  act- 
ive movements,  deftly  darting  through,  and  resting  upon  the  wheat 
plants  of  the  fields  infested  with  the  Mei-omyza. 


THE  SHEEP  BOT-FLY  OR  HEAD  MAGGOT— ffi;^'/ 


'US  OVIS, 


Linn. 


(Diptera,   ffistridas.) 

For  the  benefit  of  sheep  rais- 
ers I  give  the  following  brief  ac- 
'ount  of  the  insect  which  causes 
""Grub  in  the  head."  The  annexed 
illustration  (Fig  1)1}  represents  it  in 
all  its  stages.  1  shows  the  Gadfly, 
life  size,  with  wings  closed;  2  the 
same  with  wings  expanded;  3,  the 
pupa  from  which  the  fly  has  escaped- 

4  the  full  grown  larva,  dorsal  view; 

5  the  same,  ventral  view;  6  the  same 
when  younger. 

This  insect  is  the  dread  of  sheep  in  the  Old  as  well  as  the  New 
World,  and  was  made  mention  of  by  the  Greek  physician,  Alexander 
Trallien,  as  far  back  as  the  year  560. 

The  flies  make  their  appearance  in  June  and  July,  and  deposit 
living  maggots  in  the  nostrils  of  the  sheep.  As  soon  as  they  are  de- 
posited they  ascend  the  nostrils,  causing  great  irritation  on  their  way, 
until  they  reach  the  frontal  sinuses ;  there  they  attach  themselves  by 

11   K    S  E 


162  FIRST  ANNUAL  EEPORT  OP 

the  little  hooks  or  tentacnla  placed  each  side  of  the  head,  to  the  mem- 
branes which  line  the  cavities,  feeding  on  the  mucus  which  is  always 
to  be  found  in  them.  Until  they  attain  their  growth  they  are  of  a 
creamy  white  color,  with  two  brown  spots  placed  side  by  side  on  the 
posterior  segment.  These  spots,  (6,  c)  are  spiracles  or  stigmata,  through 
which  the  worm  breathes.  The  segment  with  these  two  spiracles, 
is  retractile,  and  can  be  drawn  in  and  hidden  at  the  worms  pleasure. 
When  full  grown,  the  grub  becomes  darker,  particularly  towards  ihe 
tail,  the  white  of  the  first  two  or  three  segments  becomingdirty  white 
on  the  4th  or  5th,  and  growing  darker  on  each  successive  segment 
until  the  last,  which  is  of  a  very  deep  brown.  Il  has  two  small  paral- 
lel hooks  or  tentacula  at  the  head  (a),  and  above  these,  two  very 
email  tubercles,  not  very  easily  shown  in  the  engraving.  It  also  has 
a  small  brown  elevated  round  spot  on  each  segment  along  the  sides, 
which  might  at  first  be  taken  for  spiracles  but  which  are  not,  and 
also  two  small  corneous  appendages  (.*>,&)  on  each  side  of  the  anus. 
The  ventral  region  has  a  band  of  small  elevated  dots  running  the 
breadth  of  each  segment  in  their  middle,  which,  under  the  magnifier 
appear  to  be  minute  brown  spines,  all  pointing  posteriorly.  (See  Fig. 
91,  5).    These  aid  the  worm  in  its  movements. 

When  ready  to  contract  into  a  pupa,  it  descends  down  the  nostrils 
of  the  sheep  and  falls  to  the  ground,  where  it  quickly  buries  itself 
and  in  about  48  hours,  contracts  to  half  its  former  size,  and  becomes 
smooth  and  hard  and  ot  a  black  color,  tapering  as  in  the  larva  to- 
wards the  head.  It  remains  in  this  state  from  40  to  50  days,  or  more, 
according  to  the  weather,  when  the  fly  pushes  open  a  little  round  cap- 
piece  at  the  head  and  thus  arrives  at  maturity. 

In  this  stage  it  locks  something  like  an  overgrown  house-fly. 
The  ground  color  of  the  upper  part  of  the  head  and  thorax  is  dull- 
yellow,  but  they  are  so  covered  with  little  round  elevated  black  spots 
and  atoms  (scarcely  distinguishable  without  the  aid  of  a  magnifier) 
that  they  have  a  brown  appearance.  The  abdomen  consists  of  5  rings, 
is  velvety  and  variegated  with  dark  brown  and  straw  color.  On  the 
under  side  it  is  of  the  same  color,  but  not  variegated  in  the  same  way, 
there  being  a  dark  spot  in  the  middle  of  each  ring.  The  feet  are 
brown.  The  under  side  of  the  head  is  puffed  out,  &nd  white.  The 
antence  are  extremely  small  and  spring  from  two  lobes  which  are 
Bunk  into  a  cavity  at  the  anterior  and  under  part  of  the  head.  The 
eyes  are  purplish  brown,  and  three  small  eyelets  are  distinctly  visible 
on  the  top  of  the  head.  It  has  no  mouth  and  cannot  therefore  take 
any  nourishment.  The  wings  are  transparent  and  extend  beyond  the 
body,  and  the  winglets,  which  are  quite  large  and  white,  cover  en- 
tirely the  poisers.  Its  only  instinct  seems  to  be  the  continuation  of 
its  kind.  It  is  quite  lazy,  and  except  when  attempting  to  deposit  its 
young,  its  wings  are  seldom  used. 

It  has  lately  become  the  fashion  with  many  members  of  the  Agri- 
cultural press,  to  ridicule  the  idea  that  sheep  die  at  all  from  grub  in 


TUE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  l^^S 

the  head,  and  many  even  deny  that  the  grub  is  capable  of  any  injury 
to  tiie  sheep  whatever.  From  the  fact  tliat  tliis  grub  may  be  found  in 
tlie  iiead  of  almost  every  sheop  that  dies,  in  the  Western  States  at 
least,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  many  other  diseases  are  cloaked  by 
the  popular  verdict  of  "grub  in  the  head."  It  is  none  the  less  true, 
however,  that  tho?e  Agricultural  editors,  who  pretend  to  instruct, 
simply  siiow  their  Im-k  of  practical  knowledge,  in  butting  against 
that  which  must  be  the  firm  conviction  of  every  flock  master,  viz: 
that  sheep  do  die  (j/'grub  in  the  head,  Messrs.  Youatt  and  Clark  not- 
■witiistanuing. 

Mr.  Youatt  declares:  "It  is  incompatible  with  that  wisdom  and 
goodness  that  are  more  and  more  evident  in  proportions  as  the  phe- 
nomena of  nature  are  closely  examined,  that  the  destined  residence 
of  the  (Estrus  ovls  should  be  productive  of  continued  inconvenience 
or  diseavse."  I  agree  most  decidedly  with  Mr.  Rjudall,  that  'Mhis  is  as 
far  fetched  as  a  conclusion,  as  the  reasoning  on  which  it  is  ionnded." 

If  grub  in  the  tiead  is  not  productive  of  inconvenience  or  disease, 
as  the  disciples  of  Youatt  have  it,  whence  the  suffering  condiiion, 
the  loss  of  appetite,  the  slow,  weak  gait,  tl)e  frequent  coughing,  the 
slimy  and  purulent  matter,  sometimes  so  profusely  secreted  as  at 
times  to  almost  prevent,  the  animal  breithing?  Whence  the  tossing 
ana  lowering  of  the  head,  and  the  fits  of  frenzy,  to  which  so  naturally 
quiel  and  gentle  an  aninia!  as  the  sheep  is  sutject  ?  All  these  symp- 
toms re.'^ult  from  grub  jn  the  head,  and  the  animal  frequently  gels  loo 
weak  to  rise,  and  finally  dies.  These  effects  of  the  grub  were  well 
recognized  and  understood  by  such  old  writers  and  close  o'  servers  as 
Reaumur  and  Kollar;  while  Blr  Dan'l  Kelly,  of  Wheaton,  Illinois; 
Towne  Bros.,  of  Geneva,  Illmois;  M  L.  Cockrill,  of  Tenne.-see,  and 
other  well  known  flock-masters  with  whom  I  have  either  con- 
versed or  corresponded,  are  unanimous  in  ascribing  these  symp- 
toms to  the  true  cause;  and  the  late  S.  V.  Boaidman,  of  Lincoln,  Illi- 
nois, coincided  with  them  in  this  respect.  For  my  part,  I  would  aa 
soon  believe  that  those  parasites  were  beneficial,  which  are  so  injuri- 
ous to  man,  either  internally  or  externally,  or  those  which  prey  uj)on 
our  caterpillars  and  other  insects,and  invariably  destroy  them  ;  for 
although,  when  there  are  but  few  grubs  in  the  head  the  injury  they 
inflict,  IS  not  percepti!)le,  they  can  never  he  hcnefioial^  and  w^hen  nu- 
meious  enough  will  undoubtedly  cause  death.  Tney  cannot  live  in 
the  head  of  the  shee;,)  without  causing  great  irritation  by  tJie  spines 
with  which  the  ventral  region  is  covered  and  the  hooks  with  v.hich 
they  cling  to  such  a  sensitive  membrane  as  that  which  lines  the  tin- 
uses.  Moreover,  when  numerous  enough  to  absot  b  more  mucous  than 
the  sheep  secretes,  the  grubs  will  feed  on  the  membrane  itself,  and 
(according  to  the  evidence  of  some  practical  sheep  men)  will  even 
enter  to  the  brain  through  the  natural  perloration  of  the  ethmoid 
bone,  through  which  pass  the  olfactory  nerves;  in  either  of  v\hicii 
cases,  they  must  cause  the  most  excruciating  pain.    The  natural  fear 


164  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

also,  which  sheep  have  of  the  fly,  and  the  pains  thej'  take  to  prevent 
its  access  to  the  nose,  is  of  itself  proof  enough  that  it  is  obnoxious  to 
them.  The  rabbit  is  subject  to  the  attack  of  a  very  large  gad-fly  (the 
Cuterebra  caniculi  of  Clark).  I  saw  a  half  grown  rabbit  the  past 
summer  with  an  enormous  swelling  each  side  of  its  neck.  On  exami- 
nation these  swellings  were  found  to  be  caused  by  the  grubs  of  this 
fly,  and  the  rabbit  was  so  weakened  and  emaciated  that  it  could  scarce- 
ly move.  No  one  could  witness  such  a  sight  without  being  convinced 
that  the  parasite  was  injurious. 

In  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  October  14, 1S65,  the  fact  was  published 
that  the  Sheep  Bot-fly  deposits  li'oing  maggots  in  the  nostrils  of  the 
sheep.  It  was  published  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Kelly,  and  both  he 
and  myself  then  believed  it  to  be  the  first  published  account  of  the 
viviparous  nature  of  this  fly.  But  the  following  extract  from  a  letter 
irom  the  late  lamented  Samuel  P.  Boardman,  of  Lincoln,  Illinois^ 
shows  that  the  same  discovery  has  been  made  by  three  independent 
observers  in  this  country.    Mr.  Boardman  wrote  as  follows  : 

"All  the  authors,  both  European  (at  least  all  Englisli)  and  Ameri- 
can, from  Youatt  to  Randall,  will  persist  in  saying  that  the  fly  de- 
posits an  egg^  which  hatches  out,  and  crawls  up  the  nostrils  of  the  sheep, 
etc.,  etc.  Now  three  independent  and  perfectly  original  discoverers 
have  in  our  own  country  within  twenty-five  years  past,  disproved  the 
book  account  of  the  grub's  transformations. 

"John  Brown — 'Old  Ossawattomie  John  Brown,' — published  an 
account  in  an  Agricultural  paper  (I  forget  what  one)  about  twenty 
years  since,  of  his  seeing,  'with  his  own  eyes,'  the  fly  drop  the  per- 
fectly formed  and  living  grub  in  the  nostrils  of  sheep.  Some  seven 
years  since,  'Old  Dan  Kelly,'  of  Du  Page  county,  Illinois,  made  the 
same  discovery  and  supposed  that  he  was  the  only  man  who  had  ever 
done  it.  At  the  time  he  made  known  his  discovery,  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Illinois  State  W.  G.  Association  held  in  Chicago,  I  thought  also, 
that  he  was  the  first  man  to  ever  notice  the  like.  Two  or  three  years 
afterwards  I  saw  the  account  of  John  Brown's  discovery,  in  the  Ohio 
Farmer^  copied  from  an  old  paper  dated  about  seventeen  years  pre- 
viously. When  Kelly  and  I  were  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  W. 
G.  Association,  I  went  with  him  to  the  Ohio  Farmer  ofiice,  and  I 
found  in  the  file,  Old  John  Brown's  account.  Mr.  Kelly  took  a  copy 
of  the  Farmer  containing  it,  home  with  him.  That  makes  two  per- 
fectly original  and  independent  discoveries  of  the  fact  alleged.  Now 
then,  within  a  year  past  (I  think)  I  have  seen  a  letter  from  ]\Iark 
Cockrill,  of  Tennessee,  (who,  before  the  war,  was  one  of  the  oldest, 
largest  and  richest  wool  growers  in  the  South,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
richest  men  in  the  South),  in  w^hich  he  speaks  of  having  made  the 
same  discovery  years  ago,  and  in  which  bespeaks  of  it  as  if  he  thought 
he  was  the  only,  and  original  discoverer.  Here  are  three  men  widely 
separated,  who,  we  must  acknowledge,  are  all  capable  and  honest  ob- 
servers, and  yet,  Randall,  (or  at  least  his  publisher)  continues  to  put 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  165 

forth  in  every  new  edition  of  the  ''Practical  Shephei'd^^  the  same  old 
exploded  (or  should  be)  notion  of  the  fly  depositing  an  egg.  I  pre- 
sume it  is  altogether  likely  that  all  modern  English  writers  on  sheep 
keep  up  the  same  thing — by  copying  from  Youatt." 

On  one  occasion  in  i8G6, 1  myself  obtained  living  maggots  from 
one  fly  and  Mr.  Cockrill  has  since  obtained  over  300  living,  moving 
worms  from  one  that  was  caught  while  she  was  after  the  sheep. 
Many  flesh-flies,  if  they  cannot  And  suitable  meat  or  carrion  on  which 
to  lay  their  eggs,  retain  these  egg  so  long  in  their  bodies  that  they 
hatch  there,  into  living  larvre;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  above 
observations  were  made  with  flies  that  had  been  so  circumstanced, 
but  I  think  it  highly  improbable,  and  strongly  incline  to  believe  that 
it  is  the  normal  nature  of  this  fly  to  produce  living  larvas.  I  incline 
to  this  belief  the  more  strongly,  from  the  fact  that  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  attach  an  egg  to  the  slimy  nostrils  of  a  sheep. 

To  prevent  it  from  depositing  its  young,  diff"erent  means  are  re- 
sorted to.  Mr.  Randall  says  that  "some  farmers  turn  up  the  soil  in 
portions  of  their  pastures,  so  that  the  sheep  may  thrust  their  noses 
into  the  soft  ground,  on  approach  of  the  fly,  while  others  smear  their 
noses  with  tar,  or  cause  them  to  do  so  themselves."  But  as  the  fly  is 
very  persevering,  and  generally  attains  her  object,  the  means  to  be 
depended  on  the  most,  is  the  dislodging  of  the  larva,  or  "grub,"  and  so 
far,  lime  has  been  thought  to  be  the  most  efl'ectual,  and  should  be 
given  them,  that  they  may  by  snifling  it,  cause  sneezing,  and  in  many 
cases  dislodge  the  grub.  Some  sheep  keepers  even  shut  their  sheep 
up  for  several  nights,  in  a  tight  barn,  when  first  taken  up  in  the  fall, 
believing  that  the  close  and  heated  atmosphere  induces  the  grub  to 
descend,  and  is  therefore  more  readily  dislodged,  and  that  the  injury 
accruing  from  such  foul  air,  is  trifling,  compared  with  the  benefit  re- 
ceived by  dislodging  the  grubs.  Other  sheep  breeders  are  in  the 
habit  of  fixing  salt  logs  in  their  pastures,  of  sufficient  length  to  enable 
all  the  sheep  to  get  at  them.  Into  these  logs,  at  distances  of  five  or 
six  inches,  holes  are  bored  with  a  two-inch  auger,  and  during  fly  sea- 
son a  little  salt  is  kept  in  these  holes,  while  every  two  or  three  days 
tar  is  smeared  around  them  with  a  brush.  The  sheep  in  obtaining  the 
salt,  tar  their  noses,  and  the  odor  of  the  tar  keeps  the  fly  away.  In 
severe  cases  where  the  grubs  are  already  in  the  head,  they  may  be 
dislodged  in  a  measure,  by  a  feather  dipped  in  turpentine,  which 
should  be  run  up  the  nose  and  gently  turned. 


1G6 


FIRST  ANNUAL   KEPORT  OF 

INSECT    ENEMIES    OF    THE    HONEY-BEE. 

TUB  BEE-MOTII  OR  WAX-WORM,— Ga//crea  cercana,  Fabr. 
[Fig.  92.] 


Large  hawk-moths  sometimes  enter  a  beeliive  lor  wliat  lioney 
tliey  can  g:et,  and  even  mice  have  been  known  to  enter  a  hive;  while 
several  parasites  live  npon  the  bees  tliemselve.s.  In  our  own  Stite  as  I 
shall  presently  show  there  is  a  large  two-winged  fly  wliich  seizes  the 
bee  while  on  the  wing  and  kills  it.  But  by  far  t  he  worst  enemy  the  bee- 
keeper lias  to  contend  with,  is  the  Bee  moth  {Galleria  cereana,  Fabr). 
This  insectis  so  well  hnovvn  to  bee  men  generrilly,  that  it  scarcely  needs 
a  description.  It  is  well  illustratHd  above  (Fig.  92)  in  all  its  stages, at 
showing  the  full  grown  worm,  h  the  cocoon  which  it  spins,  c  the  chrys- 
alis to  which  it  changes,  d  the  female  with  wings  expanded,  and  e  the 
male  moth  viewed  Irom  the  side  with  the  wings  closed.  It  suffices  to 
to  say,  that  the  color  o!  the  moth  is  dusky  gray,  the  fore  wings  which 
are  scalloped  at  the  end,  being  more  or  less  sprinkled  and  dotted  with 
purple- brown.  The  temale  is  generally  a  good  deal  larger  than  the 
male,  though  there  is  not  so  much  dilference  between  the  sexes  as 
some  writers  have  supposed.  The  worms  which  produce  these  moths 
are  of  an  ash-gray  color  above,  and  yellowish-wiiile  beneath. 

The  Rev.  L.  L.  Longstroth,  in  his  excellent  work  on  the  H.mpy- 
bee,  which  every  bee-keeper  should  possess,  has  given  such  a  com- 
plete account  of  the  Bee-moth,  that  it  is  only  necessary  tor  me  to  men- 
tion a  \'ew  of  the  most  important  facts  with  regard  to  it,  my  ohject 
being  principally  to  show  tliat  there  can  be  no  such  thing  ns  a  m.oth- 
procf  7uve\  that  wire-gauze  contrivances  are  of  no  avail,  and  that 
the  man  who  pretends  to  sell  a  moth-proof  hivCy  may  usually  be  set 
down  as  a  know  nothing  or  as  a  swindler. 

The  Bee-moth  was  first  introduced  into  this  county  from  Europe, 
about  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  and  it  was  in  all 
probability  imported  with  the  common  bee-hive.  There  are  two 
broods  of  the  moth  each  year,  the  first  brood  appearing  in  J\Iay  and 
June,  and  the  second,  which  is  the  most  numerous,  in  August.  Du- 
ring the  day  time,  these  moths  remain  quietly  ensconced  in  some  an- 
gle of  the  hive,  but  as  night  approaches,  they  become  active,  and  the 
female  uses  her  best  endeavors  to  get  into  the  hive,  her  object  being 
to  deposit  her  eggs  in  as  favorable  a  place  as  possible.  Wire-gauze 
contrivances  are  of  no  avail  to  keep  her  out,  as  she  frequently  com- 
mences flying  before  all  the  bees  have  ci  ased  their  work.  But  even 
if  she  were  entirely  prevented  from  entering  the  hive,  she  could  yet 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  16T 

deposit  her  eggs  on  the  outside,  or  by  means  of  her  extensile  oviposi- 
tor, thrust  them  in  between  tlie  slightest  joint  or  crack,  and  the  young 
worms  hatching  from  them,  would  readily  maiie  their  way  into  the 
hive.  The  moment  the  worm  is  hatched,  it  commences  spinning  a 
silken  tube  for  its  protection,  and  this  tube  is  enlarged  as  it  increases 
in  size.  This  worm  cuts  its  channels  right  through  the  comb,  feeding 
on  the  wax,  and  destroying  the  young  bees  on  its  way.  When  full- 
grown,  it  creeps  into  a  corner  of  the  hive  or  under  some  ledge  at  the 
bottom,  and  forms  a  tough  white  cocoon,  of  silk  intermingled  with  its 
own  black  excrement  as  in  figure  92,  h.  In  due  time  the  moth  emerges 
from  this  cocoon. 

A  worm-infested  hive  may  generally  be  known  by  the  discouraged 
aspect  whioh  the  bees  present,  and  by  the  bottom-board  being  cover- 
ed with  pieces  of  bee-bread  mixed  with  the  black  gunpowder-like  ex- 
crement of  the  worm.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  in  the 
spring  of  the  year,  pieces  of  bee-bread  at  the  bottom  of  a  hive  xvhen 
not  mixed  loith  the  black  excrement,  is  not  necessarily  a  sign  of  the 
presence  of  the  worm,  but,  on  the  contrary,  may  indicate  industry 
and  thrift.  If  a  hive  is  very  badly  infested  with  the  worm,  it  is  bet- 
ter to  drive  out  the  bees  and  secure  what  honey  and  wax  there  may 
be  left,  than  to  preserve  it  as  a  moth  breeder  to  infest  the  apiary.  If 
put  into  a  new  hive,  the  bees  may  do  something,  and  if  they  do  not, 
there  is  no  loss,  as  they  would  have  perished,  finally,  from  the  rava- 
ges of  the  worm. 

It  should  invariably  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  strong  stock  of  bees  is 
ever  capable  of  resisting,  to  a  great  extent,  the  attacks  of  the  worm ; 
while  a  starved  or  queenless  swarm  is  quite  indiff'erent  to  its  attacks. 
In  a  common  box  hive,  a  good  way  to  entrap  the  worms  after  they  are 
once  in  a  hive,  i>  to  raise  the  front  upon  two  small  wooden  blocks, 
and  to  put  apiece  of  woolen  rag  between  the  bottom-board  and  the 
back  of  the  hive.  The  worms  find  a  cozy  place  under  the  rag,  in 
which  they  form  their  cocoons,  and  may  there  be  found  and  killed, 
from  time  to  time.  Much  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  prevention,  by 
killing  every  morning,  the  moths  which  may  be  found  on  the  outside 
of  the  hives.  At  this  time  of  the  day,  they  allow  themselves  to  be 
crushed,  with  very  good  grace;  and  if  two  or  three  be  killed  each 
morning,  they  would  form,  ah  important  item  at  the  end  of  the  year, 
especially  when  we  recollect  that  each  female  is  capable  of  furnish- 
ing a  hive  with  at  least  300  eggs.  In  conclusion,  I  give  it  as  my  con- 
viction that  immunity  from  the  ravages  of  this  Bee-worm  can  only 
be  guaranteed  where  a  thorough  control  is  had  of  bo'h  hive  and  bees; 
hence  the  great  importance  of  the  movable  frame  hive. 


168  FIRST  ANNUAL   KEPORT  OF  THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 

THE  BEE-KILLER — Trvpanea  apivora,  Fitch. 

(Diptera,  AsilidEe) 

^'^-  92-]   ^  In  the  last  chapter  of  his  9th  Report,  Dr. 

Fitch  describes  a  fly  by  the  name  of  ihe  "Ne- 
braska Bee-killer,"  which  he  received  from 
Mr.  R.  O.  Thompson,  of  Nursery  Hill,  Otoe 
^county  Nebraska,  and  which  the  latter  named 
g:entleman  had  found  preying  upon  the  bee  in 
North  Nebraska  in  the  summer  of  1S6-1.  Mr. 
Thompson  has  since  removed  from  Nebraska 
to  North  Missouri,  and  in  conversation  with 
him  last  summer  he  informed  me  that  he  had 
met  with  this  Bee-killer  each  year  since  1864,  and  that  it  seemed  to  be 
increasing.  At  a  later  day,  in  a  communication  to  the  Bural  ^Yorldoi 
September  12,  1868,  he  states  that  it  made  its  appearance  in  such  num- 
bers in  North  Missouri  last  summer,  that  it  to  a  great  extent  prevented 
the  bees  from  swarming.  I  present  above  at  Figure  93  a  life-size  por- 
trait of  this  voracious  insect,  its  general  color  being  yellowish-brown  or 
yellowish-gray.  This  figure  will  enable  its  ready  recognition,  and 
those  who  wish  a  very  full  and  detailed  description  of  it  will  find  it 
in  the  Report  of  Dr.  Fitch  above  referred  to.  It  belongs  to  the  Asilus 
family  of  two  winged  flies  wh.ch  have  been  very  aptly  termed  the 
hawks  of  the  insect  world.  Last  Jwly  I  found  thse  flies  quite  common 
in  Mr.  Shaw's  beautiful  gardens  in  St.  Louis,  and  I  watched  them  by 
the  hour  and  found  to  my  amazement  that  though  other  insects  were 
flying  all  around,  as  well  as  other  species  of  bees,  yet  they  never 
seized  any  other  species  but  the  common  Honey-bee.  They  capture 
the  bee  on  the  wing,  pouncing  upon  it  with  lightning-like  rapidity  5 
then  grasping  it  securely  with  their  fore  legs,  they  alight  upon  some 
plant  or  even  upon  the  ground,  and  rapidly  suck  out  the  inside  of  the 
bee,  with  the  stout  and  powerful  proboscis  which  is  shown  in  the  fig- 
ure, leavmg  the  empty  shell  when  they  get  through.  Mr.  Thompson 
says  that  beneath  some  favorable  perch  that  is  near  the  apiary,  hun- 
dreds of  these  bee-shells  may  be  found  accumulated  in  a  single  day; 
while  he  has  watched  and  found  that  a  single  fly  on  one  of  these 
perches  destroyed  no  less  than  141  bees  in  that  period  of  time. 

The  habits  of  these  flies  are  little  known,  and  until  they  are  bet- 
ter understood  no  feasible  way  of  protecting  the  bees  from  their  at- 
tacks can  be  given.  Those  which  are  known  to  haunt  the  apiary 
should  be  captured,  and  this  can  best  be  done  by  means  of  a  net.  It 
is  almost  impossible  to  catch  them  while  on  the  wing,  though  as  soon 
as  they  have  settled  with  their  prey  they  are  caught  with  compara- 
tive ease.  It  will  pay  to  thus  catch  them  lor  they  are  doubtless  the 
cause  of  much  of  the  non-swarming  which  we  hear  of. 


BENEFICIAL  INSECTS. 


I  have  already  treated  of  a  number  of  beneficial  insects  in  con- 
nection with  the  insects  on  which  they  prey,  and  under  this  head  I 
shall,  for  the  present,  only  say  a  few  words  about 

THE  REAR-HORSE,  alias  CAMEL-CRICKET,  alias  DEVIL'S  RID- 
ING HORSE — Mantis  Carolina^  Linn. 

(Orthoptera  Mantidte.) 
[Fig:.  94.] 


This  peculiar  and  predatory  insect  which  is  variously  known  by 
either  of  the  above  names  in  ditTerent  localities,  is  very  fortunately 
quite  common  in  the  central  and  southern  parts  of  Missouri,  as  well 
as  in  most  of  the  Southern  States.  Its  food  consists  mainly  of  flies, 
though  it  is  a  most  voracious  cannibal  and  will  devour  its  own  kind 
as  well  as  any  other  living  insect  that  comes  within  its  grasp.  I  have 
known  it  to  attack  various  kinds  of  butterflies,  including  the  male 
Bag-worm,  grasshoppers,  and  caterpillars  of  various  kinds,  and  in  one 
instance  a  single  female  devoured  eleven  living  Colorado  Potato- 
beetles  during  one  night,  leaving  only  the  wing-cases  and  parts  of  the 
legs.  It  disdains  all  dead  food,  and  never  makes  chase  for  the  living, 
but  warily,  patiently  and  motionless,  it  watches  till  its  victim  is  with- 
in reach  of  its  fore-arms,  and  then  clutches  it  with  a  sudden  and  rapid 


170 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


motion.  Its  appearance  is  really  formidable,  and  its  attitude  while 
watching  for  its  prey  quite  menacing,  and  on  tiiis  account  it  is  held  in 
very  general  and  superstitious  dread.  It  is,  however,  utterly  incapa- 
ble of  harming  any  one;  and,  as  one  of  our  best  friends  should  be 
clierisned  and  protected. 

At  Figure  94,  above,  this  insect  is  represented  in  the  full  grown 
state,  a  showing  the  female  and  h  the  male.    It  will  be  seen  that  ihey 
differ  materially  from  each  other,  the  male  having  a  long  slender  body 
with  long  wings,  while  the  female  has  a  broad  flat  body  with  short 
wings.    Hence,  while  the  male  can  fly  through  the  air  with  greater 
facility  than  do  our  grasshoppers,  the  female  is  utterly  incapable  of 
performing  the  same  feat,  and  .only  uses  her  wings  when  in  battle 
with  one  of  her  own  kind,  or  when  pouncing  upon  her  prey,  at  which 
time  she  hoists  them  very  much  as  a  swan  hoists  his  wings  when  irri- 
tated.   The  diff"erence  in  the  sexes  is  not  apparent  till  after  the  third 
moult,  all  the  young  Mantes  being  very  much  alike.     The  general 
color  of  the  Mantis  is  grayish-brown  though  a  pale  green  dimorphous 
form  is  quite  common.    The  newly  hatched  larva  is  invariably,  so  far 
as  my  observations  exteni,  light  yellowish-brown,  though  I  have  seen 
green  individuals  after  the  first  moult.    The  green  form  is  almost  en- 
tirely confined  to  the  female  ^ex,  and  seems  to  be  the  most  common 
color  of  this  sex  when  full  grown;    but  it  is  found  likewise,  to  some 
extent,  among  the  males,  as  specimens  with  green  legs  and  partly 
green  bodies  are  to  be  met  with,  though  I  have  never  seen  n  male  that 
[Fig.  95.]         -^yas  entirely  green.    About  the  beginning  of  August 
the.se  Mantes  acquire  wings,  and  by  the  middle  ol  Sep- 
tember the  female  commences   to  deposit  her  eggs. 
These  eggs  are  all  glued  tightly  together  in  a  peculiar 
ma^^s,  and  are  deposited  in  all  sorts  of  situations,  but 
principally  on  the  twigs  of  trees.     At  Figure  95  two  of 
these  egg-masses  are  represented,  natural  s  ze,  the  lower 
mass  showing  the  most  common  form,  the  upper  mass 
illustrating  how  it  conforms  to  the  object  on  which  it 
is  placed.    These  egg-masses  are  often  found  by  per- 
sons in  the  winter,  though  very  few  are  able  to  con- 
jecture what  they  really  are.     On  cutting  them  open 
the  Qg^s  are  found  to  be  very  systematically  arranged 
and  to  contain  a  mucilaginous  substance  of  th-e  color 
of  thin  glue. 

The  manner  in  which  these  eggs  are  deposited  has 
never  been  described,  and  though  I  have  never  myself 
witnessed  the  operation,  I  have  found  the  mass  while 
it  was  yet  quite  soft  and  freshly  laid,  and  have  dissect- 
ed the  female  just  before  she  was  about  to  deposit; 
and  incline  to  believe  that  it  is  gradually  protruded  in 
a  soft  mucilaginous  state,  being  covered  at  the  time 


\ 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  171 

with  a  white,  frothy,  spittle-like  substance  which  soon  hardens  and 
becomes  brittle  upon  exposure  to  the  air.  Mr.  Parker  Earle  inlorms 
me  that  he  has  witnessed  the  operation,  and  that  he  judges  it  to  re- 
quire about  an  hour,  the  eggs  being  "pumped  out,  and  the  entire 
mass  elaborately  sliaped,  witli  a  line  instinct  of  construction  as  the 
proci^ss  continues." 

Between  the  10th  and  20th  of  Juno  these  eggs  hatch  into  comical- 
looking  little  Mantes,  in  all  respects  resembling  their  parent,  with  the 
exception  that  Ihey  have  no  wings;  lor,  with  the  grasshoppers,  crick- 
ets, katydids,  walking-sticks  and  roaches,  etc.,  etc.,  which  belong  to 
the  same  order  {Ori/ioptera)^  they  do  not  undergo  any  sudden  transi- 
tions irom  the  masked  larva^  to  the  quiescent^i^ji>a,  and  thence  to  the 
winged  imago  state,  as  do  most  other  insects. 

When  the  young  first  issue  from  the  egg-mass,  they  are  yet,  as 
with  the  young  of  most  other  Orlhopterous  insects,  enveloped  in  a 
fine  skin  which  confines  their  members  and  prevents  free  motion.  In 
this  condition  they  look  not  unlike  some  of  our  leaf-hoppers  {Teiii- 
gonice,)  but  as  soon  as  they  extricate  themselves  they  begin  to  show 
their  unfeeling  and  voracious  disposition  by  attacking  and  devouring 
each  other.  Indeed,  those  sentimentalists  who  believe  that  the  worm 
crushed  under  foot  suff'ers  as  much  as  the  man  who  breaks  an  arm  or 
a  leg,  would  do  well  to  study  the  habits  of  these  Mantes.  They  are 
so  void  of  all  feeling  that,  the  female  being  the  strongest  and  most 
voracious,  the  male  in  making  his  advances,  has  to  risk  his  life  very 
many  times,  and  at  last  only  succeeds  in  grasping  her  by  slyly  and 
suddenly  surprising  her ;  and  even  then  he  frequently  gets  remorse- 
lessly devoured.  I  have  seen  a  female,  decapitated,  and  with  her 
body  partly  eaten,  slip  away  from  another  that  was  devouring  her, 
and  for  over  an  hour  afterwards  fight  as  tenaciously  and  with  as  much 
nonchalance  as  though  nothing  had  happened. 

The  eggs  may  be  readily  transported  from  one  place  to  another, 
and  the  insect  can  thus  be  easily  colonized.  Mr.  Jordon  in  this  way  has 
caused  them  to  increase  very  much  in  his  home  nursery  in  St.  Louis, 
though  he  finds  soma  difficulty  in  protecting  the  eggs  during  the 
winter  from  the  attacks  of  birds.  He  considers  that  as  long  as  he  can 
keep  the  Mantes  sufficiently  numerous  he  will  never  be  troubled 
with  noxious  insects. 

We  know  with  what  fear  the  hawk  is  regarded  by  the  great  ma- 
jority of  small  birds,  but  that  at  the  same  time  the  common  house 
martin  defies  and  even  tantalizes  and  drives  it  ofl^.  In  like  manner 
tills  Mantis  which  must  be  the  dread  of  most  flies,  is  yet  defied  by  a 
certain  class  of  them,  belonging  to  the  same  (  Tachina)  family,  as  that 
described  and  figured  on  page  111,  lor  I  have  found  no  less  than  nine 
maggots  in  the  body  of  a  living  female  IMantis,  which  must  have 
hatched  from  eggs  that  had  been  deposited  on  her  body  by  one  of 
these  flies. 


INNOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


Under  this  head,  I  propose  to  devote  a  few  pages  each  year  to 
those  insects  which  can  neither  be  considered  injurious  or  beneficial 
to  man,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  As  State  Entomologist  I  feel  it 
my  duty  to  devote  my  time  primarily  to  the  study  of  those  insects 
that  immediately  concern  the  agriculturist,  and  by  thus  doing,  to  save 
to  our  great  and  growing  State  a  portion  of  that  immense  sum  which 
is  annually  lost  by  insect  depredations.  At  the  same  time  I  feel  that 
it  will  be  expected  of  me  to  add  to  our  present  knowledge  of  the  nat- 
ural history  of  the  State,  by  discoveries  in  my  particular  branch  of 
zoology.  The  prosperity  of  a  State  does  not  depend  solely  on  its  ma- 
terial wealth,  but  to  a  great  extent  on  its  mental  wealth.  Knowledge 
— that  great  interpreter  of  oracles — moves  the  world !  It  enables  us 
to  see  in  the  bowels  of  the  unfathomable  earth  beneath,  in  the  water, 
in  the  air,  and  in  the  skyey  vast  above,  volumes  written  by  the  hand 
of  Omnipotence ! 

"  To  win  the  secret  of  a  weed's  plain  heart, 
Reveals  the  clue  to  spiritual  things/' 

And  there  are  few  departments  of  science  which  offer  such  food  for 
the  mind  as  does  the  study  of  Natural  History.  It  has  been  truly  said 
that  the  naturalist  has  no  time  for  selfish  thoughts.  Everywhere 
around  him  he  sees  significances,  harmonies,  chains  of  cause  and  ef- 
fect endlessly  interlinked,  which  draw  him  out  of  the  narrow  sphere 
of  self-lauding  into  a  pure  and  wholesome  atmosphere  of  joy  and 
felicity. 

Day  by  day  science  is  becoming  more  and  more  popularized,  and 
before  long  the  necessity  of  devoting  more  attention  to  natural  his- 
tory in  our  schools  and  colleges  will  become  apparent.  There  are  few 
things,  for  instance,  so  well  calculated  to  train  the  minds  of  children, 
and  at  the  same  time  entertain  and  instruct  them  as  would  be  a  chart 
illustrating  the  transformation  of  insects,  and  it  is  with  the  firm  belief 
that  this  kind  of  information  will  soon  be  more  generally  sought  for, 
that  I  introduce  to  my  readers  • 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF  THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


173 


THE  SOLIDAGO  GALL  MOTH— Gelechia  gallcesolidaginis,  N.  Sp. 

—PL  2,  Figs.  1  and  2. 

Every  body  must  have  noticed  the  large  round  galls  about  the 
size  ot  a  walnut  which  are  found  upon  the  straight  smooth  stem  of  the 
common  Golden-rod  {Solidayo  nemoralis).  Tliero  are  sometimes  two 
on  the  same  stalk  and  they  are  most  conspicuous  in  winter  time  when 
the  leaves  are  off  the  plant.  Upon  cutting  open  one  of  these  galls  it 
is  found  to  consist  of  a  pithy  solid  mass,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  a 
plump  white  footless  maggot.  This  maggot  in  due  time  develops  into 
a  two-v/inged  fly,  which  was  long  since  described  by  Dr.  Fitch  as7>^- 
peia  (Acinia)  soUdaghiis. 

The  gall  which  I  am  now  about  to  speak  of,  occurs  on  the  same 
species  of  Solidago,  and  in  almost  equal  abundance  with  the  former, 
though  its  architect  has  never  hitherto  been  described.    This  gall 
which  is  represented  at  Figure  96,  5,  is  of  a 
very  different  form  from  the  preceding,  being 
altogether  more  elongate  and  narrower,  and 
upon  cutting  it  open  it  is  found  to  be  hollow, 
and  to  contain,  instead  of  a  white  footless  mag- 
'got,  a  gray  16  footed  caterpillar  (^),which  in  time 
develops  into  the  little  moth  which  is  repre- 
sented with  the  wings  expanded  at  Plate  2,  Fig- 
ure 1,  and  with  the  wings  closed  at  Figure  2. 
The  history  of  this  insect  may  be  thus  briefly 
told: 

The  moths  winter  over  and  may  be  seen 
flying  in  the  month  of  May,  in  which  month  I 
have  myself  captured  a  specimen.  When  the 
young  plants  of  the  Golden-rod  are  about  six 
inches  high  the  female  moth  deposits  an  egg 
either  in  the  terminal  bud,  or  at  the  side  of  the 
stalk  just  below  it,  and  the  worm  hatching  from 
the  egg  works  into  the  stalk,  and  causes  it  to 
svfell  by  gnawing  and  thus  inducing  tlie  secretions  towards  it.  By 
the  beginning  of  June  the  gall  has  just  begun  to  form  and  at  this  time 
upon  cutting  it  open  the  worm  is  found  to  be  about  |  grown,  and  its 
excrement  is  as  yet  all  at  the  upper  portion  of  the  gall.  As  the  plant 
grows,  so  the  gall  increases  in  size,  remaining,  however,  at  the  same 
altitude  from  the  ground.  By  the  middle  of  July  both  the  gall  and 
its  maker  have  attained  their  full  size,  and  upon  opening  the  former 
at  this  season  of  the  year  the  excrement  will  be  found  packed  closely 
at  both  its  ends,  and  from  the  small  quantity  of  such  excrement  ((i)  to  be 
found,  it  woula  appear  that  all  but  the  more  solid  parts  had  been  ab- 
sorbed by  the  plant,  it  probably  acting  as  a  manure  to  stimulate  the 
growth  of  the  gall.  When  full  grown,  the  worm  measures  rather 
more  than  half  an  inch,  and  it  now  prepares  for  changing  into  the 


174  FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

chrysalis  state  by  ealing  a  perfectly  round  passage-way  entirely 
tlirongli  (he  wall  of  the  gall  at  its  upper  end.  It  then  protects  the  ori- 
fice with  a  secretion  of  liquid  silk  which  hardens  r.nd  forms  a  perfect 
little  plug  (Fig.  96,  ^,)  about  004  thick  and  0.08  in  diameter,  and  which 
is  so  constructed  th;it  it  cannot  be  readily  displaced  from  without,  as  it 
has  a  rim  on  its  outer  edge.  Ihe  inner  edge,  however,  is  not  so  rimmed, 
and  the  plug  can  be  pushed  away  from  the  inside  with  the  slightest 
ellbrt,  f,)r  the  little  tenant  when  it  shall  have  become  titted  to  leave 
its  (^ark  and  secluded  tenement  and  soar  into  the  air,  must  needs 
make  its  exit  through  this  orifice.  Well  may  we  wonder  at  Nature's 
handiwi  rk,  for  what  consummate  skill,  and  wonderful  instinct — I  had 
almost  said  lorethoughr — is  here  e,xhibited  !  Can  this  action  be  but  a 
blind  instinct,  or  has  the  larva  a  premonition  of  its  future  etherial 
imago  slate  and  its  wants?  Who  can  answer?  Our  little  host,  not 
satisfied  with  having  thus  protected  the  entrance  to  his  home,  now 
lines  its  passage  way,  and  the  walls,  with  a  delicate  silken  tissue,  after 
which  ho  rests  from  his  labors,  and  commences  to  undergo  those  mys- 
terious transformations,  so  characteristic  of  his  class.  A  gall  cut  in 
two  at  this  stage  of  its  growth  presents  the  appearance  of  Figure  03, 
h.  In  two  days'  time  the  little  worm  has  changed  to  a  chrysalis,  just 
•|  inch  in  length,  rather  slender  and  of  a  shiny  mahogany-brown.  At 
the  end  of  about  three  weeks  more  the  chrysalis  grows  very  dark,  and 
finally  the  inclosed  moth  bursts  the  skin  and  escapes  from  the  gall. 

The  first  moths  usuall}'  appear  about  the  middle  of  August,  but  as 
the  time  of  egg-depositing  covers  a  period  of  over  a  month,  some  of 
the  moths  have  not  left  till  the  beginning  of  October.  As  winter  ap- 
proaches, the  stem  seems  to  grow  weak  above  the  gall,  and  usually 
bends  and  droops,  while  the  gall  itself  shrinks  and  acquires  a  whitish 
weather-washed  appearance.  It  is  for  these  reasons,  and  from  the 
gall  l)eing  so  near  the  ground  that  it  does  not  attract  the  same  attention 
as  the  large,  round  gall  of  the  Tiypeia. 

I  have  been  acquainted  with  this  gall  for  six  years,  and  have 
studied  it  closely  during  tiiat  lime.  It  seems  to  occur  qu.te  generally 
over  the  country,  and  is  especially  abundant  in  the  West.  The  first 
published  account  that  I  can  find  of  it  in  this  country  is  that  given  by 
Baron  Osten  Sacken,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
"riiiladelphia  Entomological  Society,"  page  369,  where  he  correctly 
describes  it,  as  well  as  the  puffed  carcass  of  one  of  the  caterpillars 
(1*1.  2,  Fig.  .5),  caused  by  a  parasitic  Chalcis  fly  presently  to  be  des- 
cril)ed  ;  but  he  was  not  acquainted  with  tiie  maker  of  the  g^ll.  'Ihe 
galls  were  received  by  him  from  Edward  Norton,  who  resides  at 
Farmington,  Connecticut.  They  occur  abundantly  around  Chicago, 
especially  on  the  north  side,  in  the  old  cemetery,  which  is  now  l;eing 
converted  into  Lincoln  Paik.  They  are  equally  abundant  around  ""t. 
Louis,  while  I  have  found  the  same  gall  on  the  Solidaga  Missouri  en  sis 
growing  beyond  Fort  Kearney,  in  Nebraska,  and  even  there  the  worm 
was  attacked  by  the  same  parasitic  Chalcis  fly  mentioned  above. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  175 

The  gall-ruaking  insects  belonging  to  the  same  order  (Lepidoptera) 
as  our  little  moth,  are  by  no  means  common,  and  the  only  other  gall 
of  tliis  character  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  at  all  resembling  the 
one  just  described,  occurs  on  the  stems  of  Artemisia  cornpestris  h\ 
France,  and  is  produced  by  the  larva  of  a  very  ditlerent  little  moth 
with  pale  yellow  wings  shaded  with  orange,  first  described  by  Herrich- 
iSchjvJlor  by  thf'  name  of  Cocliylis  hilarana.  This  last  gall  is  figured 
on  riato  l,of  the  "Annales  de  la  Socieie  Entomologique  de  France" 
for  I'.'yO,  and  its  history  is  detailed  by  M.  E  Ferris,  at  pages  SS-oS  of 
the  same  volume.  The  gall  is  similar  in  form,  but  narrower,  with  the 
walls  tliicker  than  that  of  my  insect,  while  the  larva  is  yellowish- 
white. 

GKi.EcntA  GAi.i-.ESOLTDAGixis,  N.  Sp. — Larva. — Length  0.60.  Cylinderical.  Color  dark  dull- 
brown,  without  shiue.  Largest  on  midJle  segments  ;  tapering  from  4th  to  head,  and  from  9th  to 
extremity.  Each  segment  impressed  transversely  in  the  middle,  thus  forming  two  folds,  the  thor- 
acic scjj.uents  having  other  such  folds.  Si.x  small  piliferous  spots,  two  each  side  of  dorsum  and 
one  above  stigmata,  which,  together  with  the  stigmata,  are  shiny  and  of  a  lighter  brown  than  tha 
body.     Il'^iid  and  cervical  shield  light  shiny-brown. 

Clirysalis- — Length  0.50.     Mnhogany-brown.     Form  normal.     Blunt  at  extremity. 

Perfect  moth. — Average  length  0.38.  Alare.xpanse  $  0  95,  (^  0.7b.  Fore  wings  deep  purplish- 
brown,  more  or  less  sprinkled  with  carneous.  A  light  carneous  band  starts  from  the  costa  near  th» 
base,  and  curves  towards  the  middle  of  the  inner  margin,  which  it  occupies  to  a  little  beyond  the 
beginning  of  the  cilia,  where  it  curves  upwards  towards  the  tip,  reaching  only  half  way  up  the 
wing.  Here  it  is  approached  from  above  by  a  somewhat  diffuse  spot  of  the  same  color,  which  starts 
from  the  '^ostajust  behind  the  apex,  and  runs  down  to  the  middle  of  the  wing. 

In  the  plainly  marked  individuals  there  is  an  extra  line  running  from  the  middle  of  the  inner 
margin,  outwardly  obliquing  to  the  middle  of  the  wing,  and  then  back  to  the  inner  margin  a  little 
beyond  whr-re  the  cilia  commence,  but  in  the  great  majority  of  specimens  this  mark  is  indistinct. 
Cilia  light  carneous.  Hind  wings  slate-gray,  with  the  cilia  lighter.  Antenna;  finely  annulated 
with  the  same  two  dark  and  light  colors.  Head,  thorax  and  palpi  light,  with  a  sprinkling  of  the  dark 
brown.  Body  dark,  with  light  annulations,  The  species  varies  in  the  distinctness  of  its  markings, 
and  the  lii^ht  parts  of  the  wing  appear  finely  sprinkled  with  brown  under  the  lens.  Male  generall/ 
(mailer  than  fem.ale,  with  the  antennas  proportionately  a  little  longer. 

Described  from  numerous  bred  specimens. 

It  seoms  to  resemble  G.  longifasiieUa  of  Clemens,  in  coloration  and  pattern  ;  but  unfortunately 
our  late  hunonted  microlepidopterist,  failed  almost  always  to  give  the  measurement  of  the  fpecies 
he  describ.'d,  and  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  much  mine  really  resembles  that  species.  Yet,  as 
longifiiiciellj  was  described  from  two  mutilated  specimens,  received  from  A.  S.  Packard,  jr.,  and 
as  that  tventleman  has  seen  my  insect  and  declared  it  an  undescribed  species,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  of  the  fact. 

Concealed  within  its  gall,  as  this  worm  is,  one  would  naturally 
suppose  that  it  would  rest  unmolested  from  the  outside  world,  and 
that  no  parasite  could  attack  it  through  its  green-walled  I'brtress.  Such 
however  is  not  the  case.  Those  oft-quoted  lines,  written  in  t!:at  spirit 
of  ridicule,  in  the  exercise  of  which  Swift  was  always  happy, 

"  The  little  fleas  that  do  so  tease. 
Have  smaller  fleas  that  bite  'em. 
And  these  again  have  lesser  fleas. 
And  80  ad  infinitum," 

are  as  applicable  to  our  gall-maker  as  to  most  other  insects.  There 
are  indeed  no  less  than  six  parasites  which  attack  it,  and  Irom  many 
hundreds  of  galls  examined,!  estimate  that  one  worm  out  of  every 


FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

fiveis  thus  destroyed.  As  lour  of  these  parasites  are  new  to  science, 
and  are  all  probably  confined  to  this  one  species  of  insect,  I  will 
briefly  describe  them. 

They  all  belong  to  the  order  Hymenoptera,  and  by  far  the  most 
common  of  them  is  a  little  fly   of  a  dark  metallic  green  color,  with 
reddish  legs,  which  is  represented  highly  magnified  in  Plate  2,  Figure 
6,  the  hair  line  below  showing  the  natural  size.     Its  larvae  infest  the 
caterpillar  in  great  numbers,  and  cause  it  to  swell   to  three  and  four 
times  its  normal  size.    After  they  have  absorbed  all  thejuices  of  their 
victim,  they  form  for  themselves  very  fine   brownish  cocoons,  which 
are  so  crammed  together  that  they  give  thepuffed-up  worm  the  rough- 
ened appearance,  shown  at  Plate  2,  Figure   5,  and  prevent   the  skin 
from  collapsing  after  they  have  left,  so  that  it  may  be  found  within 
the  gall  at  any  time  during  the  winter.     These  minute   flies  all  leave 
the  gall  through  a  single  minute  hole,  which  must  be  made  by  one  of 
their  number.    They  are  active  little  creatures,  running  nimblj'',  with 
their  antennae  always  bent  towards  the  surface  on  which  they  travel. 
They  have  a  wonderful  power  of  jumping,  and   are  able   to   leap  the 
distance  of  afoot  so  suddenly  and  rapidly  that  they  are,  for  the  mo- 
ment, scarcely  visible.     I  have  counted  over  150  of  them  in  a  single 
caterpillar,  and  the  moHier  fly  must  gnaw  for  herself  a  passage  through 
the  gall,  and  leisurely  insert  her  batch  of  eggs  in  the  inmate.     This 
fly  belongs  to  the  Chalcis  family,  and  may  be  called  the  Inflating  Chal- 
cis  fly.     The  family  to  which  it  belongs  has  scarcely  been  at  all  studied 
in   America,   and  very  lew   species  have  been  described.    I  there- 
fore leave  the  species,  for  the  present,  undescribed,  it  apparently  be- 
longing to  the  genus  Pireiie. 

Another  parasite  which  infests  this  caterpillar,  is  represented  in 
the  perfect  state  at  Plate  2,  Figure  9,  the  hair  line  above  showing  the 
natural  size.  It  is  a  black  fl}^,  and  its  larva,  w'hich  is  often  found  at 
the  bottom  of  the  gall  during  the  month  of  August,  is  a  white,  foot- 
less grub,  about  0.24  long,  and  attenuated  at  the  head.  Some  of  these 
maggots  change  to  pupre  and  become  flies  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  while 
others  remain  in  the  maggot  state  till  spring.  The  pupa  is  whitish, 
with  the  members  confined  and  darker.  This  fly  belongs  to  the  same 
[Chalcis)  i^mWy  ii^  the  preceding,  and  to  the  genus  Euryloma.  I 
name  it  in  honor  of  my  esteemed  friend,  Mr.  A.  Bolter,  of  Chicago — 
an  entomologist,  as  enthusiastic  as  he  is  modest,  and  an  indefatigable 
collector.  When  I  think  of  the  many  happy  hours  we  have  spent 
together,  and  recall  our  many  pleasant  hunting  grounds,  the  following 
pretty  lines  are  ever  floating  in  my  mind: 

"  I  long-  to  vralk  by  the  meadow's  brook, 
To  visit  the  fields  and  the  woods  once  more. 
To  loiter  long  in  the  shady  nook, 
And  tread  the  paths  I  have  trud  before  ; 
Or,  under  the  spreading  branches  to  lie 
And  watch  the  clouds  in  the  azure  sky." 

Annexed  will  be  found  a  full  description  of  this  parasite : 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  177 

EuTiYTOMA  BoLTERi,  N.  Sp. —  §  Length  0.18.  AntennjB  black,  not  much  longer  than  the 
face,  perceptibly  thicker  towards  the  end,  and  apparently  10-jointed,  though  the  three  terminal 
joints  are  almost  always  confluent.  Dimensions  and  appearance  of  joints,  represented  in  the  an- 
nexed Figure  97,  a.  Head  and  thorax  rough-punctured 
and  finely  bearded  with  short,  stiff  gray  Iiairs.  Abdo- 
men about  as  long  as  thorax,  scarcely  so  broad,  viewed, 
from  above,  but  wider  viewed  laterally ;  highly  pol- 
ished, smooth  and  black,  the  three  terminal  segments 
with  minute  stiff  gray  hairs  along  the  sutures  ;  visibly 
divided  into  seven  segments,  the  four  anterior  ones  of 
about  equal  length,  the  two  following  shorter,  and  the 
terminal  one  produced  into  a  point.  Legs  fulvous  with 
the  coxfp.,  tliighs  and  more  or  less  of  the  shanks  black- 
ish-brown.  Wings  perfectly  transparent,  glossy,  color- 
less, and  with  the  nerves  very  faint. 

(^  Measures  but  0.14,  and  difTers  in  the  antennae,  being  twice  as  long  as  the  face,  in  their 
narrowing-  towards  the  tip  ard  in  being  furnished  with  whorls  of  long  hairs.  The  number  of  joints 
are  not  readily  made  out,  and  I  have  consequently  presented  at  Figure  97,  b,  a  magnified  figure. 
His  body  is  but  half-as  wide  and  half  as  long  as  the  thorax  viewed  from  above,  and  not  quite  as 
broad  as  the  thorax,  viewed  laterally ;  it  also  lacks  the  produced  point  of  the  5  •  His  wings  ar&. 
also  cut  off  more  squarely  and  more  distinctly  nerved. 

The  third  parasite  which  attacks  our  gall-maker  is  represented 
somewhat  enlarged  at  Plate  2,  Figure  7.  It  is  an  opaque  black  fly 
belonging  to  the  true  Ichneumon  family  and  apparently  to  the  genus 
Ilemiteles.  After  most  of  the  gall-makers  have  undergone  all  their 
transformations  and  escaped,  some  few  of  the  galls  are  found  still  in- 
inhabited  by  the  worm.  These  belated  worms  contain  the  larva  of  this 
fly,  and  they  are  somewhat  smaller  and  paler  than  are  the  healthy 
ones ;  their  life  as  worms  being  prolonged  by  the  presence  of  their 
enemy  within.  During  the  month  of  September,  the  parasitic  larva 
leaves  the  body  of  the  caterpillar,  and  spins  for  itself,  within  the  gall,, 
a  tough  white  silken  cocoon,  in  which  it  remains  through  the  winter, 
and  from  which  the  fly  escapes  during  the  following  March  or  April, 
some  of  them  escaping  much  earlier  than  others.  This  fly  I  have 
named  in  honor  of  my  friend  Mr.  E.  T.  Cresson,  of  Philadelphia,  to 
whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  generic  determination  of  all  these  para- 
sites. 

HEMiTF.r.Es  (?)  Cressonii. — (^ — Length  0.25.  Black,  opaque,  hea<l  transversely-subquadrate;  face, 
clothed  with  pale  glittering  pubescence  ;  spot  on  mandibles,  palpi,  scape  of  antennte  in  front  and  the 
teguUe,  white;  eyes  large,  ovate;  antennae  longer  than  head  and  thorax,  slender,  black;  thorax  closely 
and  minutely  punctured  ;  mesothorax  with  a  deeply  impressed  line  on  each  side  anteriorly  ;  scutel- 
lum  convex,  closelj-  punctured,  deeply  excavated  at  base  ;  metathorax  coarsely  sculptured,  truncate 
and  excavated  behind,  the  elevated  lines  sharply  defined,  forming  an  irregularly  shaped  central 
area,  and  a  triangular  one  on  each  side  of  it,  the  outer  posterior  angle  of  which  is  prominent  and 
subacute  ;  wings  hyaline,  iridescent,  nervures  blackish,  stigma  large,  areolet  incomplete,  the  outer 
nervure  wanting;  legs  pale  honey-yellow,  coxaj  paler,  tips  of  posterior  femora,  and  their  tibiao  and 
tasri  entirely  blackish ;  abdomen  elongate  ovate,  flattened,  petiolated,  the  first  segment  flat, 
gradually  dilated  posteriorly,  somewhat  shining,  and  indistinctly  longitudinally  aciculate;  the  two- 
following  segments  opaque,  indistinctly  sculptured  ;  remaining  segments  smooth  and  shining. 

A  lourth  parasite,  belonging  to  the  same  great  Ichneumon  family^ 

issues  from  the  worm  and  spins  a  white  silken  cocoon,  in  exactly  the 

same  manner  as  the  preceding.     From  this  cocoon  at  the  same  season 

of  the  year,  escapes  a  fly  which  is  also  of  very  much  the  same  size 

and  appearance,  but  which  belongs  to  the  distinct  genus  Microgaster. 
12  K  s  E 


178  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

It  has  hitherto  been  uiidiscribed  and  may  be  known  by  the  specific 
name  of  gelecMa. 

MiCROGASTER  GELECHiA — Length  0.20  ^5*  $ . — Black,  clothed  with  a  short,  thin,  glittering,  whitish 
pubescence,  most  dense  on  the  face,  which  latter  is  closely  punctured ;  occiput  and  cheeks  shining; 
mandibles  rufopiceous ;  palpi  whitish;  eyes  pubescent;  antennas  as  long  as  the  body  in  (^, 
shorter  in  5  >  18-j<^iiited  ;  thorax  shining,  feebly  punctured,  mesothorax  closely  and  more  strongly 
punctured,  with  a  deeply  impressed  longitudinal  line  on  each  side  over  base  of  wings;  scutellum 
smooth  and  polished,  the  lateral  groove  broad,  deep,  arched  and  crenulat^d;  metathorax  opaque, 
densely  rugose,  with  a  sharp,  central,  longitudinal  carina,  and  a  smooth,  flat,  transverse  carina  at 
base;  tegultc  testaceous,  wings  hj aline,  iridescent,  apex  smoky,  nervures  blackish,  areolet  com- 
plete, subtriangular,  radial  nervure  indistinct ;  legs  pale  honey-yellow,  coxce  blackish,  pale  at 
tips,  middle  pair  in  J  concolorous  with  legs ;  abdomen  with  the  two  basal  segments  densely  ru- 
gose and  opaque,  the  remainder  smooth  and  shining ;  venter  more  or  less  varied  with  pale  testa- 
ceous. 

The  galls  containing  worms  that  have  been  victimized  by  either 
of  these  last  two  parasites  are  generally  small  and  narrow,  indicating 
that  the  worm  has  been  sickly  and  not  able  to  perform  its  functions  in 
a.  proper  manner,  but  those  containing  worms  infested  with  the  In- 
flating Chalcis-fly,  first  described,  are  of  the  normal  size,  the  worm 
often  having  completed  its  passage-way  before  succumbing  to  its 
enemy. 

There  are  two  other  and  larger  parasites  which  attack  our  little 
Gall-maker,  the  one  anundescribed  species  of  Piinpla  and  the  other 
an  undescribed  species  of  EpMalteH;  making  in  all  six  distinct  para- 
sites. Besides  these,  there  is  another  insect  which  intrudes  upon  and 
often  kills  him.  This  last  is  the  larva  of  some  small  long-horned  bee- 
tle, and  most  likely  of  some  species  of  the  genus  (9Jer«3a,  as  it  greatly 
resembles  the  larva  of  Oherea oceUata^Y^dX^S..^  which  I  have  bred  from 
the  stems  of  the  Cottonwood.  After  the  parent  gall-moth  has  de- 
posited her  Qgg^  and  the  young  worm  and  its  gall  have  acquired  con- 
siderable size,  the  parent  beetle  of  this  larva  comes  along  and  deposits 
her  egg  higher  up  on  the  same  stem,  and  the  larva  hatching  from  it 
immediately  commences  boring  downwards  till  it  reaches  the  gall, 
where  it  riots  until  it  has  crowded  out  the  properinhabitant  and  filled 
the  gall  with  excrementitious  and  pithy  debris.  It  then  continues 
its  descent  till  it  reaches  the  root,  where  it  continues  boring  till  win- 
ter approaches,  and  where  it  hybernates  in  the  larva  state.  Sometimes 
the  gall-maker  succeeds  in  webbing  this  intruder  out,  so  that  he  only 
partially  destroys  the  gall,  while  at  other  times  the  intruder  does  not 
reach  the  gall  till  the  inmate  has  changed  to  the  chrysalis  state ;  but 
in  the  latter  case  the  moth  always  dies  in  its  endeavors  to  escape. 
The  vacated  galls  of  this  gall-moth  afford  excellent  winter  shelter  for 
a  variety  of  insects  and  spiders,  and  the  common  Chinch  bug  is  espec- 
ially fond  of  taking  up  its  winter  quarters  in  them. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  179 

THE  CIIICKWEED  GEOMETER,  Iliematojns  grataria,  Fabr.— PL  2, 
Figures  18, 19,  20  and  21. 

(Lepidoptera  Geometridse.) 

At  Plate  2,  Figure  18, 1  have  figured  a  very  common  little  moth 
which  may  be  seen  flitting  over  our  meadows  and  in  our  gardens 
during  the  summer  and  fall  months.  It  is  of  a  delicate  orange  color, 
marked  with  pink,  as  in  the  figure.  A  number  of  persons  have  desired 
to  know  whether  or  not  it  was  injurioiis,  and  what  its  larva  fed  on, 
and,  as  its  transformations  have  been  hitherto  unknown,  I  will  briefly 
record  them. 

The  female  moths  deposit  their  eggs  in  rows  of  about  twenty,  along 
the  edge  of  a  leaf,  or  along  the  stem  of  the  common  chickweed  ( Stel- 
lar ia  media.)  These  eggs  (see  PL  2,  Fig.  21)  are  not  quite  0.02  of  an 
nch  long  and  are  oval,  flattened  and  depressed  near  the  centre. 
When  first  laid  they  are  yellowish-white,  but  change  within  two  days 
to  a  very  bright,  shiny,  red  color,  between  Venetian  and  vermillion. 
These  eggs  hatch  in  a  very  short  time,  frequently  within  a  week,  into 
thread-like  worms,  with  ten  legs  only  and  with  the  habit  of  looping 
themselves  into  all  manner  of  shapes,  especially  into  a  circle.  In 
about  a  month,  during  hot  weather,  they  acquire  their  full  size,  when, 
they  are  of  the  form  and  appearance  of  Plate  2,  Figure  19.  They  are 
quite  variable  in  color,  being  either  gray,  yellowish-green,  or  dark 
brown.  They  change  to  chrysalids  within  a  slight  web  attached  to 
the  leaves  of  their  food-plant,  and  in  this  state  they  bear  the  appear- 
ance of  Plate  2,  Figure  20,  the  skin  being  so  thin  that  before  the  moth 
escapes  the  colors  of  the  wings  show  distinctly  through  it.  There 
are  several  broods  during  the  year,  and  the  insect  may  often  be  found 
in  all  its  different  states  at  one  and  the  same  time.  It  probably  passes 
the  winter  in  either  the  larva  or  egg  state,  for  I  have  taken  both 
eggs  and  half  grown  larvae  in  the  beginning  of  November.  In 
the  larva  and  chrysalis  state  it  is  not  easily  detected,  on  account  of  its 
small  size  and  of  its  assimilating  the  color  of  the  food-plant.  The 
larva  has  furthermore  the  habit  of  jerking  itself  away  to  a  consider- 
able distance  when  disturbed,  especially  while  it  is  young. 

Hjjmatopis  grataria,  Fabr. — Lacua— Average  length  0.85.  Color  quite  variable ;  either 
pale  yellowish-green,  deep  rufous  with  an  orange  tint,  or  of  a  mixture  of  gray  and  cream-color. 
Minutely  punctate  all  over.  Segments  1,  2  and  3,'extremely  short ;  4,  longest  and  widest,  having 
two  wrinkles  each  side,  with  a  dark  depression  between  them;  5,  6,  7  and  S,  of  equal  length  ;  9,  10 
and  11,  short,  the  two  former  also  somewhat  wider  than  the  other.  Dorsum  dark,  with  a  lighter 
middle  line,  and  a  light,' somewhat  irregular  subdorsal  line  which  converges  anteriorly  and  diverges 
posteriorly  of  each  segment;  two  dark  spots  anteriorly  each  side  of  the  middle  line.  Sides  more 
or  less  wrinkled,  lighter  than  dorsum  and  with  a  light  longitudinal  ridge  below.  Venter  variegated 
with  longitudinal  marks,  and  shaded  outwardly  with  deep  olive-green  in  strong  contrast  with  the 
lateral  light  ridge.  Stigmata  minute,  black,  and  placed  on  an  oval  swelling  at  the  anterior  portion 
of  the  segment.  Head  of  the  same  color  as  body,  with  a  dark  line,  edged  each  side  with  white,  con- 
tinuing from  the  thoracie  segments. 

C7j>y«ahs.— (Plate  2,  Fig.  20.)  Length,  0.50.  Wing  sheaths  and  tip  of  abdomen  pale  buff, 
the  middle  of  the  abdomen  very  light  yellowish-green.  A  purplish  dorsal  line.  Obliquely  truncated 
at  the  head,  having  a  somewhat  triangular  appearance,  the  ventral  angle  being  lengthened  iut®  a 
slightly  bifurcate  snout.  Anal  segments  quite  attenuated,  the  extremity  being  also  slightly  bifur- 
cated.   Stigmata  small,  black  and  distinct. 


180  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

THE  THISTLE  FLUME,— Pterophorus  carduidactylus,  N.  Sp.,  PI.  2, 

Figs.  13  and  14. 

(Lepidoptera  Alucitida?.) 

Having  already  sketched  the  history  of  the  Grape  Plume,  page 
137,  the  larva  of  which  attacks  the  Grape  vine,  I  will  now  give  the 
history  of  another  species  of  the  same  genus  whose  larva  infests  the 
common  Thistle  ( Cersium  lanceolata)  in  order  to  show  how  very  dis- 
similar two  larvge  may  be,  which  belong  to  the  same  genus  and  greatly 
resemble  each  other  in  the  perfect  state. 

During  the  month  of  May  the  heads  of  the  above  named  thistle 
may  frequently  be  found  drawn  together  by  silken  threads,  with  some 
of  the  leaves  frequently  dead.  On  pulling  this  w^ebbed  mass  apart 
from  eight  to  a  dozen  thick  smooth  worms  may  be  found,  which  are 
of  a  light  straw  color  with  rows  of  black  spots,  and  the  head  and  tail 
[Fig.  93.]  marked  as  in  the  accompanying  figure.  These  worms  are 
found  of  different  sizes  in  the  same  head,  which  would  in- 
dicate that  the  parent  moth  either  deposits  her  eggs  at  dif- 
ferent intervals  in  the  same  place  or  that  the  eggs  hatch 
out  irregularly.  Towards  the  end  of  May  they  change  to 
pupse  within  the  burrow  which  the  worm  inhabited;  these 
pup£e  being  of  a  dull  yellow  color,  without  polish,  and  re- 
sembling the  pup^  of  some  long-legged  Crane  fly  ( Tijnda) 
rather  than  a  moth — see  PI.  2,  Fig.  11.  In  just  one  week 
after  they  have  thus  changed,  the  moths  escape.  This  moth,  which  is 
represented  at  Plate  2,  Figure  13,  is  of  a  tawny  yellow  color,  with  a 
prominent  triangular  dark  spot  on  the  outer  third  of  the  front  wing, 
running  from  the  front  edge.  As  it  differs  from  all  hitherto  de- 
scribed North  American  species,  it  may  appropriately  be  called  the 
Thistle  Plume. 

Pteropiiouus  carduidactylus,  N.  Sp. — Lari'a. — Average  length  0.60.  Largest  in  the  middle  of 
body,  tapering  thence  each  way.  Color  light  straw-yellow — greener  when  young.  Somewhat  darker, 
parti}'  translucent,  dorsal,  suhdorsal  and  stigmatal  lines.  Two  lateral  rows  of  black  spots,  the 
lower  spots  rather  smaller  and  placed  behind  the  upper  ones.  A  third  row  above  these,  and  others 
along  the  back,  but  so  small  that  thej^  are  gf^nerally  imperceptible  with  the  naked  eye,  except  on  the 
thoracic  segments,  being  especially  distinct  on  segment  2.  Head  small,  black,  sometimes  inclining 
t'""  brown.  Cervical  shield  black,  divided  longitudinally  in  the  middle  by  a  lighter  line.  Caudal 
plate  also  black.  Segment  11,  besides  the  spots  above  mentioned,  has  two  transverse  black  marks, 
the  posterior  one  the  largest.     Thoracic  legs  black,  the  others  of  the  same  color  as  the  body. 

Described  from  12  specimens. 

Pupa. — Average  length  0.45.  Of  form  of  Plate  2,  Figure  14.  Soft,  dull  yellow,  with  a  lat- 
eral dusky  line,  each  side  of  dorsum,  and  another,  less  distinct  each  side  of  venter.  Also 
dusky  about  the  head  and  wing-sheaths. 

Perfect  insect. — Length  0.45 ;  alar  expanse  O.Sfl.  Front  wings  bifid,  the  cleft  reaching  not 
much  more  than  J  of  wing  ;  tawny  yellow,  with  a  distinct  dai-k  brnwn  triangular  spot  running  from 
costa  to  the  base  of  cleft — sometimes  a  little  below  it — its  posterior  margin  with  a  slight  concave 
curve.  Three  dusky,  difFase  longitudinal  spots,  one  placed  on  the  basal  third  of  the  wing  at  costa 
and  frequently  reaching  along  the  costa  to  the  triangular  spot ;  one  near  the  interior  margin,  a  lit- 
tle nearer  to  the  base  of  wing  than  the  last,  and  one  on  the  outer  third  of  tlie  interior  margin.  Two 
light-colored  transverse  lines  across  the  end  of  wing,  one  very  near  and  parallel  with  posterior 
margin,  the  other  bordering  the  triangular  spot  behind,  and  curving  across  the  lower  lobe  towards 
posterior  angle.  The  space  between  these  two  light  lines  usually  darker  than  the  ground-color. 
Fringes   dark  with  a  light  margin.     Hind  wings  trifid,  the  upper  cleft  reaching  a  little  beyond  the 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  181 

.niJdle,  the  lower  one  to  the  base  of  wing.  Color  ashy-brown,  the  lower  lobeproJuced  intoa  dark 
Tnju  la  spot  about  their  middle  posteriorly.  Antenna,  palpi,  head,  thorax  and  b  ^^y'^awny  yel- 
low ;  legs  of  the  same  color  with  the  exception  of  the  tarsi,  which  are  almost  white,  with  alteroaU 
dark'bro^wn  spots,  the  spines  being  black,  with  dusky  tips. 


[,«>3 


E  R  K  A,  T  A., 


Page  8,  line  21,  for  "being"  read  "were."^ 

Page  10,  line  1,  for  "Figure  3,  3"  read  ''Figure  3,  2." 

Page  12,  line  20,  for  "  last"  read  "  1866." 

Page  12,  line  3  from  bottom,  after  "February,"  add  "(IS67)." 

Page  31,  line  15,  for  "37°"  read  "  38o." 

Page  47,  line  16,  for  "far"  read  "for." 

Page  114,  line  1,  after  ',' insect"  read  "  {Strietrus  frimbriatus,  Say)." 

Page  120,  line  30,  after  "  Cottonwood"  read  "  {Pemphigus  vagabundus,  Walsh). 

Page  133,  line  24  from  b&ttom,  for  "precetling  insect"  read  "  Grape  curculio.' 

Page  134,  line  3  from  bottom,  for  "Part  V"  read  "Part  VI." 

Page  142,  under  the  heading,  add  "  (Lepidoptera,  Tortricidae)." 

Page  166,  under  the  heading,  add  "  (Lepidoptera,  Tineidae)." 


INDEX. 


JEgcria  Lxiliosa...  47 

Agrolis     Cochrayiii 74 

"         devastator 83 

"        incrmis 72 

"        jacul  ferii 82 

"        tclifcra, 80 

"        scandens 76 

"        subgothica 81 

Allan  thus  worm 151 

Alypia  octomactdata 136 

American    Meromyza 159 

Anchylopcra  fragaricc 142 

Anthomyia   zeas 154 

Aplodcs  rubivora 139 

Apple-worm ; 62 

Apple — Grape-root  borer  in 126 

"        Root-plant-louse 118 

"  "  "  Syrphus  fly 121 

"      -tree  Bark-lice 7 

"        "—Borers 42 

"■         " — Cutworms  on 70 

"        " — Round-headed  borer 42 

t(        "—Flat-headed  borer ; 46 

"        " — Bag'  worm 150 

Appearnnce  and  disappearance  of  the  Periodical  Cicada 22 

Arbor-Vitac — Bag-  worm  on , 150 

Anna  spinosa 89,  113 

Ash-gray  Blister-beetle „ 97 

Aspidiglossa  subangulata 58 

Aspidiotus  Harrhii 7 

"         conchiformis 7 


Bag'-worm 1^ 

"        parasite 150 

Bark-lice  of  the  apple-tree « , 7 

'•■        on  the  plum 15 

"  "       pear 15 

"  "       currant 15 

"  "       Persian  lilac 15 

Baridhis  trinotatus 93 

Basket-worm 147 

Bee-moth 166 

Bee-killer , 168 

Beneficial  insects 169 

Black  Blister-beetle 98 

Black  Rat  Blister-beetle 93 


2  INDEX. 

1^9 


"  Cane — Tree  Cricket  on ,00 

"  — Cut  worms  on ^^ 

Blister-beetles -,,^ 

115 

"  — Striped ,>„ 

"  —Ash-gray !!!......".     97 

"  — 131ack-rat no 

-^i-i< •••"^"""'"'""■■"■"Z":;;;;;;;;::!  9s 

"  —Margined y^ 

Bogus  Colorado  Potato-beetle ,Qr 

Bordered  Soldier-bue- ,,, 

_  „  *  114 

Borers — Round-headed  apple-tree 49 

"     — Flat-headed  apple-tree jq 


Caloso7na  cplidum oq    ii>; 

Camel-cricket '  ifio 

Cane  Curculio  of  the  Grape 101 

Carpocapsn  jiomonella (.9 

Catalpa — Bag-worm  on j^g 

"     — Cut-worm  on , ,,-, 

Celeena  renigera oj. 

Chalets  fly — The  inflating _ j^g 

Chavliognathus  pcmmjlvanicus kt 

Cherry — Bag-worm  on j^q 

Chickweed  Geometer ; j^rg 

Chronological  history  of  Periodical  Cicada 30 

Chrysobotluis  Jemorata ^^ 

Chrysopa r^ 

Cicada  septcmdecim 20 

"      cassinii 9q 

"     —The  Periodical ...........".....     18 

Clandestine  Owlet-moth 70 

Climbing  cut-worms ^q 

"        Rustic yg 

Cochran  Rustic 74. 

Coccinella  9-notata jj2 

Caliodcs  inccqualis..... J28 

Codling  moth g2 

"      of  the  Grape I33 

Colorado  Potato-beetle 1q1 

"  "  "    parasite m 

"  "  "    — Its  past  history  and  future  progress 101 

■    "  "  "    —Its  habits 107 

"  "  "     — Remedies 109,  116 

"  "  "     -Bogus 185 

Cottonwood  Gall  plant-louse 120 

Conotrachclvs  neriuphar 5O 

Corn  maggot 154 

Coreus  tristis II3 

Crab-apple — worm  in 65 

Cucumber-beetle 100 

"        flea-beetle 101 

Curculio — The  Plum , 50 

"     — Its  enemies 57 

"      of  the  Grape 128 

"  "        "     sned 129 

"  "         "     cane 131 

Currant — Bark-lice  on 15 

"    — Cut-worms  on 70 


INDEX.  O 

l-iO 
Currant  Fruit-worm 

„   ^  67 

Cut-worms 

it        —Remedies  against ^^'     ^^ 

(I        —The  natural  history  of  twelve  distinct  species 67 

"        — Climbins ^^ 

72 
Cut-worm — The  Variegated 'J" 

u  —Tho  Dark-sided ^^ 

"  —The  Climbing ^^ 

«  —The  W-marked ^ "'"^ 

"  —The  Greasy ^^ 

<f  —The  Western  Striped ^^■ 

"  —The  Dingy ^^ 

«  —The  Glassy ^^ 

»  —The  &!p?ckled ^* 

<<  —The  Small  White  Bristly ^^ 

"  —The  Wheat ^"^ 

74 
Dark-sided  Cut-worm 

82 
Dart-bearing  Rustic 

83 
Devastating  Dart 

Devil's  Riding  horse 

82 

Dingy  Cut-worm 

100 
Diabrotica  vittata 

Borijphora  ^0-!ineata 

■' ,  .       ,  105 

''  luncta 

T.  147 

Drop-worm 

Eight-spotted  Forester ^"" 

Elonsiate  Ground-beetle ^^^ 


Elm-tree  louse. 


li 


Enemies  of  the  Periodical  Cicada -^^ 

Colorado  Potato  beetle m 


puri 1^^ 

,    .  123 

ulmi 


177 
Eurytcma  Eolleii 

Fidia  viticida ^^^ 

Fiery  ground-beetle ^^>  ^^^ 

Figure  8  minor ^'' 

Fruit  trees — Injury  caused  to  them  by  Cicadas -9 

"  attacked  by  cut-worms ""^ 

Gall-curculio  of  the  grape ^^''- 

X^^iill-motWflihe  Golden-rod ^''^ 

•  ■•.-  16(5 


Gallcrea  cereana. 

Gelechia  gallasolidnginis 

Geometer  of   the  Chick-weed '^^" 

77 
83 


„_„ 173 

:k-weed 

Geopinus  incrassatus. 


Glassy  Cut-worm 

Golden-rod  Gall-moth ^''' 

Gooseberry  Fruit-worm 

Gortyna   nit  el  a 

Gothic  Dart ^^ 

Grape  vine — Inspcts  injurious  to ^- 

<'         "       PUime ^'^^ 

"        "      Fidia l-'^^ 

ti        li      —Tree  Cricket  on l'^"^ 

ti        II      — Cut-worms  on '^ 


4  INDEX. 

Grape   vine — The  Eight-spotted  Forester 136 

"       Curculio 128 

"      Seed  curculio, 129 

"■       Gall  curculio 181 

"       Codling ; 133 

"      Root-borer 124 

Greasy  Cut- worm 80 

Greengage  plum — Worm  in 140 

Ground-beetle — The  subangular 68 

'"         "  larva 69 

"        "         — The  Pennsylvania 69 

"        "         —The  Fiery 89,  115 

"        "         —The  Elongate 115 

«        u         _xhe  Murky 115 


TIadena  subjimcta „ 84 

Hmmatopis  gr  at  aria ^  179 

Hallica  cucumeris 101 

"        pubescens 101 

Harris's  Bark-louse 7 

Harpalus  Pennsylvanicus 59 

"      caliginosus 115 

llarpactor  cinctus 114 

Head  maggot , 161 

Hcmitelcs  (?)   Thyridopteryx 150 

"  Cressonii 177 

Hippodamia  maculata 112 

"  lii-punctata 112 

"  convergent 112 

Honey  locust — Bag-worm  on 150 

Honey-bee — Insect  enemies  of 166 


Tncrassated  Geopinus 77 

Inflating  Chalets  fly 176 

Injury  caused  to  fruit-trees  by  Cicadas 29 

Innoxious  insects 172 

Insects  infesting  the  potato -, 91 

"      injurious  to  the  Grape-vine , 124 

"       enemies  of  the  Iloney-bee , 166 

Introductory 3 


Lacewing  larva , ^ 67 

Lachnosterna  quercina /.w..wk t^W 

Ladybirds ]12 

Ladybird— The  Spotted 112 

"       —The  9-Spotted 112 

"       —The  13-Spotted 112 

"       —The  Convergent 112 

Lance  Pais  tic 80 

Leaf-roller  of  the  Strawberry 142 

Leina  trilineata 99 

Linden — Bag -worm  on  150 

Lombardy  Poplar — Bag-worm  on 150 

Ly delta  doryphora Ill 

Lytta  vittata 96 

"      cinerea 97 


INDEX.  5 

Lytta  murina 98 

"      atrata 98 

"      marginata 98 


Madartisvifis , 131 

Mantis  Carolina 169 

Many-biinded  Robber 114 

Maple — Flat-headed  borer  in 47 

Maple — Baa^-worm  on 150 

Margined  Blister-beetle 98 

May  Beetle 156 

Meromyza  Americana 159 

Microf/aster. .  89 

"  gelechia 178 

Murky  Ground-beetle 98 


Natural  history  and  transformations  of  the  Periodical  Cicada 22 

"  "       of  twelve  cut-worms 67 

Nocttia  clandestina 79 

Norway  Spruce  —Bag-worms  on 150 

Noxious  insects 7 


Oak — Flat-headed  borer  in 47 

Oak  stumps — Grape-root  borer  in 128 

(Ecanthus  nivcus 138 

CEstrus  ovis 161 

<Eta  compla. 151 

Oberea  oceUata 179 

Orgyia   leucostigma 144 

Orthosoma  cijHndricum  (?) , 124 

Osage  orang-e — Bag-worm  on 150 

"  "      — Grape-root  borer  in 126 

Other  cut-worms 87 

Oyster-shell  bark-louse 7 


Parasite  of  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle Ill 

Pasimachus  elongatus 115 

Peach  borer 47 

"    — Flat-headed  borer  in 47 

"    — Curculio    on 50 

Pear — Bark  lice  on 15 

" — Grape-root  borer  in 128 

"  — Bag-worm  on 150 

"  — Cut-worms  on 70 

Petyipelia  grossulaiicB 140 

Pemphigus  vagabundus , 112 

Pennsylvania  Soldier-bug 57 

"  Ground-beetle 59 

Penthina  vitivorana 133 

Periodical  Cicadas 18 

"  "    —17  and  IS-year  broods 18 

"  "    —Two  distinct  forms 20 

"  "    — Season  of  their  appearance  and  disappearance 22 

"  "    — Their  natural  history  and  transformations 22 

"  "    — Their  enemies 26 

"  "    — Their  injuries  to  fruit  trees 29 


6  INDEX. 

Periodical  Cicadas — Their  sting 26 

"  "    —Their  chronological  history  with  jjredictions  of  the  future  appearance  of  all 

well  ascertained  broods  throughout  the  country 30 

Persian  lilac — Bark-lice  on 25 

Pipiza  radicum j21 

Plum — Bark-lice  on j5 

"  — Apple  worm  infesting  it 65 

"  — Greengage — worm  in 140 

"  — Bag-worm  on ,,  150 

"  — Curculio 50 

Plume  of  the  Grape  vine I37 

Potato — Insects  infesting  it 91 

"      Stalk  borer 92 

"     Stalk  weevil 93 

"      or  Tomato  worm , 95 

"     Blister-beetles 97 

"      — Three-lined  leaf-beetle 99 

"      — Colorado  beetle 101 

"      — Bogus  Colorado  beetle 105 

Pterophorus  carduiOacttjlus , 180 

"            2)criscelidactylus 137 


Quince — Apple-worm  in 65 

"    — Bag  worm  on ; 150 


Rapacious  Soldier-bug 114 

Raspberry  Geometer '. 139 

"        — Tree  Cricket  on ; 133 

"        — Cut-worm  on 70 

Rear  horse 1G9 

Reduvius  raptatorius 114 

Red  Cedar— Bag-worm  on 150 

Root  Plant-louse  of  the  apple  tree 118 

"         "         "     Syrphus  fly 121 

"    Borer  of  the  Grape  vine 124 

Rose  bush — Cut-worms  on 70 


Saperda  bivUtata 42 

Seed  curculio  of  the  Grape 129 

"    corn  maggot 154 

Seventeen  and  thirteen  year  broods  ef  the  Periodical  Cicada 18 

Small  White  Bristly  Cut-worm 86 

Solidago  gall- moth 173 

Speckled  cut-worm 84 

Sphinx  b-maculala 95 

"      Carolina 96 

Spined  Soldier-bug 89,  113 

Squash  bug 113 

Stalk-borer  of  the  Potato 92 

"    weevil  of  the  Potato 93 

Strawberry  leaf-roller 142 

Sting  of  the  Periodical  Cicada 26 

Striped  Blister-beetle 96 

Slrielrus  firnbiiatus 114 

Syrphus  fly  of  Root-louse.. 121 

Subangular  Ground-beetle 58 

Subjoined  Hadena 84 

Sycamore — Bag-worm  on 150 


INDEX.  7 

115 
Tetracha   Virginica 

Thistle  Plume ^^^ 

Three-lined  Leaf  beetle •  ^ 

Thijridoptetiix  ephemeraformis 

Tortrix  Riley a7ia 

95 

Tomato-wonn  

„  .  ,    .  138 

Tree-cncket 

^  .  „,.„  168 

Trupaitca  apivora 

Two  distinct  forms  of  the  Periodical  Cicada 20 


Unarmed  Rustic  Moth 72 

Variegated  Cut-worm '2 

Vine  Root-borer ^^4 

Virginia  Tiger-beetle r 115 


Walnut  Tortrix . 
Wax-worm 


153 
166 


Western  Striped  Cut-worm ^1 


Wheat  Gut-worm. 


87 


White-marked  Tussock  Moth 144 

156 

158 


Grub. 


fundus 


Wooly  Apple-tree  louse •••••  H" 


Elm-tree  louse 


123 


W-marked  Cut-worm ^^ 


SECOND   ANNUAL   REPORT 


ON    THE 


w 


ttm%%f 


BENEFICIAL   AND   OTHER 


ITsTSECTS, 


OF    THE 


ST^TE    OF   MISSOURI, 


MADE  TO  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE,  PURSUANT  TO  AN  APPROPRIATION 
FOR  THIS  PURPOSE  FROM  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  THE  STATE. 


BY  CHARLES  V.  RILEY. 

STATE     ENTOMOLOGIST. 


JEFFERSON   CITY: 
Horace  "Wilcox,  T>ublic  Printei** 

la70. 


PREFA.OE. 


To  Ihe  Members  of  the  Missouri  State  Board  of  Agriciilture : 

Gentlemen: — I  herewith  submit,  for  publication,  my  Second  An- 
nual Report  on  the  Noxious,  Beneficial  and  other  Insects  of  the  State 
of  Missouri. 

For  my  First  Report,  I  prepared  two  lithographic  plates,  a  cer- 
tain number  of  which  were  colored.  Such  plates,  when  well  exe- 
cuted, are  an  adornment  to  any  work,  but  they  are  expensive;  and 
upon  conferring  with  different  members  of  the  Board,  it  was  thought 
best  to  furnish  two  such  plates  for  one-half  the  edition,  rather  than 
one  plate  for  the  whole  edition.  The  plan  has  not  worked  well,  hovv'"- 
ever,  since  many  of  those  persons  most  interested  in  the  Report,  and 
for  whom  it  is  more  especially  designed,  failed  to  get  copies  which 
had  plates. 

For  this  Second  Report,  therefore,  I  have  confined  the  illustra-' 
tions  to  wood.  Most  of  these  wood-cuts  are  executed  in  the  best 
style  of  the  art,  but  they  cannot  possibly  show  to  good  advantage 
on  such  paper  as  was  used  in  last  year's  Report;  and  the  pains  taken 
in  the  preparation  of  these  cuts,  and  in  hiring  the  very  best  engrav- 
ers the  country  affords,  seems  too  much  like  v/aste  of  time  and  means, 
when  their  effect  is  so  spoilt  by  poor  inlv  and  poorer  paper.  If  it  is 
in  the  power  of  the  Board,  by  proper  action,  to  secure  a  better  qual- 
ity of  paper  for  this  Report,  I  sincerely  hope  that  such  action  will  be 
taken;  for  a  clear  impression  of  an  insect  cut  is  often  absolutely 
necessary,  to  enable  the  general  reader  to  recognize,  in  the  field,  the 
living  form  of  the  particular  species  which  it  represents. 

The  cause  of  Economic  Entomology  lost  one  of  its  greatest 
champions,  and  the  farmers  and  fruit-growers  of  the  West,  and  espe- 
cially of  our  sister  State,  Illinois,  suffered  an  irreparable  loss,  in  the 
sudden  death,  on  November  18th,  1869,  of  Mr.  Benj.  D.  Walsh,  of 
Rock  Island.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  he  was  State  Entomologist  of 
Illinois,  and  my  Associate  in  the  Editorship  of  the  American  Ento- 
mologist, published  at  St.  Louis ;  and  I  hardly  need  say  that  this  sad 
and  unexpected  fate  of  my  friend  has  very  much  increased  my  own 
la!)ors.  When  I  add  to  this  the  fact  that  Mr.  Walsh  was  prostrated 
for  over  three  months  last  spring  and  summer,  and  that  Mr.  Wilcox, 
our  State  Printer,  was  ready  for  this  Report  at  an  earlier  day  than  I  had 


4  PREFACE. 

anticipated;  you  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  several  subjects 
which  I  had  contemplated  treating  of,  have  been  unavoidably  de- 
ferred another  year. 

In  order  to  make  the  sense  of  the  text  plain  to  every  reader,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  insure  scientific  accuracy,!  shall  continue  to  con- 
form to  the  rules  laid  down  in  the  introduction  to  my  First  Report — 
namely,  to  print  all  descriptions  of  merely  scientific  interest  in  small 
type  ;  to  use  as  far  as  possible  a  common  name  for  each  insect,  always 
adding  the  scientific  appellation  in  italics  and  parenthesis,  so  that  it 
can  be  skipped,  if  necessary,  without  interfering  in  the  least  with  the 
sense  of  the  sentence ;  and  to  give  the  Order  and  Family  to  which 
each  insect  belongs,  in  parenthesis  under  each  heading. 

The  reader  will  also  bear  in  mind  that  the  dimensions  given,  are 
expressed  in  inches  and  the  fractional  parts  of  an  inch,  0.25  thus  im- 
plying a  quarter  of  an  inch  ;  and  that  the  sign  cT  is  an  abbreviation 
for  the  word  male,the  sign  $  for  female,  and  the  sign  9  for  neuter. 

My  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  Superintendents 
of  the  Missouri  Pacific,  South  Pacific,  Iron  Mountain,  Hannibal  and 
St.  Joseph,  North  Missouri,  and  Illinois  Central  Railroads  for  free 
passes  over  their  respective  routes. 

All  which  is  respectfully  submitted  by 

CHARLES  V.  RILEY, 

State  Entomologist. 

St.  L0U19,  Mo.,  Dec.  2, 1869. 


[COPVBIGHT  BECDBBD   TO  THK   AUTHOR.] 

NOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMirrEE  ON  ENTOMOLOGY. 


KEAD  BEFORE  THE  MISSOURI  STATE  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY,  AT  ITS  ELEVENTH 

ANi^UAL  MEETING,  BY  C.  V.  KILEY,  CHAIRMAN  OF 

THE  COMMITTEE. 


In  the  preparation  of  my  Annual  Report,  I  have  dwelt  in  detail  on 
many  insects  that  have  attracted  attention  during  the  year,  either  by 
their  injuries  or  benefits.  In  that  Report  numerous  illustrations  will 
be  used  to  appeal  to  the  eye  of  the  reader,  and  as  it  will  be  published 
in  the  same  volume  with  your  transactions,  I  deem  it  superfluous  at 
the  present  time  to  dwell  on  the  natural  history  of  any  one  insect 
Permit  me,  therefore,  to  cursorily  refer  to  a  few  of  the  prominent  en- 
tomological events  of  the  year,  and  afterwards  to  make  a  few  gener- 
alizations,  which  it  is  hoped  will  prove  ot  some  little  interest  and 

value. 

The  year  1869  may  be  set  down  as  one  in  which  our  crops,  as  a 
general  thing,  have  suffered  less  than  usual  from  insect  depredations. 
At  least  such  has  been  the  case  in  Missouri,  and,  judging  from  ex- 
tensive correspondence,  the  same  statement  would  hold  true  of  most 
of  the  northern  and  middle  States  of  the  Union. 

True,  the  Army- worm  {Leucania  unipuncta,  Haw.),  and  the  Grain 
Plant-louse  (  Aphis  aveim,  Fabr.),  appeared  in  many  parts  of  the  State 
in  sufficient  force  to  do  considerable  damage,  and  these  two  insects 
may  always  be  expected  in  a  tolerably  wet  year  that  was  preceded 
by  a  very  dry  one.  But  most  insects,  and  especially  those  which 
afflict  you  as  horticulturists,  have  behaved  exceedingly  well,  though 
it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  we  are  to  attribute  this  good  behavior 
on  their  part,  to  the  increased  knowledge  of  their  habits  which  has 


6  SECOIO)    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

been  disseminated  among  those  who  have  to  deal  with  them,  or  to» 
the  more  potent  and  unalterable  workings  of  Nature. 

The  Chinch  Bug,  which  in  the  dry  summer  of  1868,  committed 
such  ravages  upon  our  grain  crops  in  many  portions  of  our  State,  and 
especially  in  the  southwest,  was  scarcely  heard  of  in  1869,  after  the 
copious  rains  which  characterized  the  past  summer  commenced  to- 
shower  down.  The  Apple  Worm,  or  Codling  Moth  has  been  alto- 
gether less  injurious  than  it  was  the  year  before,  and  in  Adair,  Bu- 
chanan, Cooper,  Callaway,  Cass,  Lewia  and  Polk  counties,  especially^ 
and  probably  all  over  the  State,  our  orchards  have  been  loaded  with 
fair  fruit.  This  result  was  predicted  by  the  writer,  and  may  be  at- 
tributed principally  to  the  scarcity  of  the  insect,  resulting  from  the 
partial  failure  of  the  apple  crop  in  1868  ;  but  in  some  part  to  the  im- 
proved methods  of  fighting  the  foe.  For,  as  in  our  civil  strifes,  we 
introduce  improvements  in  the  machinery  which  is  to  slay  the  oppos- 
ing armies,  so  in  this  progressive  age,  we  believe  in  introducing  ma- 
chinery to  battle  with  our  liliputian  insect  hosts,  whenever  it  is  avail- 
able. And  the  experience  of  the  past  year  proves,  that  to  destroy 
this  insect,  old  pieces  of  rumpled  rag  or  carpet  placed  in  the  crotch' 
of  a  tree,  are  to  be  preferred  to  the  hay-bands  wrapped  around  it,  be- 
cause it  requires  altogether  less  time  to  place  the  rags  in  their  place 
than  to  fasten  the  hay-band ;  and  the  worms  which  spin  up  in  them 
can  be  killed  by  wholesale,  either  by  scalding  the  rags  or  by  pressing 
them  through  the  wringer  of  a  washing  machine. 

Owing  to  the  severe  drouth  of  1868,  which  was  unfavorable  to  its- 
successful  transformations,  that  dreaded  foe  of  the  fruit-grower,  the 
Plum  Curculio,  was  scarce  in  the  early  part  of  the  season,  and  our 
plum  and  peach  trees  set  a  fuller  crop  than  they  had  done  before  for 
years  ;  but  the  subsequent  moist  weather  was  favorable  to  the  under- 
ground evolutions  of  this  little  pest,  and  the  new  brood  appeared  in 
great  numbers  about  the  end  of  June  and  beginning  of  July,  when 
they  did  much  damage  to  stone-fruit  and  some  damage  to  pip-fruit 
by  the  gougings  which  they  made  for  food.  As  stated  in  an  essaj^ 
read  before  the  State  meeting  of  our  Illinois  horticultural  friends,  I 
have  discovered  a  little  cannibal  in  the  shape  of  a  minute  yellow 
species  of  ThriJ)s^^\hich.  destroys  vast  numbers  of  the  "  Little  Turk's"' 
eggs  ;  and  let  us  hope,  that  by  attacking  the  Curculio  in  its  most  vul- 
nerable point,  this  TTirips  may  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  reduce 
the  numbers  of  the  Curculio,  as  the  ladybirds  have  done  with  the 
Colorado  Potato-bug,  or  as  the  minute  mite  (^Acarus  mali)  is  knowa 
to  have  done  with  the  common  Oyster-shell  Bark-louse  of  the  Apple. 
The  eggs  of  the  Apple-tree  Plant-louse  {Aphis  mali)  which  last  win- 
ter so  thickly  covered  the  twigs  of  the  apple  trees  in  many  orchards,, 
hatched  and  produced  a  prodigious  number  of  lice  as  soon  as  the 
buds  commenced  to  burst.  In  this  immediate  neighborhood  they 
were  soon  swept  away,  however,  by  their  cannibal  insect  foes,  and  by 
insectivorous  birds,  such  as  the  warblers,  etc»;  but  a  physiological 


THE  STATB    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


fact  connected  with  this  insect  has  been  developed  this  year  by  Dr. 
E.  S.  Hull,  the  able  Illinois  State  Horticulturist,  which  is  of  such  im- 
portance that  I  cannot  pass  it  over  even  in  this  brief  report.    He  has 
ascertained  that  we  suffer  from  the  injurious  punctures  of  their  little 
beaks  long  after  the  lice  themselves  have  disappeared.    In  fact,  he 
has  proved  to  his  own  satisfaction  that  the  so-called"  scab"  in  apples, 
which  prevailed  to  such  an  alarming  extent  last  year,  and  rendered 
thousands  and  thousands  of  bushels  valueless  for  market  purposes,  is 
actually  caused  by  the  punctures  of  these  lice.    I  said  that  the  doctor 
had  proved  Uiis  matter  "  to  his  own  satisfaction,"  becauee  I  believe 
that  caution  requires  that  we  should  not  consider  it  as  an  established 
fact  until  all  objections  to  it  can  be  dispelled.    Personally  I  have 
made  no  observations  on  this  matter,  but  the  facts  in  the  case  all  add 
weight  to  Dr.  Hull's  theory,  if  such  it  can  be  called.    Hitherto  the 
cause  of  the  "scab"  on  apples  has    been    involved    in  mystery. 
It  was  supposed  to  have  a  fungoid  origin ;  yet  an  examination  will 
show  that  the  scabby  appearance  is  not  caused  by  any  live  fungus, 
but  by  arrested  growth  of  the  cells  which  have  become  corky  and 
cicatrized.    The  importance  of  this  discovery  of  Dr.  Hull's,  should  it 
once  be  firmly  established,  cannot  well  be  estimated;  for  when  we 
have  once  ascertained  the  cause  of  a  disease,  it  need  scarcely  exist 
any  longer.    By  destroying  the  lice  we  shall  prevent  scabby  apples, 
and  experience  teaches  that  they  can  be  destroyed  by  a  good  syring- 
ing of  tobacco-water.    We  may  expect,  in  this  immediate  vicinity, 
an  almost  total  exemption  from  «  scab"  next  year,  for  the  apple  trees 
are  remarkably  free  from  the  minute  black  bead-like  eggs  of  the 
Plant-louse  with  which  they  were  so  thoroughly  peppered  a  year  ago. 

The  Tent  Caterpillar  ( Clisiocampa  Americana)  was  more  abund* 
ant  than  usual  in  our  orchards,  and  the  Tent  Caterpillar  of  the  Forest 
{Clisiocampa  sylvatica)  also  appeared  in  great  numbers  both  on  our 
orchard  and  forest  trees.  .  . 

A  worm  which  I  have  called  the  Pickle  Worm,  {Phacellura  mt%- 
dalis.  Cram.)  and  which  had  never  been  publicly  noticed  before,  ap- 
peared in  immense  numbers,  and  did  great  damage  to  our  cucumbers 
and  melons  by  boring  into  the  fruit,  but  as  this  insect,  with  others, 
will  be  fully  treated  of  in-  my  forthcoming  Report,  I  will  pass  on  to 
a  more  general  subject. 

"The  pebble  in  the  streamlet  scant, 

May  turn  the  course  of  many  a  river ; 
The  dew-drop  on  the  infant  plant. 

May  warp  the  giant  oak  forever." 

In  no  department  of  science  does  the  old  proverb  "  prevention  is 
better  than  cure,"  apply  with  such  force  as  in  that  of  Economic  Ento- 
mology. In  my  studies  and  observations  I  have  often  been  struck 
with  the  fact  that  many  of  our  very  worst  insect  enemies  have  been 
introduced  from  abroad,  and  that  if  this  subject  of  Economic  Ento- 
mology had  been  better  understood  and  appreciated  fifty  years  ago, 


8  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 

and  the  proper  measures  had  been  taken  to  prevent  the  introduction 
of  these  pests,  we  should  at  present  be  free  from  the  curse  of  the 
great  majority  of  them.  "We  have,  indeed,  plenty  of  Native  American 
insects,  which  have  become  great  pests  to  the  cultivator  of  the  soil,  on 
account  of  the  artificial  state  of  things  which  he  induces.  In  a  state 
of  Nature,  a  given  species  of  plant,  in  its  struggle  for  existence,  is 
scattered  promiscuously  over  a  certain  extent  of  country,  and  the 
particular  insect  or  insects  which  feed  upon  that  plant,  have  to  search 
for  it  over  a  comparatively  extensive  surface,  and  their  multiplica- 
tion is  consequently  restricted.  But  the  pursuit  of  horticulture,  for 
instance — which  may  be  succinctly  defined  as  the  assembling  in  tracts 
of  greater  or  less  extent,  of  one  species  of  plant  at  the  expense  and 
exclusion  of  others — causes  the  particular  insects  which  feed  upon 
that  plant,  to  multiply  unduly,  and  we  have  to  use  that  same  intelli- 
gence in  subduing  these  insects,  which  we  employ  in  producing  the 
artificial  results  which  caused  their  increase.  In  the  normal  state  of 
things  insects  never  increase  unduly  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  always 
act  as  Nature's  most  faithful  servants,  and  accomplish  a  most  impor- 
tant work  in  her  economy.  Yet,  for  reasons  explained  above,  they 
naturally  become  our  enemies,  and  we  should  suffer  from  the  depre- 
dations of  our  indigenous  species,  even  though  no  foreign  ones  had 
been  imported.  But  we  have  altogether  more  than  our  share  of  these 
insect  depredators,  and  so  truly  is  this  the  case,  that  insects 
which  attract  universal  attention,  and  are  considered  as  very  serious 
evils  in  Europe,  would  not  be  deemed  worthy  of  notice  in  this  coun- 
try. There,  if  they  lose  one-fifth  of  a  given  crop,  the  whole  commu- 
nity becomes  alarmed ;  but  here  the  cultivator  sometimes  considers 
himself  fortunate  if  he  secures  the  half  of  his  crop  from  insect  rava- 
ges, and  each  State  loses  annually  from  fifty  to  sixty  million  dol- 
lars from  this  cause  alone,  though  but  four  States  have  as  yet  made 
any  attempt  to  prevent  this  serious  loss.  In  order  to  bring  this  fact 
home  to  you,  and  to  show  why  we  suffer  more  than  do  our  foreign 
brethren,  I  will  read  a  paper,  which  I  have  prepared  for  the  Ameri- 
can Entomologist^  on 

IMPORTED  INSECTS  AND  NATIVE  AMERICAN  INSECTS. 

If  we  examine  into  the  history,  as  detailed  in  a  recent  number  of  our 
Magazine,  (pp.  15-22)  of  the  imported  Currant  Worm  and  the  Native 
Currant  Worm,  we  shall  find  a  very  curious  state  of  things.  These 
two  insects  both  produce  Sawflies,  which  are  so  closely  allied  to  each 
other,  that  although  they  are  referred  to  distinct  genera  by  Entomol- 
ogists, it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  genus  {Pristiphora)  under 
which  the  native  species  is  classified  be  not  a  mere  subgenus  of  that 
under  which  the  imported  species  is  classified.  Reasonings  joWcri, 
therefore,  we  should  expect  to  find  a  very  great  similarity  in  the  de- 
structive powers  of  these  two  worms,  especially  as  each  of  them  in- 
fests the  leaves  l^pth  of  the  Red  Currant  and  of  the  Gooseberry.    But 


THE   STATE   EKTOMOLOGIST.  9 

what  are  the  actual  facts  ?  On  the  one  hand  we  see  a  Native  Ameri- 
can species— which  must  have  existed  here  Irom  time  immemorial, 
feeding  on  our  wild  Gooseberries  and  perhaps  on  our  wild  lied  Cur- 
rant, and  which  yet  has  troubled  our  tame  Gooseberries  and  tame 
Red  Currants  so  very  slightly,  that  it  cannot  be  proved  with  abso- 
lute certainty  to  have  ever  done  so  at  all,  except  in  Rock  Island 
county,  Ills.,  and  in  Scott  county,  Iowa.* 

On  the  other  hand  we  see  a  species,  only  introduced  into  this 
country,  from  Europe,  some  twelve  years  ago,  which  has  already 
almost  put  a  stop  to  the  cultivation  of  the  Gooseberry  and 
Red  Currant  throughout  a  large  part  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  the  northern  borders  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  whole  of 
Canada  West,  and  is  slowly  but  surely  extending  itself  in  all 
directions  from  the  point  where  it  was  originally  imported.  What 
can  be  the  reason  of  such  a  wide  difference  in  the  noxious  powers  of 
two  such  closely  allied  insects,  feeding  on  exactly  the  same  plants, 
but  one  of  them  indigenous  to  America  and  the  other  imported  into 
America  from  Europe  ?  Nor  is  this  the  only  case  of  the  kind.  We 
can  point  out  at  least  three  other  such  cases.  The  Imported  Onion- 
fly  (y4«if7i^?n?/?  a  (^^'jjarwm),  is  a  terrible  pest  to  the  onion  grower  in 
the  East,  though  it  has  not  yet  made  its  way  out  West.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  JSative  American  Onion-fly  {Ortalis  arcuata^  Walker), 
which  is  a  closely  allied  species  and  has  almost  exactly  the  same 
habits,  has  only  been  heard  of  in  one  or  two  circumscribed  localities 
in  the  West,  and  even  there  does  comparatively  but  little  damage. 
Again,  the  Imported  Oyster-shell  Bark-louse  {Aspidiotus  conchifor- 
mis)  is  a  far  worse  foe  to  the  Apple  and  certain  other  fruit  trees  than 
our  indigenous  Harris's  Bark  louse,  {Asp.  Harrisii)^  though  each  of 
them  infests  the  same  species.  Finally,  the  imported  Meal-worm 
beetle  {Tenehrio  molitor)  swarms  throughout  the  whole  United 
States,  and  is  a  great  pest ;  while  the  Native  American  species  (  Tene- 
hrio obscurus),  which  has  almost  exactly  the  same  habits,  belongs  to 
the  same  genus,  and  is  of  very  nearly  the  same  size,  shape  and  color, 
is  comparatively  quite  rare  among  us,  and  is  scarcely  known  to  our 
millers  and  flour-dealers. 

On  a  careful  and  close  examination,  it  will  be  found  that  almost 
all  our  worst  insect  foes  have    been  imported  among  us   from   the 

*In  Volume  15  of  the  Prairie  Farmer,  page  504,  a  correspondent  from  Jefferson  county, 
Iowa,  states  that  as  early  as  June  nth,  in  the  year  1865,  «  a  small  green  worm  had  taken  th» 
lion's  share  of  his  currants  and  gooseberries."  This  may  possibly  refer  to  the  Native  Currant 
Worm,  which  feeds  upon  gooseberry  and  currant  leaves,  but  it  more  probably  means  the  Goose- 
berry Fruit-worm  (Pcmpelia  grosaulorioe,  Packard,)  which  feeds  upon  the  gooseberrif  s  and  curranU 
themselves,  and  which  may  be  found  figured  and  described  in  our  First  Missouri  Report,  page  140, 
What  a  vast  fund  of  information  is  scientifically  unavailable,  simply  because  correspondents  art 
80  stingy  with  their  pen,  ink  and  paper.  Again  the  editor  of  the  Farmers'  Union,  published  at  Min- 
neapolis, Minn.,  says  in  a  recent  number  of  that  paper,  that  several  gardens  in  that  vicinity  have  been 
for  the  past  few  years  infested  with  the  Currant  worm,  and  that  last  year  they  visited  hi?  own  gar- 
den for  the  second  time,  having,  the  previous  year,  made  sad  havoc  with  the  foliage  before  they 
were  discovered.  Now,  ns  there  are  three  perfectly  distict  worms  which  attack  the  leaves  of  cur- 
rant bushes,  and  as  the  editor  contents  himself  with  referring  to  "The  Currant  Worm,"  the  infor- 
mation he  imparts  is  perfectly  valueless  to  the  Entomologist,  and  the  practical  man  may  be  led 
aatrny  by  the  remedies  suggested. 


10  SECOND   ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 

other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  Hessian  Fly*  was  imported  almost 
ninety  years  ago ;  the  Wheat  Midge  about  half  as  long  ago  ;  the  Bee 
Moth  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century;  the  Codling  Moth, the 
Cabbage  Tinea,  the  Borer  of  the  Red  Currant,  the  Oyster-shell  Bark- 
louse,  the  Grain  Plant-louse,  the  Cabbage  Plant-louse,  the  Currant 
Plant-louse,  the  Apple-tree  Plant-louse,  the  Pear-tree  Flea-louse,  the 
Cheese-maggot,  the  common  Meal-worm,  the  Grain  Weevil,  the  House 
Fly,  the  Leaf-beetle  of  the  Elm,  the  Cockroach,  the  Croton  Bug,  and 
the  different  Carpet,  Clothes  and  Fur  Moths,  at  periods  which  cannot 
be  definitely  fixed.  Even  within  the  last  few  years  the  Asparagus- 
beetle  has  become  naturalized  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  whence 
it  will  no  doubt  spread  gradually  westward  through  the  whole  United 
States,  while  the  Rape  Butterfly  was  introduced  about  a  dozen 
years  ago,  and  is  rapidly  spreading  over  some  of  the  Eastern  States. 
And  only  a  year  ago  the  larva  of  a  certain  Owlet-moth  {Hypogymna 
dispa?'),  which  is  a  great  pest  in  Europe,  both  to  fruit-trees  and 
forest-trees,  was  accidentally  introduced  by  a  Massachusetts  entomo- 
logist into  New  England,  where  it  is  spreading  with  great  rapidity. 
It  is  just  the  same  thing  with  Plants  as  with  Insects.  We  have  looked 
carefully  through  Gray's  Manual  of  Botany,  and  we  find  that — ex- 
cluding from  consideration  all  cryptogams,  and  all  doubtful  cases, 
and  all  cases  where  the  same  plant  is  supposed  to  be  indigenous  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic — no  less  than  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  distinct  species  of  plants  have  been  imported  among  us  from 
the  Old  World,  all  of  which  have  now  run  wild  here,  and  many  of 
which  are  the  worst  and  most  pernicious  weeds  that  we  have  to  con- 
tend against.  In  the  United  States  Agricultural  Report  for  1865 
(pp.  510-519)  will  be  found  a  list  of  ninety-nine  of  the  principal 
"Weeds  of  American  Agriculture,"  by  the  late  Dr.  Wm.  Darlington. 
Of  this  whole  number  no  less  than  forty-three,  or  nearly  one-half,  are 
species  that  have  been  introduced  among  us  from  the  Old  World. 
Among  these  we  may  enumerate  here,  as  the  best  known  and  the 
most  pernicious.  Butter-cups  (two  species),  Shepherd's  Purse,  St. 
John's  Wort,  Cow-cockle,  May- weed  or  Dog-fennel,  Ox-eye  Daisy, 
Common  Thistle,  Canada  Thistle,  Burdock,  Plantain,  Mullein,  Toad- 
flax, Bind-weed,  Jamestown  (Jimson)  weed.  Lamb's  Quarter,  Smart- 
weed,  Field  Garlic,  Fox-tail  Grass  and  the  notorious  Cheat  or  Chess. 
And  to  these  we  may  add  the  common  Purslane,  which,  through  some 
strange  oversight,  has  been  omitted  in  Dr.  Darlington's  catalogue. 

It  will  be  supposed,  perhaps,  since  there  are  about  as  many  voy- 
ages made  from  America  to  Europe  as  from  Europe  to  America,  that 
we  have  fully  reciprocated  to  our  transatlantic   brethren  the  favors 

*Por  the  sake  of  the  scientific  reader,  we  subjoin  here,  in  their  regular  order,  the  scientific 
names  of  the  Insects  catalogued  by  their  English  names  in  the  text  of  this  paragraph  :  Cecido- 
myia  destructor,  Diploiis  tritici,  Galleria  cereana,  Carpocapsa  pomonella,  Plutella  cruciferarum, 
Mgeria  tipuliformis,  Aspidiotut  conchiformis,  Aphis  avence,  A.  brasaiccB,  A.  ribig,  A.  mali,  Psylla 
pyri,  Piophila  casei,  Tenebrio  molilor,  Sitophilus  granarius,  Musca  domettica,  Galeruca  calmarien- 
$is,  Blatta  orientalis,  Ectobia  germanica,  Tinea  tapetzella,  vestianella,  pellionella,  4'C.;  Crioceris 
nparagi,  Pieris  rapee  and  Hypogymna  dispar. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOaiST.  11 

which  they  have  conferred  upon  us,  in  the  way  of  Noxious  Insect& 
and  Noxious  Weeds.  It  is  no  such  thing.  There  are  but  very  few 
American  insects  that  have  become  naturalized  in  Europe,  and  even 
these  do  not  appear  for  the  most  part  to  do  any  serious  amount  of 
damage  there.  For  example,  on  one  or  two  occasions  single  speci- 
mens of  our  Army-worm  Moth  {Leucania  uiiipuncta)  have  been  cap- 
tured in  England ;  but  the  insect  has  never  spread  and  become  ruin- 
ously common  there,  as  it  continually,  in  particular  seasons,  does  in 
America.  Our  destructive  Pea-bug  {BrucMis pisi)  has  also  found  its 
way  to  Europe ;  but  although  it  is  met  with  in  England,  and  according  to 
Curtis  has  become  naturalized  in  the  warmer  departments  of  France, 
Kirby  and  Spence  expressly  state  that  it  does  not  occur  in  England 
"to  any  very  injurious  extent,"  and  Curtis  seems  to  doubt  the  fact  of 
its  being  naturalized  in  England  at  all.*  Again,  the  only  species  of 
White  Ant  that  exists  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  ( Termes 
frontalis),  has  been  known  for  along  time  to  be  a  guest  at  the  Plant- 
houses  of  Schunbrunn,  in  Germany;  but  is  not  recorded  to  have 
ever  as  yet  spread  into  the  surrounding  country.  As  to  our  American 
Meal-worm  {Tenehrio  ohscurus\  Curtis  states  that  it  has  been  intro- 
duced into  England  along  with  American  flour,  and  that  it  is  some- 
times abundant  in  London  and  the  provinces  ;t  but  Kirby  and  Spence 
say  not  one  word  about  it,  and  it  seems  to  be  confined  to  the  English 
sea-ports  and  the  places  where  American  flour  is  stored,  without 
spreading  into  the  adjacent  districts. 

A  very  minute  yellow  ant,  however,  {Myrmica  molesta),  which  is 
often  very  troublesome  with  us  in  houses,  has,  according  to  Frederick 
Smith,  "become  generally  distributed  and  naturalized"  in  houses  in 
England ;  and  ELirby  and  Spence  state  more  specifically,  that  "it  has 
become  a  great  pest  in  many  houses  in  Brighton,  London  and  Liver- 
pool, in  some  cases  to  so  great  an  extent  as  to  cause  the  occupants  to 
leave  them.":|:  As  to  our  Chinch  Bug,  our  Curculio,  our  Plum  Gouger^ 
our  two  principal  Apple-tree  Borers,  our  Canker-worm,  our  Apple- 
tree  Tent-caterpillar,  our  Fall  Web-worm,  our  Peach-tree  Borer,  and 
our  other  indigenous  pests  among  the  great  Army  of  Bad  Bugs, 
nobody  ever  yet  found  a  single  one  of  them  alive  and  kicking  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  And  with  regard  to  Plants,  the  only  two 
American  plants  that  we  know  to  have  become  so  firmly  established 
in  Europe  as  to  be  a  nuisance  there,  are  an  American  aquatic  plant, 
the  common  Water-weed  {Anacharis  canadensis)^  which  has  choked 
up  many  of  the  canals  in  England,  and  our  common  Horse-weed,  or 
Mare's  tail  as  itis  called  in  the  West,  (^n^eron  c^xwac^^Tise),  which  has 
apread  from  America  nearly  over  the  whole  world. 

Since  then,  it  can  be  demonstrated  by  hard,  dry  facts,  that  Amer- 
ican plants  and  insects  do  not  become  naturalized  in  the  Old  World 

♦Kirby  &  Spence  Introd.    Letter  6th;  Curtis  Farm  insects,  p.  363. 
■fFarm  insects,  p  334. 

jsmith  in  Stainton's  Entom.  Annual  1862,  p.  70,   and  1S63  pp.  59-62  ;  Kirby  &  Spence  Introd,, 
Letter  8th. 


12  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 

with  anything  like  the  facility  with  which  the  plants  and  insects  of 
the  Old  World  are  every  day  being  naturalized  in  America,  there 
must  be  some  cause  or  other  for  this  singular  state  of  things.  What 
it  that  cause?  It  is,  as  we  believe,  a  simple  fact  which  is  pretty  geti- 
©rally  recognized  now  as  true  by  modern  naturalists,  namely,  that 
the  plants  and  animals  of  America  belong,  as  a  general  rule,  to  an- 
old-fashioned  creation,  not  so  highly  improved  and  developed  as  the 
more  modernized  creation  which  exists  in  Europe.  In  other  words, 
although  this  is  popularly  known  as  the  New  World,  it  is  in  reality  a 
much  older  world  than  that  which  we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  Old 
World.  Consequently,  our  plants  and  animals  can  no  more  stand 
their  ground  against  European  competitors  imported  from  abroad, 
tlian  the  Red  Indian  has  been  able  to  stand  his  ground  against  the 
White  Caucasian  Race.  On  the  other  hand,  if  by  chance  an  Ameri- 
cian  plant  or  an  American  animal  finds  its  way  into  Europe,  it  can,  as 
a  general  rule,  no  more  stand  its  ground  there  against  its  European 
competitors,  than  a  colony  of  Red  Indians  could  stand  their  ground 
in  Englind,  even  if  you  gave  them  a  whole  county  of  land  and  au 
ample  supply  of  stock,  tools,  and  provisions  to  begin  with.  For 
throughout  Animated  Nature,  as  has  been  conclusively  shown  by 
Charles  Darwin,  there  is  a  continual  struggle  for  existence,  the 
stronger  and  more  favorably  organized  species  overpowering  and 
starving  out  from  time  to  time  their  less  vigorous  and  less  favorably 
organized  competitors.  Hence,  it  is  as  hopeless  a  task  for  a  poor 
puny,  old-fashioned  American  bug  to  contend  against  a  strong 
energetic,  highly-developed,  European  bug,  as  it  would  be  for  a  fleet 
of  old-fashioned  wooden  ships  to  fight  against  a  fleet  of  our  modern 
iron-clads. 

Let  not  "Young  America,"  however,  be  altogether  discouraged 
and  disgusted  at  hearing,  that  our  Animal  and  Vegetable  Creation  is 
more  old-fashioned  than  that  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  the  Old 
World.  The  oldest  geological  formations,  in  which  the  remains  of 
Mammals  occur,  contain  the  remains  of  such  mammals  exclusively 
(Jd^arsujpialea)  as  bring  forth  their  young  only  partially  developed, 
and  carry  those  young  about  with  them  in  a  pouch,  till  the  day  of 
complete  development  and  physical  "second  birth"  arrives.  In  Amer- 
ica we  have  a  single  genus — the  Opossums — that  belongs  to  this  ante- 
diluvian type.  In  the  three  ancient  continents  they  have  absolutely 
none  at  all.  But  if  in  this  respect  America  is  more  old-fashioned  than 
Europe,  Australia  is  still  more  old-fashioned  than  America;  for  there 
almost  all  their  mammals  possess  this  remarkable  peculiarity ;  so 
that  if  the  American  creation  is  somewhat  old-fogyish,  that  ot  Aus- 
tralia is  the  very  concentrated  essence  of  old-fogyism  itself.  Conse- 
quently, if  Europe  crows  over  us  as  altogether  "behind  the  times," 
*^Young  America"  can  take  its  revenge  by  crowing  over  Australia,  as 
the  land  of  the  Kangaroo  and  the  Wombat  and  other  such  exploded 
absurdities  of  the  Mesozoic  epoch. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  K 

The  theory  advanced  in  the  above  paper,  may  meet  with  soin© 
objectors,  although  I  confidently  believe  in  the  inference  there  stated 
of  the  relative  advancement  and  improvement  of  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  the  two  continents.  But  there  is  another  reason  why  the  insect* 
which  are  imported  into  this  country  multiply  at  a  prodigious  rut«, 
and  soon  acquire  herculean  power  of  doing  harm,  though  tiiey  may 
never  have  stepped  beyond  the  limits  of  propriety  in  their  own  native 
home— a  reason  too  palpable  and  evident  lo  savorof  the  theoretical. 
It  is,  that  whenever  an  injurious  insect  is  introduced  in  our  midst,  as 
a  general  rule  the  particular  parasite  or  parasites  which  kept  it  in 
check  abroad,  are  not  introduced  with  it.  In  consequence,  the  for- 
eigners, unaccompanied  by  the  usual  gens  cTarmes,  throw  off  all  re- 
straint and  play  the  deuce  with  our  crops;  just  as  the  rats  and  mio« 
will  take  possession  of,  and  overrun  a  house,  if  not  restrained  by  hu- 
man or  by  feline  agencies. 

Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Imported  Currant-worm,  the 
noxiou!:  insects  introduced  from  the  old  world  are  attacked  by  native 
American  parasites,  but  as  I  believe  the  parasites  of  European  na- 
tivity to  be,  as  a  rule,  more  energetic  and  vigorous  than  our  indige- 
nous ones,  it  would  be  advisable  even  in  such  a  case,  to  import  in 
addition  such  species  as  prey  upon  it  in  Europe.  But  in  the  case  of 
the  Wheat  Midge  which  has  actually  flourished  among  us  for  almost 
half  a  century  without  a  single  parasite  of  any  kind  whatever  infest- 
ing it  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  it  is  sheer  folly  and 
cupable  shiftlessness  not  to  import  among  us  from  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic  some  one  or  all  of  the  three  difi"erent  Chalcis  flies  which 
are  known  to  check  it  throughout  all  Europe.  And  so  with  other 
insects  which  are  known  to  be  unaccompanied  with  the  parasites 
which  attack  them  abroad.  Years  and  years  ago  Dr.  Fitch  demon- 
strated in  print  the  policy  of  such  a  step;  but  bugs  and  bug-hunters 
are  so  very  generally  the  subject  of  festive  ridicule  among  the  high 
and  low  vulgar,  that  hitherto  the  recommendation  of  the  State  Ento- 
mologist of  New  York  has  met  with  no  practical  response. 

Now  no  one  will  fail  to  understand  the  force  of  the  old  proverb 
already  quoted,  after  listening  to  these  facts.  Let  us  profit  by  the 
experience  of  the  past,  and  while  battling  with  those  foes  which  are 
already  in  our  midst,  let  us  keep  a  vratchful  eye,  and  be  on  our  guard 
ready  to  crush  any  new  plague  that  may  threaten  us,  before  it  gets 
beyond  control.  Yes,  but  say  you,  how  is  this  to  be  accomplished! 
Can  it  be  done  by  the  government  ?  Yes,  in  some  cases  ;  as  for  in- 
stance in  the  importation  of  parasites,  government  aid  should  be  so- 
licited.  If,  in  1860,  when  the  Asparagus  Beetle  ( Crioceris  asparagi, 
Linn.)  was  first  introduced  on  to  Long  Island,  the  Legislature  ol  the 
State  of  New  York  had  taken  proper  action  in  the  matter,  the  insect 
might  have  been  stamped  out  of  the  island  at  the  trivial  expense  of 
a  few  hundred  dollars,  instead  of  being  allowed  to  multiply,  as  it  did, 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  occasion  a  dead  loss  of  some  fifty  thousand 


14  SECOND  ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 

dollars  in  a  single  county,  and  of  spreading  from  the  island  into  the 
adjoining  country.  Quite  recently  a  weevil  {Bruohus  granarius) 
which  does  immense  damage  to  peas  and  beans  and  some  other 
plants  in  Europe,  was  introduced  into  New  York  in  some  pods  which 
a  certain  gentleman  presented  to  the  New  York  Farmers'  Club,  and 
if  the  proper  steps  are  at  once  taken,  it  may  yet  be  prevented  from 
spreading  through  the  country. 

In  Europe  vast  sums  have  been  expended  in  founding  professor- 
ships of  Economic  Entomology  in  the  various  agricultural  colleges, 
and  in  conducting  elaborate  experiments  on  the  best  means  of  check- 
ing and  controlling  these  tiny  foes.  But  the  entire  sum  expended  by 
Congress  or  by  our  various  State  Legislatures  for  this  purpose,  from 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  year  of  our  Lord  1869,  can- 
not exceed  ninety  or  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  about  one 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  Yet  the  annual  damage  done  by  insects 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  cannot  be  less  than  three  hun- 
dred million  dollars.  Indeed,  it  is  but  quite  recently  that  the  people, 
from  necessity,  have  awakened  to  the  importance  of  the  subject. 
We  now  have  an  Entomologist  connected  with  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  at  Washington,  and,  with  proper  care,  he  can  be  of  in- 
estimable service  to  the  country,  in  preventing  the  introduction  of 
noxious  insects.  It  is  not  noxious  weeds  alone,  such  as  the  Canada 
thistle,  which  are  sent  broadcast  over  the  land  by  the  distribution  of 
uninspected  seeds  ;  but  noxious  insects  are  very  frequently  distri- 
buted in  the  same  way.  We  have  the  highest  authority.  Dr.  J.  L. 
LeConte,  of  Philadelphia,  for  the  statement,  that  before  the  Entomol- 
ogist received  his  appointment,  a  noxious  beetle,  RTi  izopertTia  pusilla^ 
which  has  now  become  naturalized  here,  was  originally  introduced 
into  this  country  in  wheat  from  the  Patent  Office. 

Therefore,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  may  be  done  at 
headquarters.  That  government  aid  cannot  be  of  any  avail  in  the 
great  majority  of  instances,  however,  is  equally  apparent  to  those 
who  have  studied  this  question ;  and  we  must  trust  to  a  more 
thorough  dissemination  of  such  information  as  will  enable  each  in- 
dividual to  protect  himself.  Much  is  being  done  in  this  direction  by 
means  of  State  Reports,  through  the  American  Entomologist^  and 
through  our  various  agricultural  and  horticultural  journals ;  but  much 
yet  remains  to  be  done.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  by  enlightening 
our  neighbors,  we  are  helping  ourselves,  and,  as  horticulturists,  we 
should  urge  that  more  attention  be  paid  in  our  colleges,  and  es- 
pecially in  those  of  an  Industrial  nature,  to  the  study  of  the  Natural 
Sciences. 

In  my  First  Report,  I  have  shown  how  the  Oyster-shell  Bark- 
louse,  though  perfectly  able  to  live  in  the  northern  part  of  this  State, 
is  yet  unknown  there  ;  and  I  tremble,  lest  some  one  in  carelessness  or 
ignorance  should,  introduce  this  dreaded  plague  of  the  apple  grower 
into  that  section,  from  some  Eastern  or  Northern  nursery.    Every 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  15 

tree  received  from  a  distance  should  be  examined  from  "  top  to 
stern,"  as  the  sailors  say,  before  it  is  planted,  and  all  insects,  in  what- 
ever state  they  may  be,  destroyed.  There  can  be  do  doubt  that  many 
of  our  worst  insect  foes  may  be  guarded  against  by  these  precautions. 
The  Canker-worm,  the  different  Tussock-moths  or  Vaporer-moths,  the 
Bark-lice  of  the  Apple  and  of  the  Pine,  and  all  other  scale  insects 
iCoccidce),  the  Apple-tree  Root-louse,  etc.,  are  continually  being 
transported  from  one  place  to  another,  either  in  earth,  on  scions,  or 
on  the  roots,  branches,  and  leaves  of  young  trees  ;  and  they  are  all 
possessed  of  such  limited  powers  of  locomotion,  that  unless  trans- 
ported in  some  such  manner,  they  would  scarcely  spread  a  dozen 
miles  in  a  century. 

In  the  Pacific  States,  fruit-growing  is  a  most  profitable  business, 
because  they  are  yet  free  from  many  of  the  fruit  insects  which  so  in- 
crease our  labors  here.  In  the  language  of  our  late  lamented  Walsh, 
"although  in  California  the  Blest,  the  Chinese  immigrants  have  al- 
ready erected  their  joss  houses,  where  they  can  worship  Buddha  with- 
out fear  of  interruption,  yet  no  '  Little  Turk '  has  imprinted  the  cres- 
cent symbol  of  Mahometanism  upon  the  the  Oalifornian  plums  and 
the  Californian  peaches."  But  how  long  the  Californians  will  retain 
this  immunity,  now  that  they  have  such  direct  communication  with 
infested  States,  will  depend  very  much  on  how  soon  they  are  warned 
of  their  danger.  I  suggest  to  our  Pacific  friends  that  they  had  better 
"  take  the  bull  by  the  horns,"  and  endeavor  to  retain  the  vantage 
ground  they  now  enjoy.  I  also  sincerely  hope  that  the  day  will  soon 
come  when  there  shall  be  a  suflScient  knowledge  of  this  subject 
throughout  the  land,  to  enable  the  nation  to  guard  against  foreign  in- 
sect plagues ;  the  State  against  those  of  other  States,  and  the  indi- 
vidual against  those  of  his  neighbors. 


THE  CHINCH  BUG— Micropus  leucopterus.  Say. 

(Heteroptera,  Lygseidss.) 

[Fig.  1.]   ^  Few  persons  will  need  to  be  introduced  to  this 

unsavory  little  scamp,  but,  lest  perchance,  an  occa- 
sional reader  may  not  yet  have  a  clear  and  correct 
idea  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  Chinch  Bug,  I  repre- 
sent herewith  (Fig.  1)  a  magnified  view  of  the  gen- 
tleman.   The  hair-line  at  the  bottom  shows  the  nat- 
V\   ural  size  of  the  little  imp,  and  his  colors  are  coal- 
^      black  and  snow-white.    He  belongs  to  the  order  of 
'     1      Half-winged  Bugs  (Heteroptera),  the  same  order  to 
r  which  the  well  known  Bed  Bug  belongs,  and  he  ex- 
^  I  hales  the  same  loathsome  smell  as  does  that  bed-pest 

of  the  human  race.    He  subsists  by  sucking,  with  his  sharp-pointed 


i6  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

beak,  the  juices  of  our  cereals,  thereby  causing  them  to  shrink  and 
wither,  and  not  by  gnawing  or  biting  their  substance,  as  many  per- 
sons suppose.  Insignificant  as  is  the  minute  puncture  of  a  single  in- 
dividual, yet  these  insects  often  appear  in  such  countless  numbers  as 
to  bleed  to  death  whole  fields  of  grain  by  their  myriad  beaks. 

If  the  Western  Fruit-grower  is  asked,  what  particular  insect  is  the 
most  difficult  for  him  to  combat,  and  the  most  destructive  to  his  crops, 
he  will  probably  answer  "  The  Curculio."    If  the  same  question  is  put 
to  the  Western  Grain-grower,  he  will  infallibly  reply  "The  Chinch 
Bug."    And  he  will  be  in  the  right.     The  Wheat-midge — popularly 
known  in  the  West  as  the  "Weevil"  or  the  "Red  Weevil" — does  a 
considerable  amount  of  damage,  in  particular  years  and  in  particular 
localities,  by  its  little  legless  orange-colored  lava  sucking  away  the 
sap  from  the  growing  kernel  of  wheat.    The  Hessian  Fly — often  called 
simply  "the  Fly  " — injures  the  wheat  by  the  maggot  that  produces  it 
living  between  the  stem  and  thesheathof  the  blade,  and  intercepting 
the  sap  before  that  sap  can  reach  the  ear.   The  Grain  Plant-louse,  easily 
distinguished  from  the  above  two  little  pests  by  its  long  sprawling 
legs,  has  in  certain  years  somewhat  injured  the  small  grain  in  tlie  West 
by  accumulating,  first  on  the  growing  stem  and  afterwards  on  the  ear, 
and  abstracting  the  sap  with  its  long  pointed  beak.    There  are  also, 
in  all  probability,  several  minute  Two-winged  Flies,  which  do  more 
or  less  injury  to  the  growing  grain  by  their  larvae  breeding  in  the 
stem,  the  natural  history  of  one  of  which,  the  American  .Meromyza, 
was  given  for  the  first  time  in  my  First  Report  (pp.  159-61).  Tlie  larva 
of  an  unknown  moth,  which  burrows  upwards  and  downwards  in  the 
stem  of  oats,  and  probably  of  wheat  also,  causing  the  ear  to  become 
prematurely  white  and  the  kernel  to  be  entirely  blasted,  also  in  some 
years  does  considerable  damage.    The  White  Grub,  the  Wire- worm, 
and  certaiti  Cut- worms  take  a  certain  per  centage  of  the  young  grain, 
almost  as  soon  as  it  peeps  out  of  the  ground.    But  undoubtedly  the 
meanest  bug,  out  of  the  whole  crowd  of  the  multifarious  insect-foes  of 
the  grain-growing  farmer,  is  the  Chinch  Bug.    He  is  not  satisfied  with 
taking  a  field  here  and  a  field  there,  and  sparing  the  remainder.    But 
when  his  time  comes — and  in  mercy  to  the  Western  Farmer  we  are 
not  cursed  every  year  with  this  little  savage — he  sweeps  the  whole 
country  with  the  besom  of  destruction.    The  Wheat-midge,  the  Hes- 
sian Fly,  and  the  Grain  Plant-louse,  destructive  as  they  are  to  small 
grain,  yet  spare  our  corn.   If  they  take  the  good  white  wheaten  bread 
out  of  our  mouths,  they  yet  leave  us  an  ample  supply  of  corn-dodgers. 
But  the  Chinch  Bug  makes  a  clean  sweep,  whenever  he  gets  the  up- 
per hand  of  us.    He  "  goes  the  entire  hog."    Nothing  in  the  way  of 
grain  comes  amiss  to  him.    He  is  not  dainty,  not  he  !    Whenever  he 
gets  a  chance  to  spread  himself,  he  first  of  all  at  one  fell  swoop  de- 
stroys the  small  grain,  and  then  fastens  his  liquorish  beak  upon  the 
corn  and  takes  that  also. 


THE  STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  iT 

PAST  HISTORY   OP  THE   CHINCH   BUG. 

The  first  record  we  have  of  the  prevalence  of  the  Chinch  Bug 
"was  in  the  old  Revolutionary  times  in  North  Carolina,  where  it  was 
conlounded  with  the  Hessian  Fly,  an  insect  just  then  imported  from 
Europe  into  the  United  States.  Ever  since  those  times  it  has  been 
an  epidemic  pest,  in  particular  years,  in  North  and  South  Carolina 
and  in  Virginia.  The  great  American  entomologist,  Thomas  Say,  in 
1831,  when  he  had  been  residing  in  Indiana  for  six  years,  was  the 
first  to  name  and  describe  it  scientifically.  He  states  that  he  ''  took  a 
single  specimen  on  the  Eastern  shore  of  Virginia;"  whence  we  may 
reasonably  infer  that  it  was  then  either  unknown  or  very  rare  in  Indi- 
ana, and  probably  also  in  the  other  Western  States.  In  Missouri  it 
did  considerable  damage  as  early  as  1854,  for  Jas.  Pleasant  of  Fox 
Greek,  St.  Louis  county,  informed  me  that  he  had  known  it  since  that 
year,  and  that  he  had  been  previously  acquainted  with  it  in  Virginia. 
Wm.  M.  Beal  of  Edina,  Knox  county,  writes  that  it  has  existed  and 
done  more  or  less  damage  there  since  1856,  though  it  has  scarcely 
been  heard  of  since  1865.  Mr.  A.  H.  Roberts  of  Gray's  Summit, 
Franklin  county,  informs  me  that  it  has  not  been  in  that  neighbor- 
hood more  than  eight  or  ten  years,  and  Mr.  C.  S.  Jeffries,  of  Boleg' 
post  office  in  the  same  county,  never  heard  of  it  till  about  fifteen 
years  ago,  though  he  has  lived  there  for  the  last  fifty  years. 

If  proper  records  existed,  we  should  doubtless  find  that  it  at- 
tracted attention  in  Missouri  at  a  much  earlier  da}'^,  for  in  Illinois  it  was 
noticed  as  long  back  as  1840,  in  Hancock  county,  where  it  was 
absurdly  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  by  the  Mormons  of  Nau- 
voo,  and  was  called  the  "Mormon  louse" 

In  1868,  owing  to  the  great  drouth,  this  insect,  as  I  have  stated 
elsewhere,  was  quite  injurious  in  many  sections  of  our  own  State, 
and  especially  in  the  southwest.  In  the  extreme  northern  portion 
they  began  to  attract  attention  about  the  first  of  May,  but  the  wet 
weather  that  occurred  about  that  time  caused  them  to  disappear.  In 
the  more  central  counties  the  earliest  sown  wheat  suffered  but  little 
from  their  depredations,  though  that  which  was  sown  later,  was  re- 
duced about  one-third.  The  conditions  being  favorable,  they  rap- 
idly increased  during  the  Summer,  and  in  the  fall,  the  second  brood 
was  so  numerous  that  great  fears  were  entertained  for  the  safety  of 
the  crops  of  1809.  Let  us  be  thankful,  however,  that  the  excessive 
rains  of  last  spring  and  summer,  though  deplored  and  regretted  by 
many,  had  the  effect  to  so  thoroughly  drown  out  these  little  pests,  as 
to  make  them  comparatively  harmless;  for  the  only  place  in  which  I 
heard  of  their  doing  serious  harm  was  at  Tinney's  Grove  in  Ray 
county.  Seeming  misfortune  is  often  a  blessing  in  disguise,  and 
though  the  corn  crop  was  lessened  by  the  heavy  rains,  the  wheat 
crop  in  all  probability  would  have  suffered  far  worse,  had  the  seasoto 
2 — E  R 


18  SECOND   ANJSUAL    REPORT   OF 

been  dry  and  favorable  to  the  increase  of  this,  the  greatest  insect  foe 
of  the  wheat-grower. 

We  may  safely  conclude  that  the  Chinch  Bug  has  always  existed 
in  Missouri,  in  small  numbers;  but  that  it  did  not  multiply  to  au  in- 
jurious extent  until  the  grains  began  to  be  cultivated  on  an  exten- 
sive scale.  At  all  events,  we  know  from  the  evidence  of  Dr.  Harris 
and  Dr.  Fitch,  that  it  existed  long  ago  in  exceedingly  small  numbers 
in  New  York,  and  even  in  Massachusetts.  What  the  causes  may 
have  been,  that  thinned  out  the  numbers  of  this  insect  in  former 
times  in  the  West,  is  another  question.  In  former  times,  the  great 
bulk  of  these  bugs  were  probably  destroyed  every  winter  by  th© 
prairie  fires,  and,  as  cultivation  has  extended  in  consequence  of  the 
country  being  gradually  settled  up,  and  less  and  less  prairie  has  been 
annually  burnt  over,  the  number  that  has  survived  through  the  win- 
ter to  start  the  next  year's  broods  has  annually  become  greater.  If 
these  views  be  correct,  we  may  expect  them,  unless  more  pains  be 
taken  to  counterwork  and  destroy  them,  to  become,  on  the  average 
of  years,  still  more  abundant  than  they  now  are,  whenever  prairie 
fires  shall  have  become  an  obsolete  institution  ;  until  at  last  West- 
•ei-n  farmers  will  be  compelled,  as  those  of  North  Carolina  have 
already  several  times  been  compelled,  to  quit  growing  wheat  alto- 
gether for  a  term  of  years. 

It  may  be  very  reasonably  asked,  why  the  Chinch  Bug  does  not 
increase  and  multiply  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  seeing  that  it 
•existed  there  long  ago,  and  that  there  are,  of  course,  no  prairie  fires 
in  those  States  to  keep  it  in  check.  The  answer  is,  that  the  Chinch 
Bug  is  a  Southern,  not  a  Northern  species;  and  that  hundreds  of 
Southern  species  of  insects,  which  on  "the  Atlantic  seaboard  only 
occur  in  southerly  latitudes,  are  found  in  profusion  in  quite  a  high 
latitude  in  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  The  same  law,  as  has  been 
observed  by  Professor  Baird,  holds  good  both  with  Birds  and  with 
Fishes.* 

NATURAL  HISTORY   OP  THE  CniNCH   BUG. 

In  the  four  great  and  extensive  Orders  of  Insects,  namely,  tlio 
Beetles  {Coleoptera),  the  Clear- winged  Flies  {Ilymenoptera),  the 
Scaly- winged  Flies  {Lepidoptera\  and  the  Two- winged  Flies  {Dij>- 
tera),  and  in  one  of  the  four  small  Orders  in  its  restricted  sense, 
namely,  the  Net-winged  Flies  {Neuroptera),  the  insect  usually  lies 
still  throughout  the  pupa  state,  and  is  always  so  far  from  being  able 
^  to  eat  or  to  evacuate,  that  both  mouth  and  anus  are  closed  up  by 
membrane.  In  the  remaining  three  small  Orders,  on  the  contrary, 
namely,  that  of  the  Straight-winged  Flies  in  its  most  extensive  sense 
{Oi'thoptGra  including  Fseudo-neuroptera),  the  Half- winged  Bugs 
{Ileteropteva)  and  the  Whole-winged  Bugs  {Ilomoptera),  the  pupa  is 
just  as  active  and  just  as  ravenous  as  either  the  larva  or  the  perfect 

*  Silliman'a  Journal,  xli,  p.  8T. 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  19 

insect,  and  the  little  creature  never  quits  eating  as  long  as  the  warm 
weather  lasts,  except  for  a  day  or  so  while  it  is  accomplishing  each 
of  its  successive  three,  four  or  five  moults.  As  the  Cliinch  Bug  be- 
longs to  the  Half-winged  Bugs,  it  therefore  continues  to  take  food, 
with  a  few  short  intermissions,  from  the  day  when  it  hatches  out 
from  the  egg  to  the  day  of  its  unlamented  death. 

Most  insects — irrespective  of  the  Order  to  which  they  belong 

require  12  months  to  go  through  the  complete  circle  of  their  changes 
from  the  day  that  the  egg  is  laid  to  the  day  when  the  perfect  insect 
perishes  of  old  age  and  decrepitude.  A  few  require  3  years,  as  for 
example  the  Eound-headed  Apple-iree  Borer  (Saperda  hiviitata,  Say) 
and  the  White  Grub  which  produces  the  May-beetle  (Zachnosterna 
qncrclna,  Enoch.)  One  species,  the  Thirteen-year  Locust  {Cicada 
tredecim,  Riley),  actually  requires  13  years  to  pass  from  the  egg  to 
the  winged  state;  and  another,  the  Seventeen-year  Locn^t  { Cicada 
septemdecim,  Linn.)  the  still  longer  period  of  17  years.  On  the  other 
hand  there  are  not  a  few  that  pass  through  all  their  three  states  in  a 
few  months,  or  even  in  a  few  weeks ;  so  that  in  one  and  the  same 
year  there  may  be  2,  3  or  even  4  or  5  broods,  one  generated  by  the 
other  and  one  succeeding  another.  For  example,  the  Hessian  Fly 
iC('eldom.yia  destructor^  Say),  the  common  Slug- worm  of  the  Pear 
{Selandria  cerasi.  Peck),  the  Slug-worm  of  the  Rose  {Selandria  rosea 
Harris),  the  Apple-worm  and  a  few  others,  produce  exactly  two  gen- 
erations in  one  year,  and  hence  may  be  termed  "two-brooded." 
Again,  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle  in  Central  Missouri  is  three-brooded 
and  not  improbably  in  more  southerly  regions  is  four-brooded.  Lastly' 
the  common  House-fly,  the  Cheese-fly,  the  various  species  of  Blow' 
flies  and  Meat-flies,  and  the  multifarious  species  of  Plant-lice  (A2j/ns) 
produce  an  indefinite  number  of  successive  broods  in  a  single  year 
sometimes  amounting  in  the  case  of  the  last-named  genus,  as  has 
been  proved  by  actual  experiment,  to  as  many  as  nine. 

As  long  ago  as  March,  1866, 1  published  the  fact  that  the  Chinch 
Bug  is  two-brooded  in  North  Hlinois  (Practical  Entomologist,  I,  p. 
4^),  and  I  find  that  it  is  likewise  two-brooded  in  this  State,  and  most 
probably  in  all  the  Middle  States.  Yet  it  is  quite  agreeable  to  anal- 
ogy that  in  the  more  Southern  States,  it  may  be  three-brooded.  For 
instance,  the  large  Polyphemus  Moth  is  single-brooded  in  the  North- 
ern and  Middle  States,  and  yet,  two  broods  are  sometimes  produced  in 
this  State,  while  in  the  South  it  is  habitually  two-brooded.  Again,  the 
moth  known  as  the  Poplar  Spinner,  {Clostera  Arnericana,  Harris),  is 
stated  by  Dr.  Harris  and  Dr.  Fitch  to  be  only  single-brooded  in  Mass- 
achusetts and  New  York,  the  insect  spinning  up  in  September  or  Oc- 
tober, passing  the  winter  in  the  pupa  state,  and  coming  out  in  the 
winged  form  in  the  following  June.  But  Dr.  Harris— no  doubt  on  the 
authority  of  Abbott— states  that  "in  Georgia  this  insect  breeds  twice 
a  year  ;"*  and  I  have  proved  that  it  does  so  breed  in  Missouri,  having 

*Injurioui  Insectt,  p.  434. 


20  SECOND   ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

now  (Dec.  '69)  a  number  of  cocoons  which  wel'e  formed  by  a  second 
brood  of  larvae.  It  is  quite  reasonable,  therefore,  to  infer  that  the 
Chinch  Bug  may  produce  even  more  than  two  broods  in  the  more 
Southern  States. 

It  is  these  two  peculiarities  in  the  habits  of  the  Chinch  Bug^ 
namely,  first,  its  continuing  to  take  food  from  the  day  of  its  birth  to 
the  day  of  its  death,  and  secondly,  its  being  either  two-brooded  or 
many-brooded,  that  renders  it  so  destructive  and  so  diflScult  to  com- 
bat. Such  as  survive  the  autumn,  when  the  plants  on  the  sap  of 
which  they  feed  are  mostly  dried  up  so  as  to  afford  them  little  or  no 
nourishment,  pass  the  winter  in  the  usual  torpid  state,  and  always  in 
the  perfect  or  winged  form,  under  dead  leaves,  under  sticks  of  wood, 
under  flat  stones,  in  moss,  in  bunches  of  old  dead  grass  or  weeds  or 
straw,  and  often  in  corn-stalks  and  corn-shucks.  In  the  fall  and  win- 
ter of  1868, 1  repeatedly  received  corn-stalks  that  were  crowded  with 
them,  and  it  was  difficult  to  find  a  stalk  in  any  field  that  did  not  re- 
veal some  of  them,  upon  stripping  off  the  leaves.  I  have  even  found 
them  wintering  in  the  gall  made  by  the  Solidago  Gall-moth  {GelecMa 
gallcesolidaginis),  described  in  the  First  Report. 

In  the  winter  all  kinds  of  insect-devouring  animals,  such  as  birds, 
shrew-mice,  etc.,  are  hard  put  to  it  for  food,  and  have  to  search  every 
hole  and  corner  for  their  appropriate  prey.  But  no  matter  how 
closely  they  may  thin  out  the  Chinch  Bugs,  or  how  generally  these 
insects  may  have  been  starved  out  by  the  autumnal  droughts,  there 
will  always  be  a  few  left  for  seed  next  year.  Suppose  that  there  are 
only  2,000  Chinch  Bugs  remaining  in  the  spring  in  a  certain  field,  and 
that  each  female  of  the  2,000,  as  vegetation  starts,  raises  a  family  of 
only  200,  which  is  a  low  calculation.  Then— allowing  the  sexes  to  be 
equal  in  number,  whereas  in  reality  the  females  are  always  far  more 
numerous  than  the  males — the  first  or  spring  brood  will  consist  of 
200,000,  of  which  number  100.000  will  be  females.  Here,  if  the  species 
were  single-brooded,  the  process  would  stop  for  the  current  year; 
and  200,000  Chinch  Bugs  in  one  field  would  be  thought  nothing  of  by 
the  Western  farmer.  But  the  species  is  not  single-brooded  and  the 
process  does  not  stop  here.  Each  successive  brood  increases  in  num- 
bers in  Geometrical  Progression,  unless  there  be  something  to  check 
their  increase ;  until  the  second  brood  amounts  to  twenty  millions, 
and  the  third  brood  to  two  thousand  millions.  We  may  form  some 
idea  of  the  meaning  of  two  thousand  millions  of  Chinch  Bugs,  when 
it  is  stated  that  that  number  of  them,  placed  in  a  straight  line  head 
and  tail  together,  would  just  about  reach  from  the  surface  of  the  earth 
to  its  central  point — a  distance  of  four  thousand  miles. 

According  to  the  reasoning  of  Dr.  Henry  Shimer,  of  Mr.  Carroll, 
Illinois,  who  published  an  interesting  paper  on  this  insect  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Science  of  Philadelphia  for  May, 
1867,  the  Chinch  Bug  takes  wing  only  at  its  love  seasons,  which  occur 
in  his  locality  in  May  and  in  August.    His  views  on  this  subject  are 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  21 

well  set  forth  in  the  following  paragraph  taken  from  the  paper  above 
alluded  to: 

Mav  10,  1S65,  was  a  delightful,  mild,  bright,  sunny,  summer-like 
day  :  and  1  again,  for  the  last  time,  observed  the  same  highly  inter- 
esting phenomena,  which  I  have  noticed  above  as  occurring  aiter  the 
harvestof  1864 — the  atmosphere  swarming  with  Chinch  Bugs  on  the 
wing.  This  is  their  spring;  that  was  their  autumnal  nuptial  season — 
their  season  of  love.  These  remark  able  lit  tie  creatures  preler  to  conduct 
their  courtships  under  the  searching  gaze  of  the  noonday  sun,  instead 
of  at  the  midnight  hour.  They  were  so  numerous,  alighting  on  the 
pavements  in  the  village,  that  scarcely  a  step  could  be  taken  without 
€ru5hing  many  of  them  under  foot.  In  a  few  days,  they  had  all  disap- 
peared; their  breeding  grounds  were  chosen,  where  they  could  be  found 
in  great  numbers,  often  in  pairs.  I  first  noticed  this  disposition  of  the 
Chinch  Buir  to  take  wing  under  the  promptings  of  the  love  passion, 
about  six  years  ago,  in  their  autumnal  love  season.  At  no  other  time 
save  their  love  season,  twice  a  year,  have  I  ever  seen  one  Chinch  Bug 
flying.  It  is  quite  remarkable  that  the  winged  imago,  under  no  other 
circumstarces  will  even  attempt  to  use  its  ample  wings.  No  threat- 
ening danger,  however  imminent,  whether  ot  being  driven  over  by 
grain  reapers,  wagons,  or  of  being  trodden  underfoot,  etc.,  will  prompt 
ft  to  use  its  wings"  to  escape,  I  have  tried  all  imaginable  ways  to  in- 
duce them  to  fly,  as  by  threshing  among  them  with  bundles  of  rods  or 
grass,  hy  gathering  them  up  and  letting  them  fall  from  a  height,  etc., 
but  they  invariably  refuse  entirely  to  attempt  to  use  their  wings  in 
escaping  from  danger.  I'he  love  emotion  alone  makes  them  conscious 
that  they  are  in  possession  of  wings.^ 

r  agree  entirely  with  Dr.  Shimer  as  to  the  facts  mentioned  in  the 
paragraph,  but  not  as  to  the  conclusions  which  he  deduces.  There 
are  many  objections  to  his  theory,  some  of  which  may  be  found  in  the 
American  ErUomologisU  (Vol.  I,  pp.  172-3). 

It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  Chinch  Bugs  do  not  all  mature  at  once, 
and  it  they  took  wing  only  when  making  their  courtships,  some  of 
them  would  be  flying  during  a  period  of  several  weeks ;  and  as  will 
fee  shown  presently,  there  exists  a  dimorphous  short- winged  form  of 
the  Chinch  Bug,  which  cannot  possibly  make  any  such  serial  love 
trips.  It  seems  more  agreeable  to  analogy  that  they  take  wing  only 
when  they  have  become  so  unduly  numerous  that  they  are  in- 
■stiMCtively  aware  that  they  must  either  emigrate  or  starve.  Be  this 
'liowever  as  it  may,  the  fact  of  their  being  as  a  general  rule  unwilling 
to  use  their  wings  is  well  known  to  every  practical  farmer. 

It  has  long  been  known  that  the  Chinch  Bug  deposits  its  eggs  un- 
derground and  upon  the  roots  of  the  plants  which  it  infests,  and  that 
the  young  larvae  remain  underground  for  some  considerable  time  after 
they  hatch  out,  sucking  the  sap  from  the  roots.  If,  in  the  spring  of 
the  year,  you  pull  up  a  wheat  plant  in  a  field  badly  infested  by  this 
insect,  you  will  find  hundreds  of  the  eggs  attached  to  the  roots;  and 
at  a  somewhat  later  period  the  young  larvae  may  be  found  clustering 
upon  the  roots  and  looking  like  so  many  moving  little  red  atoms. 
The  egg  is  so  small  as  to  be  scarcely  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  of  an 
oval  shape,  about  four  times  as  long  as  wide,  of  a  pale  amber  white 


23  SECONi)    ANNUAL    REPORT   OP 

color  when  first  laid,  but  subsequently  assuming  a  reddish  color  from 
the  young  larva  showing  through  the  transparent  shell.*  As  the 
mother  Chinch  Bug  has  to  work  her  way  underground  in  the  spring  of 
the  year,  in  order  to  get  at  the  roots  upon  which  she  proposes  to  lay 
her  eggs,  it  becomes  evident  at  once,  that  the  looser  the  soil  is  at  this 
time  of  the  year  the  greater  the  facilities  which  are  offered  for  the 
operation.  Hence  the  great  advantage  of  ploughing  land  for  spring 
grain  in  the  preceding  autumn,  or,  if  ploughed  in  the  spring,  rolling 
it  repeatedly  with  a  heavy  roller  after  seeding.  And  hence  the  re- 
mark frequently  made  by  farmers,  that  wheat  harrowed  in  upon  old 
corn-ground,  without  any  ploughing  at  all,  is  far  less  infested  by 
Chinch  Bug  than  wheat  put  in  upon  land  that  has  been  ploughed.* 
There  is  another  fact  which  has  been  repeatedly  noticed  by  practical 
men.  This  insect  cannot  live  and  thrive  and  multiply  in  land  that  is 
sopping  with  water;  and  it  generally  commences  its  operations  in 
early  spring  upf)n  those  particular  parts  of  every  field  where  the  soil 
is  the  loosest  and  the  driest. 

The  female  occupies  about  three  weeks  in  depositing  her  eggs, 
and,  according  to  Dr.  Shimer's  estimate,  she  deposits  about  500.  The 
egg  requires  about  two  weeks  to  hatch,  and  the  bug  becomes  lull 
grown  and  acquires  its  wings  in  from  40  to  50  days  after  hatching. 
[Fig.  2.]^  There   are,  as  is  well  known   to   Entomologists, 

many  genera  of  the  Half-winged  Bugs,  which  in 
Europe  occur  in  two  distinct  or  "dimorphous"  forms, 
with  no  intermediate  grades  between  the  two; 
namely,  a  short-winged  or  sometimes  even  a  com- 
pletely wingless  type  and  a  long-winged  type.  Fre- 
quently the  two  occur  promiscuously  together,  and 
are  found  promiscuously  copulating  so  that  they  can- 
not possibly  be  distinct  species.  Sometimes  the  long- 
winged  type  occurs  in  particular  seasons  and  es- 
pecially in  very  hot  seasons.  More  rarely  the  short- 
winged  type  Occurs  in  a  different  locality  from  the  long-winged  type, 
and  usually  in  that  case  in  a  more  northerly  locality.  We  have  a 
good  illustration  of  this  latter  peculiarity  in  the  case  of  the  Chinch 
Bug,  for  a  dimorphous  short-winged  form  (Fig.  2.)  occurs  in  Canada* 
and  Dr.  Fitch  describes  it  from  specimens  received  from  the  States, 
as  a  variety,  under  the  name  of  ajyterus. 

DESTRUCTIVE  POWERS  OF  THE  CHINCH  BUG. 

Few  persons  in  the  more  Northern  States  can  form  a  just  concep- 
tion of  the  prodigious  numbers  and  redoubtable  armies  in  which  this 
insect  is  sometimes  seen  in  the  South   and  Southwestern  States, 

*  In  Dr.  Shimer's  Paper  the  dimensions  of  the  egg,  as  "determined  Tvith  fine  mathemati- 
«al  instruments,"  are  said  to  be  "0.04  inch  long  and  0.01  inch  wide,"  (p.  99.)  This  is  either  a 
derical  or  a  tjpograpbical  error  for  "0.004  inch  long  and  0.001  inch  wide."  Otherwise  the  e.jg 
would  be  nearly  one-third  as  long  as  the  insect  itself;  and  as  Dr.  Shimer  thinks  that  every  to- 
male  lays  about  500  eggs,  this  would  be  something  like  getting  a  bushel  of  wheat  out  of  a  quart 
measure. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  ^ 

marching  from  one  field  to  another.  The  following  extracts — the  first 
one  written  in  June,  1865,  by  Dan.  F.  Rogers  to  the  New  York  Far- 
mers' Club,  and  the  second  from  an  old  number  of  the  Prairie  Far- 
mer— may  seem  a  little  far-fetched,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  both 
accounts  are  substantially  correct: 

There  never  was  a  better  "show"  for  wheat  and  barley  than  we 
had  here  the  lOthof  June,  andno  more  paltry  crop  has  been  harvested 
since  we  w  ere  a  town.  Many  farmers  did  not  get  their  seed.  In 
passing  by  a  field  of  barley  where  the  Chinch  Bugs  had  been  at  work 
for  a  week,  I  f  3und  them  moving  in  solid  column  across  tlie  road  to  a 
corn  field  on  the  opposite  side,  in  such  numbers  that  I  felt  almost 
afraid  to  ride  my  horse  among  them.  The  road  and  fences  were  alive 
with  them.  Some  teams  were  at  work  mending  the  road  at  this  spot, 
and  the  bugs  covered  men,  horses  and  scrapers  till  they  were  forced 
to  quit  work  for  the  da5^  The  bugs  took  ten  acres  of  that  corn,  clean 
to  the  ground,  before  its  hardening  stalks — being  too  much  for  their 
tools — checked  their  progress.  Another  lot  of  them  came  from  a 
wheat  field  adjoining  my  farm  into  a  piece  of  corn,  stopping  now  and 
then  for  a  bite,  but  not  long.  Then  they  crossed  a  meadow  30  rods 
into  a  IGacre  lot  of  sorgo,  and  swept  it  like  a  fire,  though  the  cane 
was  then  scarce  in  tassel.  From  wheat  to  sorgo  was  at  least  sixty 
rods.  Their  march  was  governed  by  no  discoverable  law,  except  that 
they  were  infernally  hungry,  and  went  where  there  was  most  to  eat. 
Helping  a  ncujlihor  harvest  one  of  the  few  fortunate  fields,  early 
sown — and  so  lucky  ! — we  iound  them  moving  across  his  premises  in 
such  numbers  that  they  bid  fair  to  drive  out  the  family.  House,  crib, 
stable,  well-cnrb,  trees,  garden  fences — one  creej^ing  mass  of  stinking 
life.  In  the  house  as  well  as  outside,  like  the  lice  of  Egypt,  they 
were  everywhere  ;  but  in  a  single  day  they  were  gone. 

If  any  Western  rustics  are  verdant  enough  to  suppose  that  Chinch 
Bugs  cannot  be  out-flanked,  headed  ofl"  and  conquered,  they  are  en- 
tirely behind  the  times.  The  thing  has  been  effectually  done  during 
the  past  season,  by  Mr.  Davis,  Supervisor  of  the  town  of  Scolt,  Ogle 
county.  Ills.  This  gentleman  had  a  cornfield  of  a  hundred  acres, 
growing  alongside  of  an  extensive  field  of  small  grain.  The  bugs  had 
finished  up  the  latter  and  were  preparing  to  attack  the  former,  when 
the  owner,  being  of  an  ingenious  turn,  hit  upon  a  liappj^  plan  tor  cir- 
cumventing them.  He  surrounding  the  corn  with  a  barrier  ot  pine 
boards  set  up  edgewise,  and  partly  buried  in  the  ground,  to  keep 
them  in  position.  Outside  of  this  fence  deep  holes  were  dug,  about 
ten  feet  apart.  The  upper  edge  of  the  board  was  kept  constr^ntly 
moist  with  a  coat  of  coal  tar,  which  was  renewed  every  day. 

The  bugs,  according  to  their  regular  tactics,  advanced  to  the 
assault  in  solid  columns,  swarming  by  millions,  and  hiding  the 
ground.  They  easily  ascended  the  boards,  but  were  unable  to  cross 
the  belt  of  the  coal  tar.  Sometimes  they  crowded  upon  one  another 
so  as  tc  bridge  over  the  barrier,  but  such  places  were  immediately 
covered  with  a  new  coating.  The  invaders  were  in  a  worse  quandary 
than  that  of  Butler  and  Weitzel  at  Fort  Fisher,  and,  in  that  state  of 
mind  crept  backward  and  forward  until  they  tumbled  into  the  deep 
hole  aforesa^'d.  These  were  soon  filled,  and  the  swarming  myriads 
were  shoveled  out  ot  them  literally  by  wagon  loads,  at  the  rate  of 
thirty  or  forty  bushels  a  day — and  buried  up  in  other  holes,  dug  for 
the  purpose,  as  required.  This  may  seem  incredible  to  persons  un- 
acquainted with  this  little  pest,  but  no  one  who  has  seen  the  count- 
less myriads  which  cover  the  earth  as  harvest  approaches,  will    ieol 


34-  SECOND    ANNUAL    RLPOKT    OP 

inclined  to  dispute  the  statement.  It  is  an  unimpeachable  fact.  The 
process  was  repeated  till  only  three  or  tour  bushels  could  be  shovelled 
out  of  the  holes,  when  it  was  abnidoned.  The  corn  was  completely 
protected,  and  yielded  bountifully 

HEAVY  RAINS  UESTRUCTIVE  TO  THE  CHINCH  BUG. 

As  the  Chinch  Bug,  unlike  most  other  true  Bugs,  depositfl  itg; 
eggs  underground,  and  as  the  young  larvae  live  there  for  a  consider-' 
able  time,  it  must  be  manifest  that  heavy  soaking  rains  wifl  have  a 
tendency  to  drown  them  out.  The  simple  fact,  long  ago  observed  and 
recorded  by  practical  men,  such  as  Mr.  B.  E.  Fleharty  of  North  Prairie, 
Knox  county,  Ills.,  that  this  insect  scrupulously  avoids  wet  land, 
proves  that  moisture  is  naturally  injurious  to  its  constitution.  Hence 
it  was  many  years  ago  remarked  by  intelligent  farmers,  and  we  had 
an  illustration  of  it  the  present  year  (1869),  that  very  oiten  wiien  the 
spring  opens  dry,  Chinch  Rugs  will  begin  to  increase  and  multiply  in 
an  alarming  manner;  but  that  the  very  first  heavy  shower  checks 
them  up  immediately,  and  repeated  heavy  rains  put  an  almost  entire 
stop  to  their  operations.  It  is  very  true  that  nearly  all  insects  will 
bear  immersion  under  water  for  many  hours,  and  frequently'  for  a 
whole  day,  without  suffering  death  therefrom;  for  although  ariiraaiion 
is  apparently  suspended  in  such  cases,  they  yet,  as  the  phase  is, 
"  come  to  life  again."  But  no  insect,  except  the  few  that  are  pro- 
vided with  gills  like  fishes  and  extract  the  air  out  of  the  water,  in* 
stead  of  breathing  it  at  first  hand,  can  stand  a  prolonged  immersion 
in  water  without  drowning.  And  it  must  be  obvious  to  the  meanest 
capacity,  that  an  insect,  such  as  the  Chinch  Bug,  whose  natural  hurne 
is  the  driest  soil  it  can  find,  will  have  its  health  injuriously  affected 
by  a  prolonged  residence  in  a  wet  soil. 

In  fact  the  whole   history    of  the   Chinch  Bug,  from   the   very 
earliest  records  which  we  have  of  it.  points  nnmistakabh  to  the  fact, 
that  a  wet  season  aflfectsit  injuriously,  and  often  almost  annihilates  ijU... 
In  Carolina  and  Virginia,  during  the  dry  years  which  preceded  1840, 
it  had  become  so  numerous  that  the   total   destruction   of  the   crops 
was  threatt-ned;  but  fortunately,  unlike  its  predecessors,  the  sumfiiier 
of  1840  was  quite  wet  and  the  ravages  oJ  the  bug   wer«   at  once  ar-iw 
rested.    In  Illinois  and  in  this  State  it  had  increased  to  an  alarming^, 
extent  during  the  latter  part  of  the  late  Rebellion  ;  but  the  excessive 
wet  summer  of  1865  swept  them  away  to  such  an  extent  th  .t-  it  was 
•difficult  to  find  any  in  the  fall  of  that  year.    So  it  was  again  in  1869- 
"70,  and  so  it  always  has  been,  and  doubtless  aJwa\s  will    he.    It  will-- 
be  well  therefore  for  farmers  to  bear  in  mind,  that  in  a  hot,  dry  rea- 
son Chhich  Bvgs  are  always  the  worst,  and  that  in  a  wet  season  itis 
impossible  for  them  tO)do  any  considerable  amount  of  damage^    ■'  - 

Dr.  Shimer,  however,  is  not  satisfied  with  this  simple  theory.  Her 
(has  gotten  up  and   expounded   to  the   world    a   new    and   reconoiie' 
theory  of  his  own,  namely,  that  in  the  terrible  wet  season  ((f  l^t>5s^. 
.when  the  Chinch  Bug,  although  in  early  spring  it  had   ffppeitt'ied  in"^  • 


THE    STATE    KNTOMOLOGIST.  25 

very  irreat  numbers,  was   almost   annihilated   in   the   course   of  thr 
summer,  it  perished,  not  as  others   had  ioolishly   supposed,  from  the^ 
direct  operation  of  the  rain,  but  indirectly  through  a  Certain  myste-;^ 
rious  epidemic  disease  analogous  to  the  Cholern  or  the  Yellow  Feve^, 
among  human  beings.     He  tnlly  allows  that  the  mortality  among  the?" 
Chinch  Iliigs  was   contemporaneous  with   the   wet  weather;  but  he 
will  have  it  that  it  was   not   the   wet  weather  that  killed  the  Bug, 
as>  we    common    fqiks    have    always    hitherto    believed,   but    that 
it 'Was  his  iiewly-discovered  Epidemic  Disease.     But  as   in  the  con- 
joint »rti(-lein  the  Amprican  EnlomoJogist   (I,   pp.   174-6)  this   Epi- 
demic theory  was  fully  considered  l)y  my   late   associate,  Mr.  Walsh, 
in  his  own  peculiar  style,  I  shall  riot  dwell  upoTi  it  hete. 

CAN]SilBAL  FOES  OF  THE   CHrNCH   BUG. 

As  Iftng  ago  as  18G1,  Mr.  Walsh,  in  his  Ea^my  upon  tfie  Lijnrioug 

Lumts  af^rilimis,  published  tacts  which  tended  to  .show    that  four 

distinctspecies  of  Ladybirds,  preyed  upon  .  the  OhinchvBug.,*    The 

first  fv/  tjie«e  fonr  is  the  Spotted    Ladybird   {IlippodaTriiavmeida^a,^, 

[Fi^^]    DtGetr,,  Fig.  3),  which  also  preys   upon   a  greti  t  .  £ 's- 4^ 

*^^^    variety  of  otlier  insects;  attacking  bo4h  the  eggs  -^ ^^^||"^ 

f|2^1  ol  the  (Colorado  Potato  Bug  and  those  orcertain"j>/fTi 

/^R,'  Bark-lice;  and  which  is  further  remarkable  toi-^J 

being  one  of  the  few  insects  (ound  both  in  Europe   and   in   North 

America.  .  ■      ■  ■  ■■  ;;" 

Incotro-borationof  the  fact  of  its  preying  on  the  Chinch  Bug^-- 
1  iivriy  state^tha.t  the  Rev.  Chas  Peabody,  of  Sulphur  Springs,  inform?^ 
me  that  he  has  repeatedly  found  it  so  feeding  on  his  farm.  The  second 
species. IS  the.  'i  rim  Ladybird  (  Goocinella  irmnda^  Say,  Fig,  4)„  which 
is  djsringuis.hab  teat  once  frovn  a  great  variety  ofits  biethren  by 
having  no  black,  spots  upon  its  red  wing-cases.  The.  other  two  are 
much  sm.al I er  insects,  belonging  to  a  genus  (<§cym?ms)  of  Laoybirdsj^; 
most  of  the  species  of  which  are  quite  small  and  of  obscure  brown 
eoloxs,  and  hard, to  be  distinguished  by  the  popular  eye  from  other 
beetles,  the  structure  of  which  is  very  different,  and  whirh  therefore 
belong  to  very  different  groups  and  have  very  different  habits, 

ly.  the  autumn  ol  1864  Dr.  Shimer  ascertained  that  the  Spotted 
Ladybird  vyiiich  has  been  sketched  above,  preys  extensively  upon  the 
Chinch.  Bug.  Li  a  particular  field  of  corn,  which  had  been  sown  thick 
for  iodder,  and  which  was  swarming  with  Chinch  Bugs,  he  found,  as 
he  saivs,  that  this  Ladybird,  "could  be  counted  by  hundreds  upoa 
every  square  ynrd  of  ground  after  shaking  the  coTh  ;  but  the  Chinch 
Bugs  were  so  numerous  that  these  hosts  of  eniemies  made  very  little 
perceptible  impression  among  them."         ..>;;.•,,i^;^^:v. .     . 

In  the  same  autumn  Dr.  Shimer  made  the  additional  discovery, 
t^iat  in  the  very  same  field  of  fodder-corn  the  Chinch  Bugs  w^fi 
pft^'ed   upon  by  a  very  Gomtuon   species  of  Lacewing-fly,  whicJihe 

*See   Tram.   III.   St.   Agric.   Satiety,  IV,  pp.  .346-9. 


26  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

described  in  January,  1865,*  as  the  Illinois  Lacewing  ( CJirj/sopa  Illi- 
rtoiensis).  The  description  was  republished,  together  with  the  sub- 
stance of  Mr.  Shimer's  observations  in  the  Prairie  Farmer^  of  Chicago, 
111.,  accompanied  with  a  non-characteristic  wood-cut  of  the  larva, 
cocoon  and  imago.  At  this  time  Mr.  Shimer  favored  me  with  tw® 
gpecimens  of  tlie  perfect  insect,  and  he  likewise  furnished  Mr.  Walsh 
with  additional  specimens.  From  these  specimens,  it  is  evident  that 
the  species  is  the  same  as  that  described  long  before,  by  Dr.  Fitch, 
as  the  Weeping  lj2iCQVfmg{Chrysopa  ploralunda) .  in  1868,  I  found 
the  same  species  quite  numerous  in  a  wheat  field  belonging  to  Mr. 
T.  R.  Allen,  of  Allenton,  where  its  larvae  were  perhaps  feeding  on  the 
Chinch  Bugs,  as  they  were  found  to  do  in  North  Illinois,  by  Dr.  Shimer. 
The  Lacewing  flies  all  bear  a  striking  resemblanos 
to  one  another,  both  in  size,  shape  and  color  ;  and  to 
convey  a  correct  idea  of  their  appearance,  it  ie 
'^only  necessary  to  repeat  the  annexed  drawing 
(Fig  5.j  from  my  First  Report,  where  a  sketch  of 
their  natural  history  will  be  found  (pp.  57-8). f  They 
almost  all  of  them,  in  the  fly  state,  have  a  ciiarac- 
teristic  and  disagreeable  odor,  resembling  nothing  so  much  as  human 
ordure. 

According  to  Dr.  Shimer,  the  Weeping  Lacewing-fly  was  not 
quite  as  abundant  as  the  Spotted  Ladybird  among  the  fodder-corn, 
but  still  there  were  so  many  of  them,  that  he  thought  that ''  there  was 
one  or  more  of  them  for  every  stalk  of  that  thickly  sown  corn." 
"  Every  stroke  of  the  cutter,"  he  adds,  "would  raise  three  or  four 
dozen  of  them,  presenting  quite  an  interesting  spectacle  as  they 
gtaggered  along  in  their  awkward,  unsteady  flight."  And  he  not  only 
actually  observed  the  larvfe  preying  very  voraciously  on  the  Chinch 
Bugs  in  the  field,  but  he  reared  great  numbers  of  them  to  the  mature 
Fly  by  feeding  them  upon  Chinch  Bugs.  His  account  of  the  opera- 
tions of  the  larva  when  in  captivity  is  so  interesting  that  I  quote  it  in 
full: 

I  placed  one  of  the  larv^  in  a  vial,  after  having  captured  it  in  tlie 
field  in  the  very  act  of  devouring  Chinch  Bugs  of  all  sizes,  and  sub- 
sequently introduced  into  the  vial  a  number  of  Chinch  Bugs.  They 
had  hardly  reached  the  bottom  before  it  seized  one  of  the  largest 
ones,  pierced  it  with  its  long  jaws,  lield  it  almost  motionless  for  ai)0ut 
a  minute  while  it  was  sucking  the  juices  from  the  body  of  its  victim, 
and  then  threw  down  the  lifeless  shell.  In  this  way,  I  saw  it  destroy 
in  quick  succession,  about  a  dozen  bugs.  Towards  the  last,  as  its 
appetite  was  becoming  satiated,  it  spent,  five  or  more  minutes  in  suck- 
ing the  juices  trom  the  body  of  one  bug.  After  this  bountiful  repast, 
it  remained  motionless  for  an  hour  or  more,  as  if  asleep.    Never  for 

*Proc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  IV,  pp.  208-12. 

fin  that  account  I  stated  as  a  fact  which,  so  far  as  I  was  aware,  had  not  been  recorded  by 
any  previous  writer,  that  the  insect  issues  from  the  stn.Tll  cocoon  in  an  active  sub-imago  state, 
from  which,  after  a  few  hours,  the  winged  fly  emerges,  leaving  behind  it  a  fine  silvery-white  trans- 
parent skin.  I  have  since  found  that  Dr.  Khimer,  in  the  scientific  paper  already  referred  to,  had 
previously  recorded  the  very  same  fact. 


THE   STATK   ENTOMOLOGIST.  27 

a  single  moment,  during  the  feast,  did  it  pause  in  the  work.  When 
not  in  possession  of  a  bug,  it  was  on  the  search  for,  or  in  the  pursuit 
of  others.  It  manifested  much  eagerness  in  the  pursuit  of  its  prey, 
yet  not  with  a  lion-like  boldness  ;  for  on  several  occasions  I  observed 
a  manifest  timorousness,  a  halting  in  the  attack,  as  if  conscious  of 
danger  in  its  hunting  expeditions,  although  here  there  was  none. 
Sometimes,  when  two  or  more  bugs  were  approaching  rapidly,  it 
would  shrink  back  from  the  attack,  and  turning  aside  go  in  the  {>ur- 
iiuit  of  others.  At  length,  awakening,  it  would  renew  the  assault  a» 
before.  On  one  occasion,  when  it  was  on  the  side  of  the  vial,  two 
inches  up,  with  a  large  bug  in  its  mouth,  I  jarred  the  vial,  so  that  it 
fell  to  the  bottom  and  rolled  over  and  over  across  the  bottom,  but 
holding  on  to  its  prey,  it  regained  its  footing  and  mounted  up  to  its 
former  position.  Occasionally  the  Chinch  Bugs  would  hasten  to  es- 
cape when  pursued,  as  if  in  some  degree  conscious  of  danger. 

^'s-  ^-  The  Insidious  Flower  Bug,  {AntJiocoris  insidi- 

osus.  Say),  of  which  I  represent'  herewith  a  highly 
magnified  figure,  (Fig.  6),  may  often  be  iound  in 
company  with  the  Chinch  Bug,  under  the  husks  of 
ears  of  corn.  It  is  quite  common  in  Missouri, 
where  I  have  found  it  in  several  diiferent  galls, 
and  especially  in  the  Grai)e-vine  Leaf  gall,  where 
it  was  preying  on  the  lice  ( Phylloxera  vitifolico), 
which  are  the  architects  of  the  gall.  It  has 
often  been  mistaken  for  the  Chinch  Bug,  and  was 
I  upon  one  occasion  sent  to  Dr.  Fitch,  by  one  of  his 

correspondents,  for  that  veritable  Bug.  Yet  it  undoubtedly  preys 
upon  the  Chinch  Bug,  as  well  as  upon  a  variety  of  other  plant-feed- 
ing insects,  and  it  therefore  becomes  very  necessary  that  the  farmer 
should  learn  to  recognize  it  and  distinguish  it  from  the  true  culprit- 
It  is  very  true  that,  practically,  it  will  be  found  almost  impossible  to 
separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats,  and  spare  the  lives  of  the  former 
while  condemning  to  destruction  the  unsavory  little  carcasses  of  th» 
latter.  Still,  it  will  be  some  comfort  to  the  grain-grower,  when  at 
some  future  day  he  may  discover  his  small  grain  or  his  corn  to  b© 
alive  with  Chinch  Bugs,  to  perceive  the  bright  orange-colored  larvae 
of  the  Insidious  Flower-Bug  dodging  about  among  the  blood-red  or 
blood-brown  larvoe  of  his  bitter  foes,  and  sucking  out  their  life-blood 
with  ravenous  avidity;  or  to  discover  the  little  slow-going  larvae  of 
the  Scymnus  group  of  Ladybirds,  with  such  dense  and  evenly-shorn 
masses  of  short  milk-white  cottony  threads  growing  out  of  their  en- 
tire bodies  that  they  look  like  little  animated  flakes  of  cotton  wool, 
crawling  about  among  the  stinking  crowd  and  making  many  a  hearty 
meal  off  them,  stink  they  never  so  badly;  or,  finally,  to  watch  the 
lizard  like  black  and  yellow  larvas  of  the  Spotted  Ladybird,  and  thd 
Trim  Ladybird,  with  their  short,  robust  jaws,  or  the  greecish-brown 
larvae  of  the  Lacewing-fly,  with  their  long  slender  sickle-shaped 
jaws,  running  rapidly  about  among  the  hosts  of  their  enemies,  and 
smiting  them  hip  and  thigh  without  any  more  mercy  than  the  Amal©- 


2$,.  FECOND    A^NUAL    REPOKT  OP 

tites  of  old  experienced  at  the  hands  of  avenging  Israel.  He  will 
then  know  that,  even  if  he  is  liiniself  powerless -to  make  head  against 
a  host  of  minute  foes,  as  numerous  as  the  sand  on  the  seashore,  and 
as  destructive  and  irresistible  as  the  waves  of  the  great  ocean  itself. 
Providence  has  provided  a  check  upon  the  unlimited  increase  of  his, 
enemies;  and  that  a  Power  which  is  above  us  all  a?id  provides  for  us 
all,  and  which  alloweth  noteyen  a  sparrow  to  fall  to  the  ground  un- 
less by  His  especial  permission,  has  said  to  every  vegelai)le-feeding 
insect,  through  the  moutiis  of  the  various  Cannibal  and  Parasitic  spe- 
■cies  which  He  has  appointed  to  do  His  work  :  '-Thus  tar  shalt  thou  go, 
4injd  no  farther ;  and  tiere  shall  thy  proud  hosts  he  stayed" 

-  The  coin mon  Quail  of  the  Middle  and  Western  Spates  (O/'ifyar 
Vif^iniana)  otherwise  known  as  the  Partridge  in  the  Northern  States 
has  long  since  been  known  as  a  most  efficient  destroyer  of  Chinch 
Bugs,  and  the  fact  was  some  time  ago  published  by  myself  in  the 
Prairie  J'armer^dinA  by  others  in  various  Agricultural  Journals  and 
Reports.  We  also  have  the  corroborative  testimony  of  Or  S})iu)er, 
who  is  a  good  ornithologist.  In  the  winter  time,  when  hard  pushed 
for  food,  this  bird  must  devour  immense  numbers  of  the  little  pests 
which  winter  in  just  such  situations  as  are  frequented  by  the  Quail; 
and  this  bird  should  be  protectevl  from  the  gun  of  the  sportsman  i^„ 
"©veJ^y .Statje  where  the  Chinch  Bug  is  known  to  run  riot. 

AMOUNT   UF  DAMAGE   DONE   BY    THE   CHINCH   BUG. 

According  to  Dr.  Shim^r's  estimate,  which  may  be  considered  ai: 
reasonable  one,  in  the  year  1664  "three-fourths  of  the  wheat  and  one-, 
half  of  the  <-orn  crop  were  destroyed  i>y  the  Chinch  Bug  throughout" 
many  extensive  districts,  corapfising  almost  th«  entire  Nortliwest."  ^ 
At  the  average  annual  rate  of  increase,  according  to  the  United  • 
States  Census,  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  th-e  wh-eat  crop  of  1864  f-ught 
to  have  been  about  thirty  millionsof  bus!  els,  and  the  corn-crop  about^- 
one  hundred   and   thirty-eight  million    bushels.    Putting   the   ca^hT 
value  of  wheat  at  f  1.25  and  that  of  corn  at  50  cents,  the  cash  valne^ 
of  the  corn  and  wheat  destroyed   by  this  insignificant  little  bug,  no-; 
bigger  than  a  grain  of  rice,  in  one  single  State  and  in  one  single  year, 
will  therefore,  according  to  the  above  figures,  foot  up  to  the  astound-;; 
ing  total  of  ovek  SEVENTY-THh^iiE  millions  of  dollars  !    Put  it  as  low  ae 
we  choose,  it  is  still  a  "big  thing;  "  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  argue  a 
question  any  further,  when  facts  and  figures  speak  so  plainly, 

REMEDIES   AGAliJST  THE  CHINCH  BUG. 

It  has  long  been  noticed  that  the  Chinch  Bug  commences  its  rav- 
ages in  the  spring  from  the  edges  of  a  piece  of  grain,  or  occasionally 
from  one  or  more  small  patches,  scattered  at  random  in  the  more  cen^' 
tral  portions  of  it,  and  usually  drier  than  the  rest  of  the  field.  From 
these  particular  parts  it  subsequently  spreads  by  degrees  over  the,^ 
wliole  field,  multiplying  as  it  goes  and  finally  taking  the  entire  crpp'A 
unless  checked  up  by  seasonable   rains.      In   newly-broken    land. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  29 

where  the  fences  are  new  and  consequently  no  old  stuff  has  had  time 
(o  accumulate  along  them,  the  Chinch  Btisj^  is  never  heard  of.  These 
facts  indicate  that  the  mother  insects  must  very  generally  pass  the 
winter  in  the  old  dead  stuff  that  usually  gathers  along  fences.  Hence, 
hy  way  ot  precauticm,  it  is  advisable,  whenever  possible,  to  burn  up 
such  dead  stuff  in  the  winter  or  early  in  the  spring,  and  particularly 
to  rake  together  and  burn  up  the  old  corn-stalks,  instead  of  plowing 
them  in,  or  allowing  them,  as  is  often  done,  to  lie  littering  about  on 
some  piece  of  waste  ground.  It  is  true,  agriculturally  speaking,  this 
is  bad  farming;  but  it  is  better  to  lose  the  manure  contained  in  the 
corn-stalks  than  to  have  one's  crop  destroyed  by  insects.  Whenever 
such  small  infected  patches  in  a  grain  field  are  noticed  early  in  the 
season,  the  rest  of  the  field  may  often  be  saved  by  carting  dry  straw 
on  to  them  and  burning  the  straw  on  the  spot.  Chinch  Bugs,  green 
wheat  and  all ;  and  this  will  be  still  easier  to  do  when  the  bugs  start 
along  the  edge  of  the  field.  If,  as  frequently  happens,  a  piece  of 
small  grain  is  found  about  harvest-time  to  be  so  badly  shrunken  up 
by  the  bug  as  not  to  be  worth  cutting,  the  owner  of  it  ought  always 
to  set  fire  to  it  and  burn  it  up  along  with  its  ill-savored  inhabitants. 
Thus,  not  only  will  the  insect  be  prevented  from  migrating  on  to 
the  adjacent  corn-fields,  but  its  future  multiplication  will  be  consid- 
erably checked. 

A  very  simple,  cheap  and  easy  method  of  prevention  was  recom- 
mended in  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  April  10th,  18^2,  by  Mr.  Wilson 
Phelps,  of  Crete,  Illinois.  It  may  very  probably  be  effectual  when 
the  bugs  are  not  too  numerous,  and  certainly  can  do  no  harm  : 

With  twelve  bushels  of  spring  wheat  mix  one  bushel  of  winter 
rye,  and  sow  in  the  usual  manner.  The  rye  not  heading  out,  but 
spreading  out  close  to  the  ground,  the  bugs  will  content  themselves 
with  eating  it,  until  the  v/heat  is  too  far  advanced  to  be  injured  by 
them.  There  will,  of  course,  be  no  danger  of  the  winter  rye  mixing 
with  the  spring  wheat. 

When  Chinch  Bugs  are  likely  to  march,  as  they  often  do,  after  the 
fashion  of  Array-worms,  from  an  infected  to  an  uninfected  field,  Mr.  H. 
J.  Everest,  of  Stoughton,  Dane  county,  Wisconsin,  recommends  the 
following  plan,  which  is  stated  to  have  been  tried  by  several  persona 
and  found  to  be  perfectly  effectual,  and  which  is  substantially  the 
same  as  that  referred  to  on  page  23: 

Take  common  fence-boards,  six  inches  or  less  wide,  and  run  them 
around  the  piece,  set  edgewise,  and  so  that  the  bugs  cannot  get  under 
them  or  between  the  joints,  and  then  spread  either  pine  or  coal  tar 
on  the  upper  edge,  and  they  will  not  cross  it.  The  tar  needs  renew- 
ing till  the  edge  gets  saturated,  so  that  it  will  keep  wet  and  not  dry 
in  any  more,  and  either  kind  of  tar  is  effectual.  Then  dig  holes  close 
to  the  boards,  about  like  a  post-hole,  once  in  four  or  five  rods,  and 
run  a  strip  of  tar  from  the  top  of  the  board  to  the  bottom  on  the  out- 
side opposite  the  hole,  and  they  will  leave  the  board,  and  in  trying  to 
get  around  the  tarred  stripe  will  slide  into  the  hole,  where  they  will 
be  obliged  to  remain  till  they  can  be  buried  at  leisure,  and  new  holes 
opened  for  more  victims.    It  is  seldom  one  has  to  fence  more  than 


JO  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

one  si'le  of  a  field,  but  wherever  the  fence  is,  it  is  a  sure  stop. — Proe. 
Hew  York  Farmers'  Clulj. 

Finally,  when  the  Chinch  Bugs  are  already  in  the  field  which  it  is 
proposed  to  rescue  from  their  clutches,  Mr.  Michael  Hopps,  of  Lyons- 
ville.  Cook  county,  Illinois,  says  that  he  saved  a  piece  of  wheat  by 
sowing  gas-lime  broadcast  over  it,  at  the  rate  of  six  or  seven  bushels 
to  the  acre;  and  that  the  effect  was  that  the  bugs  immediately  left 
his  field,  and  his  crop  was  saved,  while  the  wheat  of  his  neighbors  was 
nearly  ruined  by  them.  He  further  states  that  "a  neighbor  had  a 
field  of  wheat  adjoining  his  (Mr.  Ilopps's)  cornfield,  in  wliich  the  bugs 
worked  badly.  Thinking  that,  as  soon  as  the  wheat  was  cut,  they 
would  emigrate  to  his  corn,  he  dropped  a  handful  of  .the  gas-lime  upon 
each  hillof  corn^in  the  same  manner  as  plaster  is  often  dropped  upon 
corn  in  the  East.  Tlie  consequence  was  that  the  bugs  did  not  attack 
the  corn  in  the  least." — {Prairie  Farmer?) 

But,  if  gas  lime  keeps  off  Chinch  Bugs,  which  may  or  may  not  be 
the  case,  it  appears  that  coal-tar  most  certainly  will  not  do  so,  as  the 
following  experiment  of  Dr.  Shimer's  proves: 

May  26?'/^,  1864. — I  saturated  some  saw-dust  with  coal-tar,  and 
mixed  some  quick-lime  among  it,  so  that  it  might  be  in  a  good  condi- 
tion for  handling,  and^sowedit  thickly  broadcast  over  a  portion  of  my 
wheat  field,  where  the  bugs  were  very  numerous. 

May  'il tJi-2dtli,  1864.— The  bugs  refuse  to  leave  the  part  of  the 
field  where  I  sowed  the  tarred  saw-dust,  so  there  is  but  little  hope  of 
driving  them  from  their  once  chosen  grounds,  by  the  seasonable  ap- 
plication of  strong  smelling  drugs. 

I  have  known  farmers  to  follow  the  plan  of  going  through  a  wheat 
field  badly  infested  with  Chinch  Bugs,  and  with  a  sickle  to  cut,  here 
and  there,  small  patches  of  the  wheat  which  they  threw  on  the  ground 
ill  the  form  of  a  loose  irregular  shock.  The  bugs  would  gather  under 
these  cut  stalks  in  great  numbers  from  the  standing  grain,  and  could 
then  be  destroyed  either  by  crushing  or  by  burning  them  with 
straw. 

The  above  remedies  are  selected  as  the  most  likely  to  prove  prac- 
tically successful,  from  a  mass  floating  round  in  the  various  Agricul- 
tural Journals,  some  of  them  utterly  absurd  and  irrational,  and  others 
of  very  doubtful  use.  As  to  the  ridiculous  proposal  put  forth  in  the 
Waukegan  (Ills.)  Gazette^  in  1865,  with  a  great  flourish  of  trumpets, 
by  one  D.  H.  Sherman  of  that  town;  namely,  to  destroy  the  Chinch 
Bugs  in  the  egg  state  by  pickling  all  the  seed  wheat ;  it  is  sufficient 
to  observe  that  this  insect  never  deposits  its  eggs  upon  the  kernel  of 
the  ripe  wheat.  Consequently,  to  attempt  to  kill  Chinch  Bug  eggs, 
by  doctoring  the  seed  wheat,  would  be  pretty  much  like  trying  to  kill 
the  nits  in  a  boy's  head  by  applying  a  piece  of  sticking-plaster  to  his 
great  toe.  In  the  old  Practical  Entomologist  (I,  p.  48),  I  showed  that 
there  were  no  such  eggs  in  the  wheat  kernels,  which  Mr.  Sherman 
himself  had  sent  me,  and  which  he  had  supposed  to  be  thus  infested. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  31 


BOGUS  CHINCH  BUGS. 


Few  things  are  more  astonishing  than  the  acuteness  of  perception 
feUperindiiced  by  being  constantly  conversant  with  some  one  particu- 
lar subject.  I  have  often  been  surprised  at  the  readiness  with  which 
nurserymen  will  distinguish  between  different  varieties  of  Apple, 
even  in  the  dead  of  the  year,  when  there  are  no  leaves,  and  of  course 
no  fruit  on  their  nursery  trees.  In  the  same  way  old  practiced  shep- 
herds can  recognize  every  individual  sheep  out  of  a  large  flock, 
though,  to  the  eyes  of  a  common  observer,  all  the  sheep  look  alike. 
Experienced  grain-growers,  again,  can  distinguish  at  a  glance  between 
twenty  different  varieties  of  wheat,  which  the  best  botanist  in  the 
country  would  fail  to  tell  one  from  the  other;  and  1  have  been  in- 
formed that  a  miller  of  many  years'  standing,  as  soon  as  he  has  shoul- 
dered a  sack  of  wheat,  knows  at  once  whether  it  is  spring  grain  or 
fall  grain;  while  ninety-nine  entomologists  out  of  every  hundred 
would  probably  be  unable,  on  the  most  careful  inspection,  to  tell  the 
difference  between  the  two,  and  some  might  even  mistake  wheat 
for  rye. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  persons  who  have  paid  no  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  study  of  insects,  often  confound  together  in- 
sects which,  in  the  eyes  of  the  professed  entomologist,  look  as  differ- 
ent from  each  other  as  a  horse  does  from  a  cow  or  a  hog.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  little  short  of  miraculous  if  this  were  not  so  ;  for  there  are 
about  thirty  thousand  distinct  species  of  insects  to  be  found  within 
the  limits  of  the  United  States,  and  of  course  in  such  a  vast  multipli- 
city, there  must  be  many  strong  resemblances. 

I  will  therefore  conclude  this  article  on  the  Chinch  Bug,  by 
briefly  mentioning  several  true  Bugs,  belonging  to  the  same  Order  of 
Half- winged  Bugs  {Ileteroptera)^  as  that  pestilent  little  foe  of  the 
farmer,  and  which  I  know  to  be  frequently  mistaken  for  it.  The 
reader  will  then,  by  comparing  the  different  figures,  see  at  once  how 
widely  they  all  differ,  and  by  a  very  little  practice,  his  eyes  will  be- 
came so  well  educated  that  he  will  soon,  without  any  artificial  assist- 
ance from  glasses,  be  able  to  distinguish  the  creatures  one  from  the 
other,  as  they  crawl  or  flj^  about  in  the  almost  microscopic  dimensions 
assigned  to  them  by  their  Great  Creator. 

One  reason,  perhaps,  why  so  many  different  bugs  are  popularly 
confounded  with  the  Chinch  Bug,  is  the  similarity  of  their  smell. 
Everybody  is  aware  that  Chinch  Bugs  possess  the  same  peculiarly 
unsavory  odor  as  the  common  Bed  Bug;  and  hence  when  a  person 
finds. a  small  insect  that  has  this  obnoxious  smell,  he  is  very  apt  to 
jump  to  the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  a  Chinch  Bug.  No  mode  of 
reasoning,  however,  can  be  more  unsafe  or  unsound.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  different  species  of  Half-winged  Bugs — the  common  brown 
Squash.  Bug  ((7o7'dM«  ^rzsi52"5)  for  example — that  possess  this  peculiar 
smell;  and  what  is  stranger  still,  although  this  smell  is  more  usually 


32  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

■-"met  with  among  the  plant-feeders,  there  are  a  tew  of  the  true  Canni- 
bals tnat  possess  it  to  perfection.  Among  these  I  may  mention  th© 
Spined  S')ldier- bug  (^rma  ,9/jm{>s«,  Dallas)  whose  portrait  I  here  re- 
[Fig-  ''■]  produce  from  my  JFirst  Report  (Fig.  7  h) ;  for,  as  the  bit- 
terest enemy  of  the  Colorado  Potato  Bug,  and  conse- 
quently one  of  our  best  friends,  he  cannot  too  often  be 
'presented,  or  become  too  well  known.  We  can  well 
afford  to  endure  his  unpleasant  odor,  when  we  duly 
a.         h  reflect  on  his  kind  services.     Just  think  of  it,  you  bit- 

ter bug-haters — this  little  soldier  has,  beyond  all  doubt,  saved  thou- 
sands of  dollars  to  the  State  of  Missouri  in  the  last  few  years,  by 
heroically  stabbing  and  slaying  countless  hosts  of  one  of  your  worst 
enemies!  That  he  should  have  the  bed-buggy  odor  is  not  very  sur- 
prising, since  he  appertains  to  a  large  and  extensive  group,  (the  Scu- 
tellera  family)  most  of  the  other  species  belonging  to  which  are  plant- 
feeders.  Indeed  it  is  a  very  general  rule,  to  which  I  know  of  but  on« 
exception*  that  the  insect  in  the  great  Reduvitis  family  among  the 
Half- winged  Bugs,  every  one  of  which  is  of  carnivorous  propensities, 
never  have  this  peculiarly  nauseous  aroma;  and  that  it  is  bestowed 
only  upon  certain  plant-feeding  bugs,  to  protect  them  no  doubt  from 
their  insect  foes,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  skunk  is  protected  from 
the  eagle  by  his  odoriferous  tail.  Yet  while  many  of  the  plant-feed- 
ing Bugs  do  have  this  odor,  a  good  many  of  them  are  entirely  free 
from  it,  and  some  few  of  them  really  smell  so  agreeably  that  the  fact 
has  been  thought  worthy  to  be  recorded  by  entomological  writers. 
Even  that  detestable  pest,  already  referred  to,  the  common  Squash 
Bug,  sometimes  emits  a  pleasant  aroma,  altogether  different  from  that 
which  it  normally  gives  out;  for  I  have  kept  this  winter, in  a  separate 
box,  one  which  emits  a  most  pungent  but  agreeable  smell,  very  much 
resembling  that  of  a  very  ripe,  rich  pear.  But  perhaps  the  most  sug- 
gestive fact  of  all  is  that,  notwithstanding  the  close  alliance  between 
the  two  Orders  of  Halt-winged  and  Whole-winged  Bugs,  there  is  not 
a  single  known  species  of  the  latter  that  has  ever  been  known  to  ex- 
hale the  bedbuggy  effluvium,  which  is  met  with  in  so  many  specieg 
belonging  to  the  former. 

The  Insidious  Flower-bug. — First  among  the  insects  frequently 
mistaken  for  the  Chinch  Bug,  may  be  mentioned  the  Insidious  Flower- 
bug  {Anthocoris  insidious^  Say)  already  referred  to  under  the  head  of 
"Cannibal  Foes  of  the  Chinch  Bug."  This  little  Flower-bug  has  been 
usually  referred  by  entomologists  to  the  same  extensive  group 
(^Lymus  family)  as  the  true  Chinch  Bug,  though  more  recent  authors 
have  placed  it  in  a  distinct  group  on  account  of  its  short  three-jointed 
beak. 

The  Ash-gray  Leaf-Bug. — Second  among  the  Bogus  Chinch  Bugi 
may  be  mentioned  the  Ash-gray  Leaf-bug  {Piesma  cinerca^  Say)  a 

*  A  shiny  black  species  of  NahU  {Nabit  marginatut,  Uhler,  MS)  smells  as  much  like  a.   B#el 
Bag  as  the  most  peaceable  Plant-feeder. 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  33 

small  greenish-gray  bug  of  which  I  present  herewith  a  highly  magni- 
fied figure  (Fig.  8),  its  true  size  being  about  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Chinch  Bug  for  which  it  has  been  mistaken,  though  it  lacks  altogether 
the  conspicuous  black  and  white  markings  which  characterize  that 
[Fi£.  8.]^      little  grain  pest,  and  really  resembles  it  in  nothing  but 
the  unpleasant  odor  which  it  emits.    In  the  summer  of 
1868,  Col.  F.  Hecker,  of  St.  Clair  county,  Illinois  (See 
Am.  Entomologist,  I,  p.  19),  found  an  insect,  which  he 
mistook  for  the  Chinch  Bug,  destroying  the  blossom 
buds  of  his  grape-vines.    Now  as  the  Ash  gray  Leaf- 
bug  is  known  to  work  in  this  way  on  the  Grape-vine, 
and  as  I  found,  it  abundant  in  Col.  Foster's  vineyard,  on 
the  Iron  Mountain  Railroad  in  this  State,  it  was  doubt- 
less this  species  which  injured  Col.  Hecker's  vines  ;  for 
the  true  Chinch  Bug  has  never  hitherto   been  observed   to  attack 
woody  plants  like  the  Grape-vine,  but  confines  itself  exclusively  to 
herbaceous  plants,  such  as  wheat,  oats,  Indian  corn,  etc.    The  Ash- 
gray  Leaf-bug  belongs  to  an  entirely  different  group  from  the  Chinch 
^Mg{Tingis  family)  all  the  species  of  which  have  a  short  3-jointed 
beak,  which  however  differs  from  that  of  the  3-jointed  beak  of  the 
Flower-bugs  {Antliocoris)  by  being  encased  in  a  groove  when  not  in 
use.    They  mostly  live  on  green  leaves  in  all  their  three  stages  after 
the  fashion  of  plant  lice.  Like  the  Chinch  Bug,  the  Ash-gray  Leaf- bug 
hybernates  in  the  perfect  state,  and  may  be  found  in  the  winter  in 
considerable  numbers  under  the  loose  bark  of  standing  trees  and  es- 
pecially under  that  of  the  Shag-bark  Hickory. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Ash-gray  Leaf-bug,  there  is  no  North 
American  species  belonging  to  the  genus,  that  is  known  to  attack 
ruit  trees  or  iruit-bearing  bushes  or  vines;  though  there  are  several 
that  inlest  forest  trees— each  species  generally  confining  itself  to  a 
particular  genus  of  trees.  But  in  Europe  there  is  a  species,  the  Vq2lx- 
tree  Leaf-bug  (^^^^^^5  ^y^-j  which  is  so  injurious  to  the  Pear,  that 
the  I^rench  gardeners  have  given  it  the  name  of  ''  the  Tiger  "  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  it  may  never,  like  another  European  pest  of  pear- 
growers  the  Pear-tree  Flea-louse  {Psylla  py ri)~y,\a<Ax  has  already 
been  introduced  into  the  New  England  States,  and  will  perhaps  make 
Its  way  out  West-traverse  the  Atlantic  ocean  and  take  out  its  natu- 
ralization papers  in  this  country. 

The  Flea-like  NEGRo-BUG.-Third  among  the  bogus  Chinch  Bugs 

"""^  rEr'.?^'"^"!.^  ^^'^  ^^''■^^^'"  Negro-bug  {Corimelcna  puliearla, 

Germar),  of  which  I  here  present  a  magnified  out- 

line    (Fig.    9).      Its    color  is  black  with    a    white 

stripe  each  side.    This  insect  resembles  the  Chinch 

U     Bug  in    having   an    ordinary   4-jointed    beak,    but 

//^Vdiflers    from    it    in    belonging    to    a    very    distinct 

_  and  well  marked  group   {Scutellera  family),  which 

characterized  by   the   enormous  size  of  the  "scutel"  or  shield 


S4  SECOND    ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

In  the  most  numerously  represented  division  of  this  family  the 
scutel  forms  a  large  triangle,  extending  along  the  back  about 
half-way  to  the  tip  of  the  abdomen,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  figure  of 
the  Spined  Soldier-bug  (Fig.  7),  referred  to  on  a  previous  page.  But 
in  another  division  of  this  family  which  does  not  contain  nearly  so 
many  species,  the  scutel,  instead  of  being  angular,  is  rounded  at  top 
and  covers  more  or  less  the  entire  upper  surface  of  the  abdomen.  It  is 
to  this  last  division  that  the  Flea-like  Negro-bug  belongs,  and  the  dirty 
yellow  or  white  stripes  at  its  sides  are  really  nothing  but  the  thick- 
ened anterior  edge  of  the  front  wings,  all  the  remaining  part  of  the 
front  wings,  as  well  as  the  entire  hind  wings,  being,  in  repose,  com- 
pletely hidden  under  this  enormously  extended  shield.  In  the  Bor- 
[Fig.  10.]  ^  dered  Soldier-bug,  as  the  reader  will  perceive  from  the 
annexed  drawing  (Fig.  10),  which  I  reproduce  from  my 
First  Report,  the  scutel  is  indeed  rounded,  and  also 
extends  a  considerable  distance  over  the  abdomen;  but 

IiAWBMViKl^^  it  otherwise  agrees  with  the  other  Soldier-bugs  in 
^^^BM]  the  rest  of  its  organization,  it  is  classified  with  them, 
f  ^^'1   and  not  with  our  Negro-bug. 

The  Flea-like  Negro-bug  has  been  known  to  injure  various  i>lants 
for  two  or  three  years  back.  I  found  it  exceedingly  abundant  last 
summer  in  all  parts  of  the  State  which  I  visited.  It  has  a  great  pas- 
sion for  the  fruit  of  the  Raspberry,  and  is  sometimes  so  plentiful  as 
to  render  the  berries  perfectly  unsaleable  by  the  bed-bug  aroma 
which  it  communicates  to  them,  as  well  as  by  sucking  out  their 
juices.  Wherever  it  occurs,  the  nauseous  flavor  which  it  imparts  to 
every  berry  which  it  touches,  will  soon  make  its  presence  manifest, 
though  the  little  scamp  may  elude  ocular  detection.  It  is  really  too 
bad  that  such  a  little  black  varmint  should  so  mar  the  exceeding 
pleasure  which  a  lover  of  this  delicious  fruit  always  experiences 
when  in  the  midst  of  a  raspberry  plantation  in  the  fruit  season.  It 
is  also  quite  injurious  to  the  Strawberry,  puncturing  the  stem  with 
its  little  beak,  and  thus  causing  either  blossom  or  fruit  to  wilt;  and 
the  following  extract,  taken  from  a  communication  to  the  Western 
Rural  by  Mr.  B.  Pullen,  of  Centralia,  Ills,,  undoubtedly  refers  to 
the  same  Bug,  and  would  indicate  that  it  made  its  first  appearance  in 
that  neighborhood  last  summer : 

"A  new  insect,  to  us  here,  has  appeared  on  our  stra.wberries  for 
the  first  time  the  past  season,  damaging  the  crop  very  much.  It  re- 
sembles somewhat  the  Chinch  Bug,  so  destructive  to  our  wheat  and 
corn,  and,  judging  from  the  peculiar  odor  they  emit  on  being  mashed, 
should  think  them  very  nearly  related.  Some  claim  that  they  are  of 
a  different  species  altogether.  Whether  this  be  so  or  not  those  inter- 
ested in  the  cultivation  of  the  strawberry  are  anxiously  looking  for- 
ward to  another  season  to  see  if  they  are  to  continue  their  depreda- 
tions." 

It  likewise  attacks  the  Strawberry  in  Canada,  as  an  account  of 
its  attacking  that  plant,  is  given  by  my  friend,  0.  J.  S.  Bethune,inthe 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  35 

Canada  Farmer  for  August  1st,  1867 ;  and  it  was  under  this  very  same 
serious  charge  that  it  was  apprehended  and  brought  up  for  trial  at 
the  last  May  meeting  of  the  Alton  (Ills.)  Horticultural  Society.  It 
also  attacks  both  Cherry  and  Quince,  occurring  on  these  trees  in  very 
large  numbers,  and  puncturing  the  blossoms  and  leaves,  but  espe- 
cially the  fruit  stems,  which  in  consequence  shrivel  and  die.  It  is 
also  quite  injurious  to  garden  flowers  and  especially  to  the  Coreop- 
sis, and  abounds  on  certain  weeds,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
the'Red-root  or  New  Jersey  Tea-plant  {Ceanotlius  Americanus)^  and 
Neckweed  or  Purslane-speedwell  CVerotiica  peregrioia).  In  the 
mouth  of  June  under  these  two  last  named  plants,  they  may  be 
found  in  countless  numbers  of  all  sizes  and  ages,  from  the  small  light 
brown  wingless,  newly  hatched  individuals,  to  the  full  fledged  jet 
black  ones.  In  fact  they  breed  on  these  weeds,  and  there  is  no  more 
eiFectual  method  of  checking  their  increase  and  thus  preventing  their 
injuries  to  our  cultivated  fruits,  than  by  sprinkling  these  weeds,  and 
the  ground  underneath  them,  with  a  good  strong  solution  of  Cresylic 
soap.  I  should  advise  the  propagation  of  a  small  patch  of  either  one 
of  these  weeds  near  a  strawberry  patch,  as  a  decoy  for  the  Bugs, 
which  may  thus  be,  to  some  extent,  enticed  away  from  the  straw- 
berry plants,  and  killed  more  readily. 

There  are  two  other  species  of  Negro-bug  which  are  common  in 
this  State,  though  they  never  swarm  in  such  injurious  profusion  as 
does  the  Flea-like  Negro-bug.  The  first  of  these  {Corimeloina  latera- 
lis^ Fabr,)  is  absolutely  undistinguishable  from  it  however,  except  in 
being  fully  one-half  longer  and  wider.  The  shape,  sculpturing  and 
coloring  are  exactly  the  same,  even  down  to  the  lateral  white  stripe; 
so  that,  but  for  the  fact  of  no  intermediate  grades  in  size  occurring, 
the  two  would  be  certainly  considered  as  mere  varieties  of  one  and 
the  same  species.  The  other  Negro-bug  {Cor.  tinicoloi\  Beauv.)  is 
fully  twice  as  long  and  wide  as  our  insect;  but  though  resembling  it 
closely  in  every  otiier  respect,  yet  diff"ers  very  notably  in  lacking  the 
white  anterior  edging  to  the  front  wings.  It  might  indeed  be  said, 
iJiat  the  biggest  Negro  dresses  entirely  in  black,  while  the  two  other 
smaller  sized  darkies  relieve  the  sombre  monotony  of  their  sable 
suits,  by  wearing  a  conspicuously  white  shirt-collar. 

To  these  three  bogus  Chinch  Bugs,  might  be  added  one  or  two 
other  species  of  small  stinking  Bugs  which  have  been,  by  some  per- 
sons, mistaken  for  the  true  Chinch  Bug.  But  enough  has  been  alreadj'" 
said  to  show,  that  insects  which  in  reality  are  shaped  and  fashioned 
as  differently  as  are  cows  and  deer,  are  yet  often  confounded  together 
in  the  popular  eye,  principally,  no  doubi  because  they  have  the  same 
peculiar  bed-bug  aroma.  Should  the  ignorance  of  the  popular  judg- 
ment in  confounding  these  tiny  creatures  which  seem  to  the  Ento- 
mologist so  very,  very  different  from  each  other,  therefore,  be  des- 
pised and  ridiculed  ?  Far  be  it  from  me  to  display  such  intolerant 
stupidity!    As  well  might  the  nurseryman  ridicule  the  grain  grower. 


36  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

because  the  grain-grower  cannot  distinguish  a  Baldwin  Seedling  from 
a  High  top  apple ;  or  the  grain-grower  the  nurseryman  because 
the  nurseryman  cannot  tell  Mediterranean  from  Tea  wheat,  or  Club 
from  Fife.  I  do,  however,  entertain  an  abiding  hope  that  by  the  pres- 
ent very  general  and  praiseworthy  movement  towards  the  populari- 
zation of  Natural  History,  and  by  the  dissemination  of  Entomological 
Reports,  a  better  knowledge  of  this  practically  important  subject  will 
soon  exist  in  the  community.  Our  farmers  will  then,  not  so  often  wage 
a  war  of  extermination  against  their  best  friends,  the  cannibal  and 
parasitic  insects,  while  they  overlook  and  neglect  the  very  plant- 
feeders  which  are  doing  all  the  damage,  and  upon  which  the  others 
are  feeding  in  the  very  manner  in  which  a  Wise  Providence  has  ap- 
pointed them  to  adopt. 

RECAPITULATION. 

The  following  important  points  in  the  history  of  the  Chinch  Bug^ 
may  be  considered  as  firmly  established  : 

1st.  Chinch  Bugs  hybernate  in  the  perfect  or  winged  state  in  any 
old  dry  rubbish,  under  dead  leaves,  in  old  straw,  in  corn-shucks  and 
corn-stalks,  among  weeds  in  fence-corners,  etc.,  etc.  Therefore  all 
such  substances  should  be  burned  up,as  far  as  possible,  inthe  spring. 

2nd.  The  earlier  email  grain  can  be  sowed  in  the  spring,  the 
more  likely  it  is  to  escape  the  Chinch  Bug ;  for  it  will  then  get  ripe  be- 
fore the  spring  brood  of  bugs  has  had  time  to  become  fully  developed 
at  the  expense  of  the  grain. 

3d.  The  harder  the  ground  is  where  the  grain  is  sowed,  the  less 
chance  there  is  for  the  Chinch  Bug  to  penetrate  to  the  roots  of  the 
grain  and  lay  its  eggs  thereon.  Hence  the  importance  of  fall-plough- 
ing and  using  the  roller  upon  land  that  is  loose  and  friable.  And 
hence,  if  old  corn-ground  is  sufficiently  clean,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  har- 
row in  a  crop  of  small  grain  upon  it  without  ploughing  it  at  all. 
Moreover  this  rolling  plan  should  always  be  adopted,  as  the  best 
wheat-growers  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe  attest  that  the 
heavier  the  ground  lor  wheat  is  rolled,  the  better  will  be  the  crop. 

4th.  A  single  heavy  rain  immediately  checks  up  the  propagation 
of  the  Chinch  Bugs.  Continued  heavy  rains  diminish  their  numbers 
most  materially.  A  long-continued  wet  season,  such  as  that  of  1865, 
almost  sweeps  the  whole  brood  of  them  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth ; 
but  from  the  rapid  rate  at  which  they  multiply  there  will  always  be 
enough  left  for  seed  for  another  year.  It  may  be  laid  down,  not  only 
as  a  general,  but  universal  rule,  that  this  insect  is  never  ruinously 
destructive,  except  in  those  sections  of  country  where  there  is  con- 
tinued hot  dry  weather;  and  that  if,  in  two  adjoining  districts,  there 
has  been  a  dry  summer  in  one  and  much  wet  weather  during  the  sum- 
mer season  in  the  other,  however  plentiful  and  destructive  the  bug 
may  be  in  the  first  district,  it  will  scarcely  be  heard  of  in  the  second. 
Certainly  this  state  of  facts  is  not  exactly  that  from  which  any  rea- 
sonable man  would  infer,  that  the  paucity  of  Chinch  Bugs  in  a  wet. 


THE  STATE     ENTOMOLOGIST.  37 

season  is  caused  by  an  Epidemic  Disease  taking  them  off.  We  might 
as  well  maintain  that,  although  there  was  no  Epidemic  Disease  among 
the  children  of  Israel  that  had  just  crossed  the  Red  Sea,  or  among 
the  Egyptians  that  staid  at  home,  it  was  simply  and  solely  an  Epi- 
demic Disease  that  slew  the  pursuing  hosts  of  the  Egyptians  and  cov- 
ered the  bottom  of  the  Red  Sea  with  their  carcasses. 


THE  ARMY-WORM— Z^wcawm  unipuncta.  Haw. 

[Lepidoptera  Noctuidaj.] 

Among  those  insects  which  attract  especial  attention,  either  from 
the  peculiarity  of  their  habits,  or  the  vast  amount  of  damage  which 
they  inflict,  the  notorious  Army-worm  holds  a  conspicuous  place. 
The  mode  in  which  these  worms  travel  in  vast  armies  when  in  search 
of  food,  the  great  value  of  the  cereals  and  the  grasses  to  which  they 
for  the  most  part  confine  their  ravages,  their  sudden  appearance  in 
such  incomputable  numbers,  and  their  equally  sudden  disappearance, 
all  tend  to  arouse  the  curiosity  and  interest  of  even  the  most  indiffer- 
ent observer. 

Before  giving  a  history  of  this  insect,  it  will  be  necessary  to  state 
that  there  are  four  distinct  caterpillars,  producing  four  perfectly  dis- 
tinct moths,  which  have  been  designated  as  Army-worms  in  various 
parts  of  the  United  States. 

First — The  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest  (  Olisioeampa  syhmtica^ 
Harr.)  has  been  erroneously  known  by  the  name  of  "Army-worm  "in 
the  northwest  corner  of  the  State  of  New  York.    A  back  view  of 
this    caterpillar   is    given    in    the   accompanying   sketch   (Fig.  11) 
[Fig.  11.3  by    which    it    will    at    once      be      recognized      by    the 
reader.      For  a  number    of    days,  last    June,  this    worm 
might  have  been  seen  marching  "  single  file  "  up  the  rail- 
road track  on  Pilot  Knob,  in  the  scorching  rays  of  the  noon- 
day sun  ;  and  it  is  often  found  crawling  along  roads  in  very 
■considerable   numbers.    Yet  it  cannot  with  propriety    be 
called  an  Army-worm,  and  our  Eastern  friends  had  best  drop 
the  title  and  avoid  confusion  in  the  future. 

Second— The  Cotton-worm  (Anomis  xylina.  Say),  is 
'very  generally  known  by  the  name  of  "  the  Cotton  Army- 
^worm,"  in  the  South.  The  term  as  applied  to  this  species  is 
not  altogether  inappropriate,  as  the  worm  frequently  appears 
in  immense  armies,  and  when  moved  by  necessity  will  travel 
over  the  ground  in  "solid  phalanx;"  and  so  long  as  the 
word  "Cotton"  is  attached— its  ravages  being  strictly  confined  to 
this  plant— there  is  no  danger  of  its  being  confounded  with  the  true 
Army-worm.  The  term  has  furthermore  received  the  sanction  of 
custom  in  the  Southern  States,  and  of  Mr.  Glover  in  his  Department 
Reports. 


38 


SECOND    ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


As  various  attempts  have  been  made,  with  more  or  less  success, 
to  grow  the  cotton  plant  in  the  southern  parts  of  this  State,  a  descrip- 
tion of  this  insect  will  not  be  inappropriate,  the  more  especially, 
since  it  will  teach  the  reader  the  difference  between  it  and  the  true 
Army-worm. 

The  Cotton-worm  was  first  scientifically  described  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Say,  in  the  year  1827.  According  to  Dr.  D.  L.  Phares,  of  Woodville, 
Miss.,  it  destroyed  at  a  low  estimate,  200  tons  of  cotton  in  the  Baha- 
mas as  long  ago  as  1788 ;  while  in  Georgia  it  completely  destroyed 
the  crop  in  1793.  According  to  Dr.  Capers*  its  injuries  were  noticed 
in  1800,  and  it  likewise  proved  very  destructive  in  1804, 1825  and  1826. 
Since  the  last  date,  as  we  may  learn  from  old  volumes  of  the  Amey'ican 
Fanner,  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  from  the  Patent  Ofiice  Reports,  it  has 
done  more  or  less  damage  to  the  crop  almost  annually,  in  some  part 
or  other  of  the  cotton-growing  district.  As  with  the  real  grass-feed- 
ing Army-worm  of  the  Middle  States,  it  swarms  in  particular  years  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  utterly  ruin  the  crop,  while  in  other  years  it  is 
scarcely  noticed.  This  fact  has  led  many  to  infer  that  there  is  a 
stated  periodicity  in  its  returns  in  such  immense  numbers;  but  the 
natural  history  of  the  worm  confutes  such  an  idea,  while  the  records 
give  no  foundation  for  the  inference.  The  sudden  increase  or  decrease 
of  this,  as  of  other  species  of  noxious  insects,  depends  on  climatic,  as 
well  as  on  other  equally  potent  influences. 

[Fig.  12.] 


Tlie  egg,  (Fig.  12,  a),  according  to  Dr.  Phares  is  shaped 


pre- 


cisely like  a  scull-cap,  with  rows  of  pinheads  from  base  to  apex  as 
thickly  set  as  possible,"  appearing  as  if  moulded  in  a  very  deep 
saucer.  These  eggs  are  of  a  translucent  green  color,  and  are  depos- 
ited upon  the  under  side  of  the  leaves,  and  from'  their  small  size,  are 
naturally  difficult  of  detection.  Each  female  moth  deposits  from  400 
to  600,  and  according  to  the  late  Thomas  Aflleck,  of  Brenham,  Texas, 
they  hatch  two  days  after  being  deposited,  if  the  weather  be  moist 
and  warm.  The  worms  (Fig.  12  5,  -J  grown)  at  first  feed  upon  the  par- 
enchyma or  soft  fleshy  parts  of  the  leaves,  but  afterwards  devour  in- 


*Patent  Office  Rep.,  1855,  p.  74. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  39 

differently,  not  only  any  portion  of  the  leaves,  but  also  the  blossom- 
bud  and  blossom,  together  with  the  calyx  leaves  at  the  base  of  the 
boll,  thus  causing  the  lobes  which  hold  the  cotton,  to  fall  entirely 
back  and  allow  the  cotton  to  drop  at  the  slightest  touch.  While  young 
these  worms  readily  let  themselves  down  by  a  web  when  disturbed, 
but  when  older  they  make  less  use  of  this  web,  and  jerk  themselves 
away  to  a  considerable  distance  when  suddenly  touched.  They  cast 
their  skins  at  five  successive  periods,  and  come  to  their  growth  in  the 
incredibly  short  space  of  fifteen  or  twenty  days.  Mr.  Aflieck  even 
states  that  they  usually  enter  the  chrysalis  state  on  the  eleventh  day 
after  hatching;  but  I  incline  to  believe  that  such  a  brief  larval  exist- 
ence is  extremely  exceptional,  and  the  length  of  time  required  for 
them  to  mature  will  not  only  differ  in  different  individuals  of  the  same 
brood,  but  will  vary  with  the  state  of  the  atmosphere.  At  Figure  12 
G  is  given  a  side  view,  and  at  d  a  back  view  of  a  full-grown  worm.  It 
has  the  normal  complement  of  legs — namely  16 — but  the  two  fore- 
most pair  of  false  legs,  or  those  under  segments  6  and  7,  are  so  re- 
duced in  size  that  they  are  scarcely  used  in  motion,  and  it  conse- 
quently loops  when  walking. 

I  have  upon  two  occasions  received  full-grown  specimens  of  this 
worm,  and  they  differ  materially,  both  in  depth  of  shade,  coloration 
and  markings,  as  indeed  do  almost  all  the  larvae  of  moths  belonging 
to  the  same  (iV^ociua)  family.  The  most  common  color  is  light  green, 
though  they  are  frequently  quite  dark  with  a  purplish  hue  at  the 
sides,  and  with  black  backs.  Whether  light  or  dark  colored,  how- 
ever, they  are  more  or  less  distinctly  marked  with  pale  longitudinal 
lines  and  black  spots,  as  in  the  above  figures. 

Mr.  Lyman,  in  his  "  Cotton  Culture,"  says  of  this  insect :  "  The 
first  moths  that  visit  a  crop  deposit  their  eggs  and  die.  These  eggs  in 
ten  days  become  little  worms,  which  fall  to  eating  the  leaf  on  which 
they  were  hatched,  and  as  they  grow,  consume  the  plant  and  pass  to 
another.  But  age  comes  on  apace  with  these  ephemeral  creatures  ; 
the  worm  presently  grows  weary  of  devouring,  selects  a  leaf,  rolls 
himself  in  a  little  cocoon  and  <:Z2'i?c<?."  Of  course  this  is  a  serious  mis- 
take to  think  that  the  worm  dies,  else  how  could  it  produce  the  moth 
which,  as  Mr.  Lyman  himself  shows,  afterwards  issues  from  the  cocoon. 
It  is  astonishing  to  find  such  gross  errors  creeping  into  our  popular 
works,  but  then,  the  study  of  these  contemptible  little  Bugs,  even  if 
they  do  sometimes  totally  destroy  the  crop,  is  of  course  beneath  the 
dignity  of  the  man  who  can  write  a  work  on  cotton  culture!!  The 
truth  of  the  matter  is  that,  when  they  have  completed  their  growth, 
the  worms  fold  over  the  edge  of  a  leaf  (Fig.  12  <?),  and,  after  lining  the 
inside  with  silk,  change  to  chrysalids  (Fig.  12  /),  which  are  at  first 
green,  but  soon  acquire  a  chestnut-brown  color  ;  after  remaining  in 
this  last  state  (in  which,  though  the  insect  is  inactive,  it  is  yet  full  of 
life,  and  undergoing  wonderful  development)  from  seven  to  fourteen 
days,  or  even  longer,  the  moth  escapes,  the  chrysalis  being  held  fast 


40  SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT   OP 

within  the  cocoon  by  means  of  several  very  minute  hooks  with  which 
the  tail  is  furnished. 

[Fig-  ^3.]  At  Figure  13  «,  this  moth 

|is  represented  with  the  wings 
expanded,  and  at  5,  with  the 
wings  closed.  The  general 
color  of  the  upper  surface  is  a 
golden-yellow  inclining  to 
bnfF,  with  a  faint  olive  tint 
near  the  outer  or  posterior 
margin.  The  fore  wings  are  crossed,  as  in  the  above  figures,  by  more 
or  less  distinct,  irregular  lilac-colored  lines.  But  the  chief  character- 
istic is  a  dark  slate-colored,  or  black  spot  on  the  front  wings,  in  which 
spot  there  are  paler  scales  forming  almost  a  double  pupil  as  repre- 
sented in  the  figures,  while  between  this  spot  and  the  base  of  the 
wings  there  is  a  much  smaller  pure  white  dot.  In  general  color  and 
in  the  position  of  the  larger  spot,  this  moth  bears  a  remarkable  re- 
semblance to  that  of  the  true  Army-worm  of  the  Northern  and  Middle 
States. 

Mr,  Affleck,  who  certainly  had  abundant  opportunities  for  observ- 
ing the  fact,  assured  me  that  this  moth  rests  in  the  position  shown  in 
Figure  13,  h,  namely,  with  the  head  downwards.  He  wrote  on  August 
22d,  1868:  "The  Cotton  moth  (  OpMnsa  xylina  of  Harris  in  his  corres- 
pondence with  myself)  never  alights  in  any  other  position,  or  if  by 
accident  it  first  assumes  another  position,  it  instantly  wheels  around 
head  down.'''' 

According  to  the  best  authority,  there  are  three  different  broods 
of  worms  during  the  year,  the  first  appearing  in  June  or  July,  and  the 
last,  which  does  the  most  damage,  appearing  in  August  or  Septem- 
ber, or  even  later.  Mr.  Lyman,  in  the  little  work  already  referred  to, 
sa\  s  :  "That  nature  has  made  no  provision  by  which  either  the  fly, 
the  worm,  the  chrysalis  or  the  eggs,  can  survive  the  winter  or  exist 
for  any  length  of  time  where  the  cotton  plant  is  not  a  perennial." 
But  this  is  surely  an  error,  which  Mr.  Lyman  would  never  have  made, 
had  he  possessed  a  better  knowledge  of  insect-life  ;  and  as  Mr.  Glover 
found  that  the  chrysalis  was  killed  by  the  slightest  frost,  the  insect 
evidently  winters  over  in  the  moth  state,  as  do  many  others  belong- 
ing to  the  same  tribe.  Mr.  W.  B.  Seabrook  gives  strong  evidence  that 
this  is  the  case,  in  a  "Memoir  on  the  Cotton  Plant,"  read  in  1843,  be- 
fore the  State  Agricultural  Society  of  South  Carolina,  wherein  he  says  : 
"That  the  Cotton  Moth  survives  the  vdnter  is  nearly  certain.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  neighboring  woods,  especially  after  a  mild  winter,  has 
often  been  successful!}'  made  for  that  purpose."  And  Dr.  Phares 
states  positively  that  the  moth  hybernates  in  piles  of  cotton  seed 
under  shelter,  under  bark  and  in  crevices  of  trees  in  dense  forests  and 
other  secluded  places,  and  that  it  may  often  be  seen  on  pleasant  days 
in  winter. 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  41 

The  two  principal  remedies  which  have  hitherto  been  relied  upon 
are,  1st,  hand-picking;  2d,  destroying  the  moths  by  fires,  to  which 
they  are  naturally  attracted.  The  first  method  is  sure,  but  tedious 
and  somewhat  impracticable  on  a  very  large  scale.  The  second  is 
most  effectual  if  carried  out  when  the  first  moths  appear,  in  May  and 
June.  If  these  two  methods  were  persistently  carried  out  in  the  early 
part  of  the  season  throughout  any  given  cotton-growing  county,  they 
would  of  themselves  be  sufiicient  to  save  the  crop  ;  but  the  efforts  of 
individuals  are  of  no  avail,  where  there  are  slovenly  neighbors  who 
neglect  to  perform  these  labors.  It  would  therefore  be  of  incalcul- 
able advantage,  if  something  could  be  applied  to  the  plants  which 
would  prevent  the  moths  from  depositing  their  eggs  upon  them,  as 
the  industrious  planter  could  then  set  at  defiance  his  more  slovenly 
neighbor.  Mr.  Aflleck  was  enthusiastic  in  his  praise  of  cresylic  soap 
as  such  a  plant-protector,  and  I  received  a  long  letter,  written  a  few 
weeks  previous  to  his  death,  and  showing  how  he  had  found  that  no 
cotton  moth  had  ever  deposited  an  egg  on  any  plant  that  had  been 
sprinkled  with  a  solution  of  this  soap.  But  Dr.  Phares  states  that  it 
was  pretty  thoroughly  tried  last  year,  and  proved  a  failure,  though  he 
does  not  give  the  reason  why. 

It  is  some  little  consolation  to  know  that  the  character  of  the  sea- 
son determines  their  numbers,  and  that  if  none  make  their  appear- 
ance in  any  stage  by  the  first  of  July,  there  is  little  to  be  feared  from 
them  the  rest  of  that  year. 

Third — There  is  in  the  South  another  insect  {LapJirygma  frugi- 
jyerda,  Sm.  &  Abb.  ?)  which  is  frequently  known  by  the  ominous  name 
of  "Army  worm  ;"  an  insect  which  also  will  attack  cotton,  though  it 
prefers  grasses  and  weeds.  This  species  in  its  habits  resembles  the  true 
Army- worm  of  the  Middle  States,  more  closely  perhaps  than  does  the 
Cotton  Army-worm,  and  Mr.  Joseph  B.  Lyman,  in  his  recent  work  on 
"Cotton  culture"*  (p.  92),  calls  it  the  "Army-worm;"  yet  to  prevent 
confusion,  the  cognomen  should  be  discontinued,  and  the  term 
"  Southern  Grass-worm  "  (by  which  it  is  already  very  generally  known) 
should  be  strictly  applied  to  this  third  bogus  Army-worm.  We  now 
come  to  the  veritable  Army- worm  of  the  Northern  and  Middle  States 
— the  insect  which  is  the  subject  of  this  article,  and  we  will  dwell  for 
a  few  moments  on  the 

PAST   HISTORY   OF   THE   TRUE   ARMY-WOEM. 

If  Ave  trace  back  the  history  of  the  Army-worm  in  this  country, 
we  find  that  inaccuracy  and  confusion  characterize  most  of  the  rec- 
ords concerning  it  previous  to  the  year  1861.  In  that  year,  however, 
by  the  contemporaneous  observations  and  experiments  of  several 
entomologists,  in  different  sections  of  the  United  States,  its  natural 
history  was  first  made  known  to  the  world,  and  the  parent  moth  iden- 
tified. 

*  Cotton  Culture,  by  J.  B.  Lyman,  late  of  Louisiana.     Orange  Judd  &  Co.,  New  I'ork. 


42  SECOND  ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

The  very  earliest  record  which  we  find  of  its  appearance  in  this 
country  is  in  Flint's  2nd  Keport  on  the  Agriculture  of  Massachusetts, 
where  it  is  stated  that  in  174:3  "  there  were  millions  of  devouring 
worms  in  armies,  threatening  to  cut  off  every  green  thing." 

In  1770  it  spread  over  New  England  in  alarming  numbers.  Dr. 
Fitch  in  his  6th  Report  quotes  the  following  full  and  interesting  ac- 
count from  the  Rev.  Grant  Powers's  Historical  Sketches  of  the  Coos 
Country  in  the  Northern  part  of  New  Hampshire.  "  In  the  summer  of 
1770  an  army  of  worms  extended  from  Lancaster,  the  shire  town  of 
Coos  County,  N.  H„  to  Northfield,  Mass.,  almost  the  whole  length  of 
the  Granite  State.  They  began  to  appear  the  latter  part  of  July,  and 
continued  their  ravages  until  September.  They  were  then  called  the 
'Northern  Army,'  as  they  seemed  to  advance  from  the  north  or  north- 
west to  the  south.  It  was  not  known  that  they  passed  the  highlands 
between  the  rivers  Connecticut  and  Merrimack.  Dr.  Burton,  of 
Thetford,  Vermont,  informed  the  author  that  he  had  seen  the  pastures 
so  covered  with  them,  that  he  could  not  put  down  his  finger  without 
touching  a  worm,  remarking  that '  he  had  seen  more  thari  ten  bushels 
in  a  heap.'  They  were  unlike  anything  that  generation  had  ever 
seen.  There  was  a  stripe  upon  the  back  like  black  velvet,  and  on 
each  side  a  stripe  of  yellow  from  end  to  end,  and  the  rest  of  the  body 
was  brown.  They  were  seen  not  larger  than  a  pin,  but  in  maturity 
were  as  long  as  a  man's  finger  and  of  proportionate  thickness.  They 
appeared  to  be  in  great  haste,  except  when  they  halted  to  feed.  They 
entered  the  houses  of  the  people  and  came  up  into  the  kneading 
troughs  as  did  the  frogs  in  Egypt.  They  went  up  the  sides  of  the 
houses  and  over  them  in  such  compact  columns  that  nothing  of  the 
boards  or  shingles  could  be  seen.  Pumpkin- vines,  peas,  potatoes  and 
flax  escaped  their  ravages.  But  wheat  and  corn  disappeared  before 
them  as  by  magic.  Fields  of  corn  in  the  Haverhill  and  Newbury 
meadows,  so  thick  that  a  man  could  hardly  be  seen  a  rod  distant, 
were  in  ten  days  entirely  defoliated  by  the  'Northern  Army.'  Trenches 
were  dug  around  fields  a  foot  deep,  as  a  defence,  but  they  were  soon 
filled  and  the  millions  in  the  rear  passed  on  and  took  possession  of 
the  interdicted  feed.  Another  expedient  was  resorted  to  :  Trenches 
were  cut,  and  thin  sticks,  six  inches  in  diameter,  were  sharpened  and 
used  to  make  holes  in  the  bottom  of  the  trenches  within  two  or  three 
feet  of  one  another,  to  the  depth  of  two  or  three  feet  in  the  bottom 
lands,  and  when  these  holes  were  filled  with  worms,  the  stick  was 
plunged  into  the  holes,  thus  destroying  the  vermin.  In  this  way 
some  corn  was  saved.  About  the  first  of  September  the  worms  sud- 
denly disappeared.  Where  or  how  they  terminated  their  career  is 
unknown,  for  not  the  carcass  of  a  worm  was  seen.  Had  it  not  been 
for  pumpkins,  which  were  exceedingly  abundant,  and  potatoes,  the 
people  would  have  greatly  suffered  for  food.  As  it  was,  great  priva- 
tion was  felt  on  account  of  the  loss  of  grass  and  grain." 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  43 

The  same  writer  adds  that  "in  1781,  eleven  years  after,  the  same 
kind  of  worm  appeared  again,  and  the  fears  of  the  people  were  greatly 
excited,  but  this  time  they  were  few  in  number." 

In  1790  their  ravages  are  again  recorded  in  Connecticut,  where 
they  were  very  destructive  to  the  grass  and  corn,  but  their  existence 
was  short,  all  dying  in  a  few  weeks  (Webster  on  Pestilence,  I,  272.) 

Their  next  appearance  in  the  Eastern  States  was  in  1S17,  after  an 
interval  of  twenty-seven  years,  according  to  Fitch,  who  quotes  the 
following  paragraph  from  the  Albany  (N.  Y.)  Argus: 

^Yorcestel\  Mass.,  Hay  22nd,  1817.— "We  learn  that  the  black 
worm  is  making  great  ravages  on  some  farms  in  this  town,  and  in 
many  other  places  in  this  part  of  the  country.  Their  march  is  a  'dis- 
played column,'  and  their  progress  is  as  distinctly  marked  as  the 
course  of  a  fire  which  has  overrun  the  herbage  in  a  dry  pasture.  Not 
a  blade  of  grass  is  left  standing  in  their  rear.  From  the  appearance 
of  the  worm  it  is  supposed  to  be  the  same  which  usually  infests  gar- 
dens, and  is  commonly  called  the  ctU  worm.  *  *  * 
This  same  worm  is  also  destroying  the  vegetation  in  the  northern 
towns  of  Rensselaer  and  eastern  section  of  Saratoga,'  New  York. 
Many  meadows  and  pastures  have  been  rendered  by  their  depreda- 
tions as  barren  as  a  heath.  It  appears  to  be  the  same  species  of  worm 
that  has  created  so  much  alarm  in  Worcester  county,  but  we  suspect 
it  is  different  from  the  cut  worm,  whose  ravages  appear  to  be  confined 
to  corn." 

It  was  not  until  after  a  lapse  of  forty-four  years  from  the  last 
mentioned  date,  namely,  in  the  summer  of  1861,  that  this  worm  again 
spread  over  the  meadows  and  grain  fields  of  the  Eastern  States. 
During  the  interval,  however,  it  had  from  time  to  time  attracted  at- 
tention in  the  Western  States,  where  it  often  proved  quite  destruc- 
tive. Thus,  in  Illinois,  it  is  recorded  as  having  appeared  in  1818, 1820, 
1825, 1826,  1834, 1841, 1842, 1845  and  1856,  and  according  to  Mr.  B.  F. 
Wiley,  of  Makanda,  111.,  it  was  quite  numerous  and  destructive  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  State  in  1849,  and  appeared  there  also  in  1857, 
though  it  was  confined  that  year  to  limited  localities.*  Mr.  J. 
Kirkpatrick,  of  Ohio,  mentions  its  appearance  in  the  northern  part  of 
that  State  in  1855.  He  says  :  "  Last  season  (1855),  in  consequence  of 
the  heavy  rains  in  the  early  part  of  June,  the  flats  of  the  Cuyahoga, 
near  Cleveland,  were  flooded.  After  the  subsidence  of  the  water, 
and  while  the  grass  was  yet  coated  with  the  muddy  deposit,  myriads 
of  small  blackish  caterpillars  appeared;  almost  every  blade  had  its 
inhabitant;  no  animal  could  feed  upon  it  without,  at  every  bite, 
swallowing  several ;  if  a  new  blade  sprung  up,  it  was  immediately 
devoured,  but  what  was  most  remarkable,  the  insects  did  not  attempt 
to  remove  to  land  a  foot  or  two  higher  but  that  had  not  been  covered 
by  the  water."f  __^ 

*Prairie  Farmer,  July  ISth,  1861. 
|0hio  Agricultural  Report,  1855,  p.  350. 


44  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 

The  year  1861  will  long  be  remembered  as  a  remarkable  Army- 
worm  year,  for  this  insect  was  observed  in  particular  localities 
throughout  the  whole  northern  and  middle  portion  of  the  United 
States  from  New  England  to  Kansas.  It  was  first  noticed  in  numbers 
sufficient  to  cause  alarm,  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  during  the 
month  of  April  ;  and  toward  the  close  of  the  same  month  it  appeared 
in  the  southern  counties  of  Illinois.  By  the  end  of  June  it  had  visited 
nearly  all  portions  of  the  latter  State,  proving  more  or  less  destruc- 
tive to  grass,  wheat,  oats,  rye,  sorghum  and  corn. 

Its  advent  in  Missouri  was  simultaneous  with  that  in  Illinois,  and 
judging  from  what  facts  I  have  accumulated,  it  occurred  very  gen- 
erally over  this  State,  though  recorded  only  in  St.  Louis,  Jefferson, 
Warren,  Boone,  Howard  and  Pike  counties.  No  mention  is  made  ot 
its  occurrence,  at  this  time,  in  any  of  the  States  or  Territories  west  of 
Missouri,  but  to  the  East,  scarcely  a  single  State  escaped  its  ravages. 
In  many  portions  of  Ohio  it  entirely  destroyed  the  hay  and  grain 
crops,  and  in  the  eastern  part  of  Massachusetts  the  damage  done  was 
reported  to  exceed  a  half  million  of  dollars. 

Singularly  enough,  I  can  find  no  trace  of  the  occurrence  of  this 
insect  in  Missouri  prior  to  the  year  1861,  and  the  first  intelligible  ac-  • 
count  of  it  from  the  pen  of  a  Missourian,  is  that  by  Dr.  Wislizenus 
of  St.  Louis,  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy 
of  Science  (Vol.  II,  No.  1,  pp.  159-60).  My  good  friend  Wislizenus 
then  erroneously  supposed  it  to  be  identical  with  the  Bonibyx  grami- 
nis  of  Northern  Europe — an  insect  which  commits  similar  devasta- 
tions on  the  grasses  and  cereals  in  that  country.  But  I  believe  he  is 
now  well  aware  that  it  is  an  entirely  distinct  species. 

Since  1861  the  Army-worm  has  never  spread  so  generally  over 
such  a  vast  extent  of  country,  though  in  1865  it  appeared  in  consid- 
erable numbers  around  St.  Joseph  in  this  State,  and  in  1866  did  some 
damage  near  Quincy,  Ills.,  as  we  learn  from  the  Quincy  Whig. 

Last  year  it  made  its  app.earance  again  in  vast  numbers  in  many 
portions  of  this  State,  especially  in  St.  Louis,  Jefferson,  Cooper,  Cal- 
laway, Henry,  St.  Clair,  Marion,  Ralls,  and  Lafayette  counties,  and  in 
some  counties  in  Illinois  and  Indiana.  The  first  intimation  I  received 
of  its  appearance  in  Missouri  was  the  following  letter  sent  to  me  by 
Mr.  A.  E.  Trabue  of  Hannibal,  under  date  of  June  8th : 

I  inclose  a  match-box  with  grass  and  two  worms,  which  we  think 
are  Army  worms.  They  are  here  in  myriads  destroying  the  grass. 
Destroyed  a  hundred  acres  of  blue  grass  meadow  in  five  days,  and 
are  now  advancing  on  me.    What  are  they  and  their  habits? 

Carbolic  acid  (one  part  acid,  20  parts  water)  kills  them  if  they 
get  a  good  drench  with  it,  but  is  too  expensive  at  that  rate.  They 
will  cross  a  trail  of  it  without  injury,  though  they  evidently  dislike 
the  smell.  Have  sent  to  town  for  coal  tar  to  see  if  they  will  cross  it 
when  the  ground  is  soaked  with  it.  The  advancing  column  is  a  half 
mile  wide. 

The  hogs  are  very  fond  of  them;  will  not  notice  corn  when  they 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  45 

can  get  Army-worms,  but  we  have  more  of  the  latter  than  they  can 
dispose  of. 

A.  E.  TRABUE. 

Upon  receipt  of  this  letter,  I  visited  Hannibal  and  ascertained 
that  the  worm  was  even  more  numerous  around  New  London,  and 
especially  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  A.  McPike. 

ITS  SUDDEN  APPEARANCE  AND  DISAPPEARANCE. 

The  popular  idea  about  the  sudden  appearance  of  an  insect  has 
always  been  an  erroneous  one.  The  'blows"  or  "  gentiles"  in  meat, 
"skippers"  and  mites  in  cheese,  plant-lice  on  plants,  etc.,  etc.,  are 
very  generally  supposed  to  have  a  spontaneous  origin,  and  our  sud- 
den Army-worm  invasions  have  very  generally  been  accounted  for 
in  the  same  way,  by  those  who  know  nothing  of  Nature's  workings. 
Yes,  and  so-called  savans — will  it  be  credited  ! — have  been  anxious  to 
so  far  tickle  the  popular  fancy  as  to  conceive  and  give  birth  to 
theories  (such  as  that  of  larval  reproduction)  which  were  not  one  whil 
more  sensible  or  tenable. 

It  is  well  known  to  entomologists,  and  the  reader,  by  perusing 
the  article  on  "Cut-worms"  in  my  First  Report,  will  soon  become 
aware  of  the  fact,  that  most  of  the  larv£e  of  our  Owlet  Moths  (family 
N'oGtuidcB)  rest  hidden  during  the  day  and  feed  in  the  morning  and 
evening,  or  at  night.  They  are  all  smooth,  tender-skinned  worms, 
and  cannot  endure  the  scorching  rays  of  the  sun.  Consequently 
many  of  them  live  almost  habitually,  just  under  the  surface  of  the 
soil,  while  others  shelter  themselves  under  vegetable  substances  dur- 
ing the  da3^  Our  Army-worm  forms  no  exception  to  the  rule,  for 
upon  closely  watching  the  habits  of  the  hosts  I  witnessed  last  sum- 
mer in  the  field,  and  of  hundreds  which  I  had  confined  in  breeding 
cages,  I  ascertained  that  they  frequently  hide  themselves  Cut-worm 
fashion,  just  under  the  surface  of  the  ground,  or  under  the  plants 
upon  which  they  feed.  The  Army-worm  delights,  in  fact,  in  cool, 
moist  and  shady  situations,  and  from  the  passage  already  quoted,  from 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  where  it  is  shown  that  the  worms  which  swarmed  on 
the  Ouyahogo  flats,  did  not  attempt  to  remove  to  land  a  foot  or  so 
higher:  and  from  further  facts  recorded  by  Dr.  Fitch,  it  becomes  evi- 
dent that  its  natural  abode  is  in  the  wild  grass  of  our  swamps,  or  on 
low  lands.  Daring  an  excessive  dry  summer  these  swampy  places 
dry  out,  and  the  insect,  having  a  wider  range  where  the  conditions 
for  its  successful  development  are  favorable,  becomes  greatly  multi- 
plied. The  eggs  are  consequently  deposited  over  a  greater  area  of 
territory,  and  if  the  succeeding  year  prove  wet  and  favorable  to  the 
growth  of  the  worms  we  shall  have  the  abnormal  condition  of  their 
appearing  on  our  higher  and  drier  lands,  and  of  their  marching  from 
one  field  to  another.  For  just  so  soon  as  the  green  grass  is  devoured, 
in  any  particular  field  in  which  they  may  have  hatched,  these  worms 
are  forced,  both  from  hunger  and  from  their  sensibility  to  the  sun's 
rays,  to  leave  the  denuded  field. 


46  SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT  OP 

Thus  the  fact  becomes  at  once  significant  and  explicable,  that 
almost  all  great  Army-worm  years  have  been  unusually  wet,  with  the 
preceding  year  unusually  dry,  as  Dr.  Fitch  has  proved  by  record. 
The  appearance  of  this  insect  last  summer  in  the  West  forms  no  ex- 
ception, for  the  summer  of  1868  was  unusually  dry  and  hot,  while 
that  of  1869  was  decidedly  wet.  I  may  remark  here,  in  farther  cor- 
roboration of  these  views,  that,  as  might  have  been  expected,  no 
ArmjT'-worms  were  noticed  last  year  in  the  Eastern  States ;  for  though 
in  the  summer  of  1868  we  of  the  AVest  suffered  so  severely  from 
drouth,  yet  in  the  East  they  were  blessed  with  the  usual  amount  of 
rain- fall,  and  in  some  sections  had  even  more  than  the  average 
amount. 

There  is  in  reality  nothing  in  the  least  mysterious  in  the  sudden 
appearance  and  disappearance  of  the  Army-worm,  for  the  truth  of 
the  matter  is,  that  there  are  a  few  of  these  insects  in  some  part  or 
other  of  the  country  every  year,  and  I  have  for  the  past  four  or  five 
years  captured  one  or  more  specimens  of  the  moth  every  fall.  The 
eggs  hatch  during  the  early  part  of  May,  in  the  latitude  of  South  Illi- 
nois and  South  Missouri,  and  the  young  worms  may  feed  by  millions  in 
a  meadow  without  attracting  attention  ;  but  when  they  have  become 
nearly  full  grown  and  have  stripped  bare  the  fields  in  which  they 
were  born,  and  commence  to  march  as  described  above,  they  neces- 
sarily attract  attention,  for  they  are  then  exceedingly  voracious, 
devouring  more  during  the  last  three  or  four  daj^^s  of  their  worm-life, 
than  they  had  done  during  the  whole  of  their  previous  existence.  As 
soon  as  they  are  full  grown  they  burrow  into  the  earth,  and,  of  course, 
are  never  seen  again  as  worms. 

Their  increase  and  decrease  is  dependent  on  even  more  potent 
influences  than  those  of  a  climatic  nature.  The  worms  are  attacked 
by  at  least  eight  different  parasites,  and  when  we  understand  how 
persistent  these  last  are,  and  how  thoroughly  they  accomplish  their 
murderous  work,  we  cease  to  wonder  at  the  almost  total  annihilation 
of  the  Ar;^ny-worm  the  year  following  its  appearance  in  such  hosts. 
In  the  words  of  the  late  J.  Kirkpatrick  "their  undue  increase  but 
combines  the  assaults  of  their  enemies  and  thus  brings  them  within 
bounds  again," 

We  must  also  bear  in  mind,  that  besides  these  parasitic  insects, 
there  are  some  cannibal  insects,  such  as  the  Fiery  Ground-beetle 
{Caloso7na  calichi'm^'FsibY.)  and  its  larva,*  which  prey  unmercifully 
upon  the  worms,  while  the  "Mosquito  Hawks"  (Zibelhdce)  and  bats, 
doubtless  destroy  many  of  the  moths.  Hogs,  chickens  and  turkeys 
revel  in  the  juicy  carcasses  of  the  worms,  and  sometimes  to  such  an 
extent  that,  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  T.  R.  Allen,  of  Allenton,  the 
former  occasionally  die  in  consequence,  and  the  latter  have  been 
known  to  lay  eggs  in  which  the  parts  naturally  white,  would  be  green 
when  cooked.     Small  birds,  of  various  kinds,  and  toads  and  frogs  also, 

*First  Report,  Fig.  34.  _    • 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  47 

come  in  for  their  share  of  this  dainty  food  ;   while  the  worms,  when 
hard  pushed,  will  even  devour  each  other. 

NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  ARMY-WORM. 

Previous  to  the  year  1861,  but  very  little  accurate  knowledge  had 
been  acquired  respecting  the  habits  of  the  Army-worm,  and  nothing 
whatever  of  a  scientific  nature  had  been  published. 

A  few  very  observing  farmers  ventured  to  predict  its  appearance 
during  very  wet  summers  succeeding  very  dry  ones.  They  did  not 
know  why  this  was  the  case,  but  it  was  a  fact  that  they  had  learned 
from  experience.  It  was  also  known  that  the  worm  attacked  only 
the  grasses  and  cereals,  that  it  was  gregarious  in  its  habits,  and  that 
it  disappeared  suddenly,  in  a  manner  as  seemingly  mysterious  as  that 
in  which  its  advent  was  supposed  to  have  been  made. 

These  few  facts  were  about  the  only  ones  of  real  value,  respecting 
the  habits  of  this  insect,  that  could  be  gleaned  from  the  statements 
of  those  who  had  suffered  most  from  its  ravages;  while  the  subject 
seems  to  have  been,  up  to  that  time,  entirely  ignored  by  entomologi- 
cal writers. 

In  1861,  however,  its  very  general  appearance,  and  the  vast 
amount  of  damage  it  did,  attracted  the  attention,  not  only  of  farmers, 
bat  of  several  well-known  entomologists,  among  whom  may  be  men- 
tioned our  late  friends,  Walsh,  of  Illinois,  and  Kirkpatrick,  of  Ohio  ; 
and  Cyrus  Thomas,  of  Illinois,  Dr.  Fitch,  of  New  York,  and  J.  H. 
Klippart,  of  Ohio. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  diverse  conclusions  were  arrived 
at,  and  various  theories  entertained  by  these  writers,  and  some  very 
spirited  correspondence  between  Messrs.  Walsh  and  Thomas  and 
Walsh  and  Klippart  may  be  found  in  old  files  of  both  the  OJdo  Farmer 
and  the  Prairie  Farmer. 

The  principal  point  of  dispute  was,  whether  the  Army-worm  win- 
tered in  the  egg  or  chrysalis  state,  and,  as  a  consequence,  whether  it 
was  single  or  double-brooded. 

It  is  needless  to  follow  these  gentlemen  in  their  discussions,  which 
were  frequently  caustic  and  pungent ;  but  sometimes  partook  more 
of  the  character  of  personal  wrangling  than  of  a  calm  and  conscien- 
tious search  after  truth.  Two  of  the  five  parties  mentioned  above, 
are  now  in  their  graves,  and  while  one  of  those  yet  living — Mr.  Cyrus 
Thomas — believed  in  the  two-brooded  character  of  the  insect;  the 
other  two  evade  the  question  entirely.  Mr.  Walsh  took  the  ground 
that  it  was  single-brooded,  and  the  experience  of  the  past  year  has 
convinced  me  that  he  was  correct. 

The  Army-worm,  like  all  other  insects,  hatches  from  an  egg,  and 
this  Q^^  is  evidently  deposited  by  the  parent  moth  at  the  base  of 
perennial  grass-stalks.  In  Southern  Missouri  it  hatches  out  about 
the  middle  of  April ;  in  the  central  part  of  the  State  about  the  first, 
and  in  the  northern  part  about  the  middle  of  May ;  in  Massachusetts, 


48  SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT  OP 

about  the  middle  of  June,  and  in  Maine  about  the  middle  of  July.  In 
every  locality  the  worm  goes  underground  about  a  month  afterwards 
to  assume  the  pupa  or  chrysalis  state,  and  stays  underground  between 
two  and  three  weeks.  Hence,  in  the  southern  part  of  this  State  the 
moth  appears  about  the  fore  part  of  June,  and  a  month  later  in  each 
successive  locality  as  we  go  north,  till  in  Maine,  the  period  becomes 
the  fore  part  of  September.  Of  course,  these  dates  will  vary  some- 
what with  the  character  of  the  seasons,  and  sometimes  from  local 
causes;  but,  broadly  speaking,  they  will  hold  good. 

The  moths  soon  pair,  and  sometime  during  the  summer  and  fall 
months,  deposit  their  eggs  in  the  positions  already  indicated.  Many 
eggs  are  thus  deposited  in  tame  meadows,  but  there  is  little  doubt  in 
my  mind  that  the  great  bulk  of  these  eggs  are  deposited  in  low,  damp 
situations,  and  if  the  fall  should  prove  wet,  instead  of  dry,  many  of 
them  would  perhaps  get  drowned  out,  and  we  should  thus  have 
another  potent  influence  at  work  to  decrease  the  numbers  of  the 
worm  the  succeeding  year.  I  make  this  suggestion  with  all  due  con- 
sideration, for  I  have  long  since  concluded  that  the  instincts  of 
insects,  as  of  some  of  the  higher  animals,  are  not  ahvays  sufficient  to 
guard  against  all  contingencies^  It  has  been  demonstrated  beyond 
the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  that  the  Plum  Curculio  deposits  its  eggs  in 
fruit  that  overhangs  water,  and  in  other  positions  where  the  grub 
must  inevitably  perish;  and  certain  flesh-flies  are  well  known  to 
deposit  their  eggs,  by  mistake,  on  flowers  which  have  a  putrescent 
smell.  Darwin  has  remarked  that  a  small  South  American  bird 
{Furnarius  cunicularius)  which  builds  its  nest  at  the  bottom  of  a 
narrow,  cylindrical  hole,  which  extends  horizontally  several  fefet 
underground,  is  so  incapable  of  acquiring  any  notion  of  thickness, 
that,  although  he  saw  specimens  constantly  flitting  over  a  low  clay 
wall,  they  continued  vainly  to  bore  through  it,  thinking  it  an  excel- 
lent bank  for  their  nests.*  Many  such  instances  of  misdirected  in- 
stinct might  be  cited,  and  they  all  lead  me  to  believe  that  the  female 
Arm5'--worm  moth  would  be  just  as  likely  to  lay  her  eggs  in  situa- 
tions where  they  would  drown  out,  as  in  situations  more  favor- 
able. 

The  above  may  be  considered  as  the  normal  habit  of  the  Army- 
worm;  but  exceptional  individuals  occur,  perhaps  one  in  a  hundred, 
but  demonstrably  not  as  many  as  one  in  twenty,  which  lie  in  the 
chrysalis  state  all  through  the  winter  and  do  not  come  out  in  the 
moth  state  till  the  following  spring.  The  proportion  of  those  which 
lie  over  till  spring  is  doubtless  greater  in  the  more  northern  States 
than  it  is  with  us.  The  great  fault  which  Mr.  Walsh  made  in  his  ex- 
cellent paper  on  this  insect,  published  in  the  Illinois  State  Agricul- 
tural Transactions  for  1861,  was,  that  he  drew  his  lines  too  rigidly, 
and  allowed  of  no  exceptions  to  the  rule  which  he  laid  down,  of  its 
single-broodedness.    He  also  fell  into  an  error  in  roughly  estimating 

*Voyage  Round  the  World,  p.  95. 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


49 


the  average  life  of  the  moth  at  from  three  to  five  weeks.  I  have 
often  caught  the  moths,  both  in  the  fall  and  spring  months,  even 
in  years  when  the  worms  themselves  were  unnoticed  by  farmers;  and 
Dr.  Levi  Bartlett,  formerly  of  Pesotum,  Ills.,  informed  me  while  he 
was  practising  in  Chicago,  that  he  had  himself  ascertained  that  they 
would  sometimes  live  at  least  three  months,  and  that  he  had  often 
found  them  as  late  as  October.  We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  they 
do  not  all  mature  and  issue  from  the  ground  together,  even  in  the 
same  locality ;  but  that  an  interval  of  from  six  to  eight  weeks  may 
intervene  between  the  issuing  of  the  first  and  last  moths.  With 
these  facts  before  us  it  is  easy  to  comprehend  how  some  of  the  moths 
live  long  enough  to  deposit  their  eggs  on  newly  sown  fall  grain, 
though  grass  meadows  are  more  favorite  resorts.  It  also  becomes 
clear  that  the  moths  may  sometimes  lay  their  eggs  before  harvest 
upon  growing  grain,  sufhciently  high  from  the  ground,  for  the  egg  to 
be  carried  off  with  the  straw ;  and  this  accounts  for  several  well 
authenticated  instances  of  the  Army-worm  starting  from  stack-yards. 
The  Army-worm  larva  varies  but  little  in  appearance  from  the 
time  it  hatches  to  the  time  when  it  is -full  grown.  Some  specimens 
are  a  shade  darker  than  others,  but  on  many  thousands  examined,  I 
have  found  the  markings  very  uniform  as  represented  in  the  annexed 
[Fig.  14.]  cut  (Fig.  14).  The  general  color  is  dingy  black,  and 
lit  is  striped  longitudinally  as  follows :  On  the  back  a 
(broad  dusky  stripe  ;  then  a  narrow  black  line;  then 
'a  narrow  white  line;  then  a  yellowish  stripe  ;  then  a 
narrow  sub-obsolete  white  line ;  then  a  dusky  stripe ; 
then  a  narrow  white  line ;  then  a  yellowish  stripe; 
then  a  sub-obsolete  white  line;  belly  obscure  green. 
Those  who  are  more  particular  will  find  a  detailed 
description  at  the  end  of  this  article. 

The  chrysalis  (Fig.  15)  is  of  a  shiny  mahogany- 
brown  color,  with  two  stiff  converging  [Fig.  i5.] 
thorns  at  the  extremity,  having  two  ^i^®,^?^^^^^ 
curled  hooks  each  side  of  them.  The  ^'^^^^^ 
general  color  of  the  moth  is  light  reddish-brown  or  fawn  color,  and  it 
is  principally  characterized  by,  and  receives  its  name  from,  a  white 
spot  near  the  center  of  its  front  wings,  there  being  also  a  dusky  ob- 
lique  line  running  inwardly   from   their   tips.    The   accompanying 


[Pig.  16.1 


N^octua  unipuncta. 

4 — K    E 


illustration  (Fig.  16),  though  darker  than  it 
should  be,  will  show  wherein  it  differs  from 
the  Southern  Cotton  Army-worm,  notwith- 
standing the  colors  of  the  two  moths  are 
nearly  alike.  Our  Army-worm  moth 
was  first  described  by  the  English  En- 
tomologist ilaworth  in  the  year  1810,  in 
his  Lejndoptera  Brittanica^  page  174,  as 
Subsequently  the  French  Entomologist  [Gueu68 


50  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

{Noctuelites  I,  p.  77)  overlooking  the  former's  description,  and  re- 
garding it  as  a  new  species,  named  ii\LeuGania  extranea.  Of  course 
Haworth's  name  takes  the  precedence.  It  is  considered  a  common 
species  even  in  European  collections,  and  Guen6e  mentions  it  as  oc- 
curring in  Brazil.  A  variety  without  the  white  spot  occurs  in  Java 
and  India,  and  still  another,  lacking  the  white  spot,  and  having  a 
dark  border  on  the  hind  wings,  occurs  in  Australia;  while  an  occa- 
sional specimen  has  been  captured  in  England.  A  figure  is  given 
in  Stainton's  Entomologist's  Annual  for  1860,  of  one  captured  there 
in  1859,  but  if  the  figure  be  a  correct  one,  the  specimen  is  much 
lighter  than  ours,  and  the  characteristic  white  spot  is  not  nearly  so 
conspicuous. 

PARASITES  OF  THE  ARMY-WORM. 

The  Eed-tailed  Tachina  Fly — Exorista  leucanice^  Kirk. — To  one 
who  has  never  before  seen  the  Army-worm  in  its  might,  the  sight  of 
the  myriads  as  they  return  thwarted  in  their  endeavors  to  cross,  or 
of  the  living,  moving  and  twisting  mass  which  sometimes  fills  a  ditch 
to  the  depth  of  several  inches ;  is  truly  interesting.  At  Hannibal 
I  was  much  surprised  to  find  that  fully  nine  worms  out  of  every  ten 
had  upon  the  thoracic  segments,  just  behind  the  head,  from  one  to 
four  minute,  narrow,  oval  white  eggs,  about  0.01  inch  long,  attached 
firmly  to  the  skin  ;  and  my  companions  were  equally  surprised  when 
I  informed  them  that  these  were  the  eggs  of  a  parasite,  and  that 
every  one  of  the  worms  which  had  such  eggs  attached  to  it,  would 
eventually  succumb  to  one  of  the  maggots  these  eggs  produced.  The 
eggs  are  no  doubt  deposited  by  the  mother  fly  just  behind  the  head, 
so  that  the  worm  may  not  reach  the  young  maggots  when  they  hatch, 
and  be  enabled  to  destroy  them  with  its  jaws.  I  have  found  several 
different  kinds  of  cut-worms  with  just  such  eggs  attached  invariably 
on  the  back  just  behind  the  head.  They  are  glued  so  strongly  to  the 
skin  of  the  worm  that  they  cannot  be  removed  without  tearing  the 
flesh. 

The  large  two-winged  parasitic  flies  which  deposited  these  eggs, 
were  wonderfully  numerous,  buzzing  around  us  and  about  the  worms 
like  so  many  bees,  and  the  moment  one  was  caught,  I  recognized  it  as 
the  Red-tailed  Tachina  Fly.  This  is  one  of  the  most  common  and 
abundant  of  the  Army-worm  parasites,  and  attacks  it  in  widely  difl"erent 
parts  of  the  country.  I  have  also  bred  the  same  fly  from  the  Variga- 
ted  cut-worm  (larva  of  Agrotis  inermis*)^  and  a  variety  of  it  from  our 
common  large  Cecropia  worm,  which  is  often  found  on  apple  and  other 
fruit  trees.  It  was  first  very  briefly  and  imperfectly  described  as  Exor- 
ista leuGa[i]ce^  by  the  late  J.  Kirkpatrick,  in  the  Ohio  Agricultural 
Report  for  1860,  page  358,  and  was  subsequently  much  more  fully  de- 
scribed as  Seno7neto2')ia  [Exorista^  inilitaris  by  Mr.  Walsh,  in  his 
Army-worm  paper  already  referred  to.    Of  course  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's 

*First  Report,  p.  72. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


51 


name  has  the  priority,  but  I  introduce  Mr.  Walsh's  original  descrip- 
tion of  the  fly  and  likewise  the  very  same  figure  (Fig.  17)  which  he 
used  to  illustrate  it. 

[Fig.  17.]  Exorista  leucania — Length,  .25  to   .40  inches,  or  from  6  to 

10  millimetres,  the  females  not  exceeding  .30  inch.  Face  sil- 
very, with  lateral  black  hairs  only  on  the  cheeks,  at  the  top  of 
which  is  a  black  bristle.  Front,  golden-olive,  with  a  black  cen- 
tral stripe,  and  lateral  black  convergent  hairs.  Occiput,  dusky. 
^Labium,  brown,  with  yellowish  hair.  Maxipalps,  rufous.  Eyes, 
cinnamon-brown,  covered  with  very  short  dense  whitish  hair. 
Antenna,  tAvo  basal  joints,  black,  with  black  hairs;  third  joint, 
flattened,  dusky,  and  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  times  the 
length  of  the  second  joint;  seta,  black.  The  entire  hinder  part 
of  the  head  covered  with  dense  whitish  hair.  Thorax  glabrous,  bluish-gray,  lighter  at  the  side, 
with  four  irregular  black  vittae,  and  black  hairs  and  bristles.  Scutel,  reddish-brown,  whitish  be- 
hind, glabrous,  with  black  hairs  and  bristles.  Pectus,  black,  glabrous,  with  hairs  and  lateral 
bristles.  Legs,  black,  hairy ;  thighs,  dark  cinereous  beneath ;  pulvilli,  cinereous.  Wings,  hyaline  ; 
nervures,  brownish  ;  alulae,  opaque  greenish-white.  Abdomen,  first  joint  black  ;  second  and  third, 
opalescent  in  the  middle  with  black  and  gray,  and  at  the  sides  with  rufous  and  gray ;  last  joint, 
rufous,  slightly  opalescent  at  the  base  with  gray  ;  all  with  black  hairs  and  lateral  bristles.  Be- 
neath, the  first  joint  is  black,  the  others  black,  margined  with  rufous,  all  with  black  hairs.  In  the 
male  the  space  between  the  eyes  at  the  occiput  is  one-seventh  of  the  transverse  diameter  of  the 
head;  in  the  female  it  is  one-fourth.  The  colors  of  the  abdomen  sometimes  "grease"  and  fade 
in  the  dried  specimen. 

Bred  fifty-four  specimens  from  about  the  same  number  of  Army-worms.  Described  from  eight 
males  and  six  females.  Two  species,  similarly  marked  with  rufous,  but  generally  distinct,  occur 
at  Rock  Island. 

Mr.  Kirkpatrick  also  described  on  the  same  page  of  the  Ohio 
Report  for  1860,  another  species  (?)  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Osten 
SacTcenii.  But  upon  the  very  face  of  it,  this  proves  to  be  but  a  smaller 
specimen  of  his  leucanice;  for  the  characters  on  which  he  would  build 
this  other  species,  are  none  of  them  constant.  He  says  it  difiers  from 
leucanim  in  its  smaller  size ;  in  the  gray  bands  on  the  abdomen  not 
being  so  distinct ;  in  some  little  variation  in  the  position  of  the  brown, 
and  in  the  2nilvin[i]ce  being  more  distinctly  gray.  Now  leucanice  va- 
ries from  0.25  to  0.40  inch  in  length  ;  the  brown  on  the  abdomen  is 
opalescent  and  varies ;  the  pulvilli  and  gray  abdominal  markings 
vary  far  more  in  depth  of  shade  than  there  set  forth,  and  the  abdo- 
men in  fact,  if  the  least  greasy,  often  los^s  all  trace  of  gray. 

t^'s-  ^^-^  The  Yellow-tailed  Tachina  Fly,  (Fxoris- 

ia  Uavicauda^  N.  Sp.) — We  have  another  spe- 
cies in  Missouri  how^ever,  which  may  be  call- 
>ed  the  Yellow-tailed  Tachina  Fly,  and  which 
differs  so  notably  from  the  Red-tailed  species 
that  it  may  be  recognized  even  on  the  wing. 
It  is  almost  twice  as  large,  and  the  head  in- 
stead of  being  narrower  than  the  thorax  as  in 
leucanice,  is  broader.  Its  flight  is  also  more 
vigorous  and  its  buzz  twice  as  loud,  I  represent  this  species  at  Fig- 
ure 18,  and  draw  up  the  following  description  for  the  scientific 
reader : 

Exorista Jlavicauda,  N.  Sp. — Length,  0.35  to  0.50  inch.  Jlead  broader  than  thorax;  face,  sil- 
very-white,   the  cheeks  inclining  to  yellow,   with  lateral  black  hairs  extending  to  near  the  base  of 


52 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 


[Fig.  19.] 


nutenna?,  and  one  stiffer  and  longer  bristle  at  top  of  cheeks  :  front,  dusky,  ferruginoua,  with  tw<? 
rows  of  black  converging  bristles  ;  divided  by  a  broad  depressed  stripe  of  a  brighter  ferruginous 
color  and  without  bristles  ;  occiput  bright  ferruginous  ;  labium  ferruginous  with  hairs  of  same 
color;  maxipalps  rufous  ;  eyes  dark  mahogony-brown,  and  perfectly  smooth;  antennae,  two  basal 
joints  rufous,  with  black  hairs,  third  joint  flattened,  dusky,,  and  thrice  as  long  as  second;  seta, 
black  ;  entire  hinder  part  of  head  covered  with  dense  white  hairs.  Thorax,  more  decidedly  blue 
than  in  Icucania,  firoader  (instead  of  narrower)  in  front  than  behind ;  the  vittK  less  distinct ;  scute* 
of  same  color  as  thorax.  Abdomen,  stout  and  more  cylindrical  than  in  leucania;  first  joint  dark 
bluish-gray ;  second,  light  bluish-gray,  becoming  darker  along  the  middle,  at  sides  and  at  lower 
border;  third  joint,  like  second  above,  but  golden-gray  at  sides  (no  rufous);  last  joint  ew/iVf^jr  yellow- 
er pale  orange,  with  no  other  color  and  but  few  black  bristles  around  anus.  Wings  more  dusky 
than  in  leucanicc;  alulaj,  opaque  bluish-white.     Legs,  black  ;  pulvilli  pale  yellow. 

Described  from  one  captured,  4  bred  $ .  Space  between  eyes  at  occiput  fully  one-third  the  width 
of  head. 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  other  parasites  which  attack  the 
Army-worm,  I  will  briefly  allude  to  them,  and  transmit 
descriptions  for  the  scientific  reader. 

The  Glassy  Mesochorus — Mesochorus  vitreus,  Walsh.  (Fig.  19.) — Length  ol 
body  .08  inch,  (two  millimetres,)  to  .13  inch,  (three  millimetres) ;  the  small  speci- 
mens being  parasitic  on  the  Army-worm  and  the  large  ones  captured  in  Rock  Is- 
land county.  Male,  general  color  light  rufous.  Eyes  and  ocelli,  black  ;  antennse 
fuscous  except  toward  the  base.  Upper  surface  of  thorax  in  the  larger  specimen  fuscous  ;  inter, 
mediate  and  posterior  tibiae  with  spurs  equal  to  one-fourth  of  their  length  ;  posterior  knees  slightly 
dusky  ;  tips  of  posterior  tibiiB  distinctly  dusky.  Wings  hyaline  ;  nervures  and  stigma,  dusky. 
Abdomen,  a  translucent  yellowish-white  in  its  central  one-third;  the  remaining  two-thirds piceous- 
black,  with  a  distinct  narrow  yellowish  annulus  at  the  base  of  the  third  joint.  In  the  larger  speci- 
men which  seems  to  be  immature,  the  basal  abdominal  joint,  and  the  articulations  of  the  terminal 
joints  are  light  rufous.  Appendiculum  of  the  abdomen  composed  of  two  extremely  fine  seta;,  thick- 
ened at  their  base,  whose  length  slightly  exceeds  the  extreme  width  of  the  abdomen. 

The  female  differs  from  the  male,  in  the  head  from  the  mouth  upwards  being  piceous.  The 
thorax  and  pectus,  in  all  three  specimens,  are  also  piceous-black.  Abdomen  as  in  the  smaller 
male.     Ovipositor,  which  is  dusky,  slightly  exceeds  in  length  the  width  of  the  abdomen. 

The  Diminished  Pezomachus — Pczomachus  minimxis,  Walsh,  (Fig.  20.). — Length  of  the  body 
[Fig.  20.]  .07  to  .10  inch.,  (2  to  2^  millimetres).       Male,  general  color, 

piceou.s.  Eyes  black ;  antennte  black,  except  toward  the 
base,  where  they  are  light  rufous.  Legs  rufous  ;  hind  legs  a 
little  dusky.  Abdomen  narrowed;  second  and  sometimes 
'I'~^^\^'^^^J'-<  ft^^  third  joint  annulate  with  rufous  at  tip.  The  female  dif-§ 
fers  from  the  male  in  the  thorax  being  almost  invariably 
rufous,  and  in  the  first  three  abdominal  joints  being  gener- 
ally entirely  rufous,  with  a  piceous  annulus  at  the  base  of  the  third,  which  is  sometimes  absent. 
The  abdomen  is  also  fuller  and  wider.  Ovipositor  dusky,  equal  in  length  to  the  width  of  the 
abdomen.    No  vestige   of  wings  in  either  sex,  and  the  thorax  contracted  and  divided  as  in  Formica. 

Fig.  22.]  The  larvae  of  this  species  issue   from   the   body   of  the 

Army-worm,  and  spin  on  its  skin,  small  cocoons  symmetric- 
ally arranged  side  by  side,  and  enveloped  in  floss  (Fig.  21). 
It  belongs  to  a  genus  of  wingless  Ichneumons,  and  in  its  turn 
is  preyed  upon  by  a  small  Chalcis  fly  ( Chalcis  alMfrons, 
Walsh)  which  is  represented  at  Figure  22. 

The  Militauy  Microgaster — Microgaster  miUta.ris,  Walsh,  (Fig.  23). — Length  0.07  inch, 
[Fig.  23.]  Head  black  ;  palpi  whitish  ;  antennsB  fuscous  above,  light  brown  beneath  towarda 
the  base.  Thorax  black,  polished,  with  very  minute  punctures.  Wings  hyaline  ; 
nervures  and  stigma  fuscous ;  lower  nervure  of  marginal,  and  exterior  nervure  of 
second  submar^llWt  cellule  entirely  obsolete.  Lower  nervule  of  third  and  terminal 
'submarginal  cellule,  hyaline.  Legs  light  rufous,  posterior  pair,  with  knees  and 
tips  of  tibiic  fuscous.  Abdomen  black,  glabrous,  highly  polished.  Ovipositor  not 
exserted. 

The  cocoons  of  this  little  parasite  are  spun  in  irregu- 


TUE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


53 


lar  masses,  and  are  so  completely  covered  with  loose  white  silk  that 
as  a  whole  they  look  like  little  pieces  of  fine   wool   attached  to  the 
back  of  the  Army-worms.    They  were   very  numerous   last  year  in 
this  State,  and  were  sent  to  me  by  several  correspondents,  under  the 
supposition  that  they  were   the   eggs  of  the   Army-worm.    Nothing 
could  be  more  unsafe  and  erroneous  than  such  a  conclusion  ;    for  in- 
stead of  giving  birth  to  new  generations  of  the  Army-worm  they  pro- 
duce the  little  flies  which  are  its  most  deadly  foes.    All   the   numer- 
[Fig.  24.]      ous  specimens  which  I   bred   accord  exactly   with   the 
above  named  species.    This  parasite  is  also  in  its   turn 
infested  by  two  parasites  (  Gh/phe  viridascens   (Fig.  24) 
2ix\di  IlocJi.eria  perpiilcra.,y^^\Q\\)^h\it  while  over  90  per 
cent,  of  Army-worms  are  killed    by  primary  parasites, 
only  about  18  per  cent,  of  these  primary  parasites  are 
destroyed  by  the  secondary  parasites. 

The  Purged  Ophion — Ophion  purgatus,  Ssiy^'. — Body  pale  honey-yellow,  somewhat  sericeous  ; 
{Fig.  25.]  antennae  rather  longer  than  the  body ;  orbits  yellow,   dilated  be- 

fore, so  as  to  occupy  the  greater  part  of  the  hypostoma;  ocelli 
largo,  prominent;  wings  hyaline ;  stigma  slender;  first  cubital 
cellule  with  two  opaque,  subtriangular  spots  ;  no  areolet ;  meta- 
thorax  with  a  single,  raised,  rectilinear,  transverse  line,  near  the 
base.     Length,  seven-tenths  of  an  inch. 

This  large  Ichneumon  Fly  (Fig.  25)  has 
been  bred  from  the  Army-worm.  The  ovipos- 
itor is  very  short,  and  instead  of  piercing  the 
skin  of  her  victim  as  do  all  the  other  Ichneu- 
mons that  have  been  described,  the  female 
Ophion  simply  attaches  her  egg,  which  is  bean- 
ehaped,  by  a  pedicle  to  the  skin.  The  footless  grub  which  hatches 
from  this  egg  does  not  entirely  leave  the  egg-case,  but  the  last  joints 
of  its  body  remain  attached  to  the  shell,  while  it  reaches  over,  and 
with  its  sharp  jaws  gnaws  into  the  side  of  the  worm  (Packard).  This 
Ophion  has  been  taken  in  Maine,  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Missouri  and  Carolina  and  doubtless  occurs  all  over  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

The  Army-worm  Ichneumon  Fly— Ichneiimon    lucmiice^  Fitch. — 
Dr.  Fitch*  has   briefly  described  another  true  Ichneumon  Fly 
under  the  above  name,  which  he  bred  from  the  Army-worm. 

Thus  we  have  seven  distinct  and  true  parasites  which  attack  this 
worm,  and  besides  these,  two  others,  undescribed,  are  figured  in  Har- 
ris's Injurious  Insects  (last  edition  p.  630),  swelling  the  number  to 
nine.  Can  we  longer  wonder  that  this  dreaded  foe  to  the  farmer, 
never  molests  his  crops  for  two  successive  years? 

HABITS  OF  THE  ARMY- WORM,  AND  SUGGESTIONS  FOR   ITS  DESTRUCTION. 

Since  the  great  bulk  of  the  eggs  of  the  Army-worm  are  depos- 
ited in  the  summer  and  fall  months  in  grass  swamps  and  grass  mead- 

*  Ophion  purgalus,  Say.=0.  lateralis,  Brulle- 
*N.  Y.  Reports,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  126. 


54  SECOND   ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

ows,  and  the  eggs  do  not  hatch  out  till  the  following  spring,  it  be- 
comes obvious  that  burning  over  grass  meadows  in  the  winter  or  very- 
early  in  the  spring,  must  destroy  most  of  the  eggs.  Many  instances 
might  be  given  where,  in  past  years,  burnt  grass  escaped  the  worm, 
while  all  the  unburnt  grass  in  the  neighborhood  was  badly  infested, 
and  in  one  instance  part  of  a  meadow  having  been  accidentally  burnt 
and  part  remaining  unburnt,  the  burnt  portion  in  the  following  sum- 
mer, had  no  Army-worms  on  it,  and  the  unburnt  portion  swarmed 
with  them.  Thus,  if  you  burn  your  meadows  over  annually  you 
will  seldom  be  troubled  with  this  pest,  and  if  you  get  your  neigh- 
bors to  do  the  same  thing,  and  in  addition  will  also  burn  all  the  wild 
grass  around  you,  the  Army-worm  will  never  do  you  any  damage. 
The  remedy  is  so  simple  that  all  can  apply  it.  The  best  time  to  do 
this  burning,  is,  as  all  practical  men  well  know,  in  the  dead  of  the 
year,  when  the  ground  is  frozen ;  the  roots  of  the  grass  are  then  un- 
harmed by  the  fire.  Of  course,  ploughing  the  land  late  in  the  fall  or 
late  in  the  spring,  will  have  the  same  effect  as  burning  it,  for  if  the 
eggs  are  turned  two  or  three  inches  underground  they  will  surely  rot 
and  fail  to  hatch.  Here  we  see,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Canker-worm, 
which  I  shall  presently  treat  of,  and  as  in  the  case  of  almost  every 
other  noxious  insect,  it  is  necessary  accurately  to  investigate  the 
habits  and  puculiarities  of  each  one  before  we  can  effectually  coun- 
terwork it. 

During  my  visit  to  Hannibal  last  June,  I  ascertained  that  the 
worms  orignatedin  a  large  100-acre  field  of  very  rich  blue- grass,  be- 
longing to  Mr.  W.  R.  Flowerree.  This  gentleman  makes  a  business 
of  fattening  cattle,  and  intended  feeding  off  the  grass  in  the  fall ;  but 
that  same  blue-grass  field  had  neither  heen  pastured  nor  plowed  the 
year  hefore ,'  and  this  was  the  very  reason  why  the  worms  originated 
there,  as  the  reader  will  readily  perceive  from  the  foregoing  account 
of  the  insect's  habits. 

The  Army- worm  when  traveling  will  scarcely  turn  aside  for  any- 
thing but  water,  and  even  shallow  water-courses  will  not  always 
check  its  progress ;  for  the  advance  columns  will  often  continue  to 
rush  head-long  into  the  water  until  they  have  sufficiently  choked  it 
up  with  their  dead  and  dying  bodies,  to  enable  the  rear  guard  to  cross 
safely  over.  I  have  noticed  that  after  crossing  a  bare  field  or  bare 
road  where  they  were  subjected  to  the  sun's  rays,  they  would  congre- 
gate in  immense  numbers  under  the  first  shade  they  reached.  In  one 
instance  I  recollect  their  collecting  and  covering  the  ground  five  or 
six  deep  all  along  the  shady  side  of  a  fence  for  about  a  mile,  while 
scarcely  one  was  seen  to  cross  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  same  fence. 
Though  they  will  nibble  at  clover,  they  evidently  do  not  relish  it,  and 
almost  always  pass  it  by  untouched.  They  will  eat  any  of  the  grasses, 
and  are  fond  of  oats,  rye,  sorghum,  corn  and  wheat,  though  they  seldom 
devour  any  other  part  but  the  succulent  leaves.  They  often  cut  off 
the  ears  of  wheat  and  oats  and  allow  them  to  fall  to  the  ground,  and 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  55 

they  are  perhaps  led  to  perform  this  wanton  trick,  by  the  succulency 
of  the  stem  immediately  below  the  ear.  South  of  latitude  40°  they 
generally  appear  before  the  wheat  stalks  gcettoo  hard,  or  early  enough 
to  maierially  injure  it;  but  north  of  that  line,  wheat  is  generally  too 
n)U<rii  ripened  for  their  tastes,  and  is  sometimes  even  harvested  before 
the  full  grown  worms  make  their  advent. 

I  have  heard  of  the  Army-worm,  sometimes  passing  through  a 
wheat  field  when  the  wheat  was  nearly  ripe,  and  doing  good  service 
by  devouring  all  the  chess  and  leaving  untouched  the  wheat ;  but  the 
following  item  from  Collinsville,  Illinois,  which  appeared  in  the  ^lis- 
souri  Democrat^  contains  still  more  startling  facts,  and  would  indi- 
cate that  even  a  foe  to  the  farmer  as  determined  as  this,  may  some- 
times prove  to  be  his  friend. 

"  Harvest  and  Crops. — Notwithstanding  the  unfavorable  weather, 
many  farmers  have  commenced  the  wheat  liarvest.  The  yield  in  this 
immediate  vicinity  will  be  superabundant.  Some  fields  were  struck 
with  rust  a  few  days  since,  but  the  Amry-worm  making  its  appearance 
simultaneously,  stripped  the  straw  entirely  bare  of  blades  and  saved 
the  berry  from  injury.  These  disgusting  pests  have  saved  thousands 
of  dollars  to  farmers  in  this  neighborhood.  A  few  fields  of  corn  and 
grass  have  been  partially  destroyed,  but  by  ditching  around  fields,  the 
worm's  ravages  have  been  confined  within  comparatively  narrow 
limits." 

The  worms  may  be  prevented  from  passing  from  one  field  to  an- 
other by  judicious  ditching.  Mr.  Trabue  has  large  meadows,  sepa- 
rated only  by  a  road  from  the  blue-grass  field  of  Mr.  Flowerree  ;  and 
he  thought  he  could  keep  out  the  worms  by  simply  making  a  V-shaped 
ditch  ;  believing  that  they  could  not  crawl  over,  so  long  as  the  earth 
crumbled.  The  first  evening  after  it  was  dug,  this  ditch  seemed  to  be 
ejffectual,  and  the  bottom  was  covered  with  one  seething,  twisting 
mass  of  the  worms  ;  but  a  heavy  rain  came  on  in  the  night  following, 
after  which  they  crossed  without  difficulty.  Mr.  Jas.  Dimmitt  how- 
ever,-who  had  80  acres  of  wheat  adjoining  the  fatal  blue-grass  field, 
effectually  protected  it  by  surrounding  it  with  a  ditch  which  had  the 
inner  side  slanting  under,  towards  the  field  it  was  intended  to  protect. 
It  was  indeed  most  fortunate  that  Mr.  Dimmitt  had  hit  upon  the  true 
methodin  the  beginning,  for  his  wheat  was  yet  in  that  soft  state,  in 
which  many  of  the  ears  would  have  been  devoured  or  cut  otF;  and 
friend  Trabue  was  not  long  in  profiting  by  his  example. 

A  good  plan  to  destroy  the  worms  which  accumulate  in  the  fur- 
row or  ditch  is  to  burn  straw  in  it;  for  the  fire  not  only  kills  the 
worms,  but  makes  the  earth  in  the  ditch  friable  and  more  eflicient  in 
preventing  their  ascent.  A  heavy  roller  passed  over  a  field  will  kill 
almost  every  worm,  and  I  have  already  stated  that  hogs  and  poultry 
wllf  ct'evour  great  numbers  of  them.  But  it  is  always  better  and 
easier  to  prevent  than  to  cure. 

Leucania  unipuncta,  Haw.— Larua— General  color  dingy  black,  with  the  piliferous  spots, 
placed  in  the  normal  position,  but  scarcely  visible,  though  the  soft  hairs  arising  from  them  are 
easily  seen  with  a  lens.    Four  lateral  light  lines,  of  almost  equal   thickness,  and  at  about  equal 


56  SECOND   ANNUAL    REPORT    OP 

distance  from  each  other,  the  two  uppermost  white,  the  two  lowermost  yellow  ;  a  much  less  dis- 
tinct dorsal  white  line,  frequently  obsolete  in  middle  of  segment,  and  always  most  distinct  at  the 
divisions:  a  jet  black  line  immediately  above  the  first  lateral  white  one,  the  dorsum  near  it, 
thickly  mottled  with  dull  yellow,  but  becoming  darker  as  it  approaches  the  fine  dorsal  white  line, 
along  each  side  of  which  it  is  perfectly  black.  Space  between  lateral  light  lines  1  and  2,  dull 
yellow,  the  white  lines  being  relieved  by  a  darker  edge  ;  that  between  lines  2  and  3  almost  black, 
being  but  slightly  mottled  along  the  middle  ;  that  between  3  and  4  yellow,  mottled  with  pink- 
brown,  and  appearing  lighter  than  that  between  1  and  2.  Venter  greenish-glaucous,  mottled  and 
speckled  with  neutral  color,  especially  near  the  edge  of  the  4th  lateral  line.  Legs  glassy  aad  of 
same  color  as  venter,  those  on  thoracic  segments  with  black  claws,  those  on  abdomen  with  a  large 
shiny  black  spot  on  the  outside.  Stigmata  oval,  black,  and  placed  in  the  3d  lateral  light  line. 
Head  pale  grayish-yellow,  speckled  with  confluent  fuscous  dots  ;  marked  longitudinally  by  two 
dark  lines  that  commence  at  the  corners  of  the  mouth,  approach  each  other  towards  the  centre, 
and  again  recede  behind  ;  on  each  side  are  four  minute  polished  black  eyelets,  placed  on  a  light 
orescent-shaped  ridge,  and  from  each  side  of  this  light  ridge  a  dark  mark  extends  more  or  leii 
among  the  confluent  spots  above.     Described  from   numerous  average  living  specimens. 

Jmogro— Front  wings:  general  color  tarnished  yellowish-drab,  inclining  to  russet  j  sprinkled 
with  blackish  atoms,  the  basal  half  of  the  costal  margin  being  lighter  than  the  rest.  Ordiuarj;- 
spots  brighter  than  rest  of  wing,  being  either  fulvous  or  rust-red,  each  having  ordinarily  a  tar- 
nished centre,  the  reniform  or  "kidney-shaped"  spot,  having  at  its  lower  border  a  conspicuous 
white  point,  indistinctly  surrounded  by  blackish,  from  which  point  the  moth  takes  its  name : 
between  this  point  and  the  terminal  border  a  transverse  row  of  black  dots  (one  on  each  vein) 
much  arcuated  above;  and  inside  and  parallel  with  it  a  less  distinct  row,  the  dots  forming 
which,  are  between  the  nerves  ;  an  oblique  dark  streak,  shaded  off  gradually  posteriorly,  but  re- 
lieved anteriorly  by  the  same  bright  color  as  the  ordinary  "spots"  runs  from  the  head  of  this  row 
of  dots  to  the  apex  of  the  wing;  nerves  more  or  less  marked  with  white,  especially  towards  their 
tips  ;  posterior  or  terminal  border  with  a  row  of  black  spots  between  the  nerves  ;  fringes  same 
color  as  wing,  with  a  narrow  dusky  line  inside  their  middle.  Hind  wings  partly  transparent, 
smoky-brown,  with  a  slight  purplish  lustre,  the  veins,  lunule,  and  terminal  border  more  dusky  ; 
fringes  pale  yellow  with  a  dusky  middle  line. 

Under  surfaces  opalescent  yellowish-white,  the  front  wings  shaded  with  smoky-gray,  the  costa 
narrowly,  and  the  terminal  margin  broadly  freckled  with  dusky  specks,  the  fringes  and  a  shade 
near  the  apex  flesh-color,  and  a  distinct  dusky  band  across  their  outer  one-fourth,  narrower  but 
darker  on  t^e  costa  than  in  the  middle  of  the  wing  :  the  hind  wings  with  the  lunule  distinct  and 
a'so  speckled  anteriorly  and  posteriorly,  the  basal  edge  of  the  posterior  portion  well  defined  by  a 
■  aries  of  black  dots  on  the  nerves. 

Head  and  shoulders  of  same  color  as  basal  part  of  costa ;  thorax  same  as  front  wings  ;  abdo- 
■i9n  same  as  hind  wings  ;  beneath  all  more  uniformly  gray. 


INSECTS  INFESTING  THE  SWEET-POTATO. 

TORTOISE-BEETLES. 

(Coleoptera,  Cassidae.) 

In  my  First  Report  I  described  eleven  different  and  distinct  in- 
sects which  habitually  prey  on  the  common  Irish  Potato  {Salanum 
tuberosum).  I  will  now  give  an  account  of  the  worst  insect  enemies 
of  the  Sweet-Potato  {Ipoinea  hatattts).,  all  of  which  attack  that  plant 
in  this  State.  Before  doing  so,  however,  it  will  be  as  well  to  remark, 
that  one  species  belonging  to  the  same  family  as  those  which  feed  on 
the  Sweet- Potato,  and  which  is  quite  frequently  met  with  in  Missouri, 
namely,  the  Clubbed  Tortoise-beetle  {Dcloyala  clavata,  Oliv.Fig.  26,) 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


57 


[Fig.  26.]  feeds  in  reality  on  the  common  Irish  Potato,  tliiis  swelling 
the  number  of  insects  which  injuriously  affect  that  most 
^valuable  esculent,  to  a  round  dozen.  The  larva  of  the 
Clubbed  Tortoise-beetle  is  not  yet  known,  and  it  is  the  per- 
fect insect  which  has  been  found  to  attack  the  Potato.  This 
is  doubtless  the  species  which  Mr.  Huron  Burt  of  Williams- 
burg, Callaway  county,  referred  to  in  the  Journal  of  Agrieulture  of 
June  6th,  1868,  as  "a  scale-like,  terrapin-shaped  hard  insect,  spread 
out  like  a  flying-squirrel,"  that  adhered  tenaciously  to  the  leaves  of 
his  potato  plants.  By  referring  to  Figure  26  the  reader  will  not  be 
slow  to  learn  ^iiy  these  beetles  are  called  Tortoise-beetles,  for  the 
patches  of  dark  opaque  color  which  extend  on  the  thin  projecting 
semi-transparent  shell  of  that  species,  remind  one  very  forcibly  of  the 
paws  of  a  mud-turtle.  The  true  le^s  however,  which,  as  in  all  other 
insects,  are  six  in  number,  and  which  in  this  species,  are  so  short  that 
they  scarcely  reach  beyond  the  thin  shield-like  crust  that  extends  from 
the  body,  may  readily  be  seen  when  the  insect  is  turned  upside  down. 
The  insects  which  attack  the  Sweet-Potato  are  few  in  species. 
and  belong  almost  entirely  to  this  group  of  Tortoise-beetles.     With 

the  exception  of  the  Cucumber  Flea-beetle 
{Haliica  ciibumeris,  Harr.),  figured  and  de- 
scribed on  page  101  of  the  First  Report,  and 
a  few  solitary  caterpillars,  I  have  never 
found  any  other  insects  on  this  plant;  but 
these  Tortoise-beetles  are  of  themselves 
sufficiently  numerous  in  individuals  and 
species  to  often  entirely  destroy  whole  fields  of  this  esculent,  and 
they  are  especially  severe  on  the  plants  when  newly  transferred  from 
the  hot-bed. 

These  insects  are  at  present  included  in  the  great  Chrysomela 
family  of  beetles,  though  they  were  formerly  placed  in  a  separate 
family  (Cassidid.e)  by  themselves,  and  there  certainly  are  few  groups 
more  strongly  characterized.  They  are  almost  all  of  a  broad  sub- 
depressed  form,  either  oval  or  orbicular,  with  the  thorax  and  wing- 
covers  so  thoroughly  dilated  at  the  sides  into  a  broad  and  flat 
margin,  as  to  forcibly  recall  the  appearance  of  a  turtle,  whence  the 
popular  name.  Many  have  the  singular  power,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  of  changing  their  color  when  alive,  and  as  1  shall  show 
further  on,  some  of  them  shine  at  will  with  the  most  brilliant  me- 
tallic tints. 

Insects,  as  with  the  higher  animals,  usually  void  their  excrement 
in  such  a  manner  that  they  effectually  get  rid  of  it,  and  in  some  cases 
they  take  pains  to  fling  it  as  far  frotn  them  as  possible,  by  means  of 
their  hind  legs.  I  have  especially  noticed  this  cleanly  habit  in  the 
Oblong-winged  Katydid  (P7n/lIoptera  oUongi folia,  DeGeer),  of 
which  I  have  had  numbers  breeding  in  confinement  durirg  the  past 
two  summers.    They  almost  always  fling   their  excrement  straight 


58  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

from  them,  so  that  if  they  are  in  a  horizontal  position,  it  adheres  to 
the  sides  of  their  cages  instead  of  falling  to  the  bottom.-- In  the 
great  majority  of  insects  the  anus  is  situated  at,  or  near  the  lastring, 
and  usually  on  the  ventral  side,  so  that  the  fasces  are  easily:  left 
behind;  but  the  larvae  of  several  species  of  beetles  that  have  the 
peculiar  habit  of  covering  themselves  with  their  own  excrement, 
have  the  anus  not  on  their  bellies,  but  on  their  backs.  The  Three- 
lined  Leaf-beetle*  {Lema  trilineata)  has  this  habit,  and  is  enabled 
to  cover  itself  by  the  singular  position  of  the  anal  vent  which  is  on 
the  back  of  the  last  segment.  A  closely  allied  European  species, 
but  belonging  to  a  different  genus  {Crioceris  merdigera)  has  the  same 
habit.  In  this  country  there  is  also  another  yellowish  oval  jump- 
ing beetle  {Blepharida  rhois^  Forster),  which  in  the  larva  state 
covers  itself  with  its  excrement.  In  this  instance  the  anus  is  at  the 
end  of  the  last  segment,  but  it  is  sufficiently  extensile  at  the  will  of 
the  insect  to  allow  of  the  accomplishment  of  the^  feat.  This  last 
larva  is  a  disgusting  looking  thing,  and  I  found  it  last  year  very 
abundant  along  the  line  of  the  Iron  Mountain  Kailroad,  on  all  three 
of  the  Sumachs— i?7m5  aromatica^  glabra  and  ccj^^^i^ia— preferring 
them  in  the  order  of  their  naming.  \:         :; 

But  the  larvEe  of  the  Tortoise-beetles  are  par  exGellenceXhe  true 
dung  carriers,  for  they  excel  all  others  in  this  medigerous  art.  In  the 
instances  related  above,  the  load  is  carried  immediately  on  the  back, 
but  our  Tortoise-beetles  are  altogether  more  refined  in  their  tastes, 
and  do  not  allow  the  dung  to  rest  on  the  body,  but  simply  shade 
themselves  with  a  sort  of  stercoraceous  parasol. 

The  larvas  of  all  the  species  that  have  been  observed  to  feed  on 
the  Sweet-Potato  are  broad  and  flattened  like  the  beetles,  and  have 
the  margin  of  the  body  furnished  with  spines  which  are  often  barbed, 
(Fig.  27,2),  They  all  belong  to  the  genera  Oassida  and  CojJfocyGla,,  and 
there  are  thirty-two  of  these  spines,  or  sixteen  on  each  side  of  the 
body.  Four  of  these  are  situated  on  the  prothorax,  which  forms  two 
anterior  projections  beyond  the  common  margin  ;  four  of  them — the 
two  anterior  ones  longer  than  the  others— are  on  each  of  the  two  fol- 
lowing thoracic  segments,  and  each  of  the  abdominal  segments  is 
furnished  with  bjit  two.  There,  are  nine  elevated  spiracles  each  side 
superiorly,  namely,  one  immediately  behind  the  prothorax  and  eight 
on  the  abdominal  segments.  The  fore  part  of  the  body  is  projected 
shield-like  over  the  head,  which  is  retractile  and  small. 
'■^i^'"'  ^^^  ^  closely  allied  genus  {Chelymorjjlia)  to 
which  belongs  a  brick-red  insect  with  black 
.spots  (C'A.  crilraria^  Fabr.,  Fig.  28,  pupa;  29 
beetle)  found  npoh  Milltweed  (Ascle^msji  and 
which  has  the  body  greatly  rounded  above,  with, 
scarcely  any  lateral  flange,  the  larva,  as  ob- 
served by  Dr.  Packard,  has  the  prickles  smooth  and  not 

*First  Rep.,  p,  100. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  59 

sprangling;.  In  another  genus  also  {Physonota)  to  which  belongs  the 
Five-dotted  Tortoise-beetle  {Ph.  qidnqnepunctata^  Walsh  tfe  Riley, 
[Fig.  30.]  Fig.  30,  J),  and  which  is  intermediate  in  form  be- 

tween the  last  named  genus  {CJielymorpha)  and 
^those  with  the  body  greatly  llattened  (Cassida^ 
Cojytoeycla,  Deloyala)  the  prickles  of  the  larva  are 
also  smooth  and  only  20  in  number,  i.  e.,  10  on  each 
side,  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  Figure  30,  a- 
Mr.  Walsh  found  this  insect  in  Northern  Illinois, 
and  though  we  do  not  know  upon  what  particular  plant  it  feeds,  yet 
from  analogy  we  may  infer  that  it  subsists  on  some  Composite  flower, 
as  other  species  belonging  to  the  same  genus  are  known  to  do. 

Almost  all  the  larvae  of  the  beetles  belonging  to  the  great  Chrt- 
SOMELA  family,  of  which  the  Colorado  Potato  Bug  may  serve  as  an  ex- 
ample, have,  besides  the  six  legs  at  the  anterior  end  of  the  body,  an 
additional  proleg,  or  protuberance  which  serves  as  such,  at  the  pos- 
terior end ;  but  the  larvaD  of  bur  Tortoise-beetles  have  no  such  proleg, 
and  the  six  anterior  legs  are  short,  thick  and  fleshy,  and  with  the  re- 
tractile head,  give  these  larvag,  from  a  side  view,  as  great  a  resem- 
blance to  a  turtle  as  have  the  beetles. 

Though  lacking  an  anal  proleg,  however,  they  are  characterized 
by  having  a  movable  forked  tail,  in  the  shape  of  two  long  prong-like 
horny  filaments  which  both  spring  from  a  broad  neck  situated  imme- 
diatel}'^  above  the  anus.  The  anus  projects  and  curves  over  the  back 
at  the  will  of  the  insect,  and  by  the  aid  of  this  fork  and  of  some  of 
tlie  lateral  spines,  it  forms  the  parasol  of  dung  which  so  nicely  pro- 
tects it. 

When  we  read  of  those  Hottentots  who  cover  difl"erent  portions 
of  their  bodies  with  the  uncleaned  intestines  of  sheep  and  oxen,  we 
feel  shocked  at  such  barbarism,  and  can  scarcely  comprehend  how 
human  beings  can  defile  themselves  with  the  like  disgusting  materials. 
Such  men  must  be  pitiable  indeed,  for  they  can  have  no  other  object 
than  the  gratification  of  their  filthy  and  beastly  pleasures.  There  is 
nothing  so  repulsive  about  our  insect  Hottentots,  for  the  dung  parasol 
of  our  Tortoise-beetles  has  neither  offensive  odor  or  appearance,  and 
its  true  character  is  generally  sufiiciently  disguised  by  being  inter- 
mixed with  the  cast-off  skin  and  prickly  spines;  and  though  those 
species,  first  referred  to,  which  directly  cover  their  backs,  often  look 
sufficiently  unclean,  we  know  that  they  thus  act  at  Nature's  bidding 
and  for  a  useful  purpose. 

All  the  Tortoise-beetle  larvae  which  I  have  bred  to  the  perfect 
beetle  state,  have  come  to  their  growth  in  about  three  weeks  after 
hatching.  They  cast  their  skins  at  three  successive  periods,  and  these 
skins  are  slipped  on  to  the  fork,  where  in  most  instances  they  remain. 
On  carefully  detaching  from  a  full  grown  larva  the  dung  with  which 
these  skins  are  mixed,  these  three  successive  skins  are  easily  recog- 
nized, the  smallest  being  at  the  extremity  and  the  largest  at  the  base 


60 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 


of  the  fork.  They  are  especially  recognizable  in  the  Mottled  Tortoise 
beetle  iCassida  guttata,  Oliv.,  Fig.  36,)  mentioned  below,  which  re- 
moves most  of  its  dung  before  each  moult. 

^'^s-^^'  The  eggs  from  which  these  larvas  hatch,  are  de- 

posited singly  upon  the  leaves,  to  which  they  are  fas- 
tened by  some  adhesive  substance.  They  are  of 
irregular  angular  form  ;  flat,  and  somewhat  narrower 
at  one  end  than  the  other;  ridged  above  and  at  the 
sides,  but  smooth  and  obovate  below.  They  are  usually 
furnished  with  spine-like  appendages,  which  however 
are  sometimes  entirely  lacking.  They  look,  in  fact, 
very  much  like  miniature  specimens  of  those  curious 
skate-barrows  or  Mermaid's  purses,  which  are  found 
so  commonly  along  the  sea-shore,  and  which  are  the 
empty  egg-shells  of  certain  kinds  of  Ray-fish  or  Skate.  Those  of  tiie 
common  Golden  Tortoise-beetle  (Fig.  31,)  are  0.04  inch  long,  and  of  a 
dull,  dirty  white  color. 

The  Tortoise-beetle  larvae,  when  full  grown,  fasten  the  last  two  or 
three  joints  of  the  body  to  the  underside  of  a  leaf,  by  means  of  a 
sticky  secretion,  and  in  about  two  days  change  to  pupas.  The  pupa 
of  those  species  which  have  32  barbed  spines,  is  flat  with  usually 
four  or  five  broad  but  thin  and  transparent  serrated  leaf  like  appen- 
dages on  each  side  of  the  abdomen,  and  the  prothorax,  which  is  greatly 
dilated  and  covers  the  head,  is  furnished  around  the  edge  with  smaller 
barbed  spines.  The  broad  leaf-like  spines  at  the  edges  of  the  body 
are  bent  under  while  the  transformation  is  being  effected,  bni  are 
soon  afterwards  stretched  stiffly  out  with  a  forward  slant.  The  pupa 
loses  the  pronged  tail,  but  as  the  old  larval  skin  is  left  adhering  to 
the  terminal  segments  the  prong  of  dung  still  protects  it  in  most 
cases.  The  legs  and  antennie  are  not  free  in  this,  as  in  the  pupas  of 
most  other  beetles,  but  are  soldered  together  as  in  the  chrysalis  of  a 
butterflj^  and  yet  it  has  the  powder  of  raising  itself  up  perpendicularly 
upon  the  tail  end  by  which  it  is  fastened.  The  pupa  state  lasts  about 
a  week. 

Having  thus  spoken  in  general  terras  of  this  anomalous  group  of 
beetles,  I  shall  now  refer  more  particularly  to  a  few  of  the  species. 
Most  of  those  mentioned  below  infest  the  Sweet-Potato  both  in  the 
larva  and  perfect  beetle  states.  They  gnaw  irregular  holes  and  when 
fiutficiently  numerous  entirely  riddle  the  leaves.  They  usually  dwell 
on  the  underside  of  the  leaves,  and  are  found  most  abundant  during 
tlie  months  of  May  and  June.  There  must  be  several  broods  during 
the  year,  and  the  same  species  is  often  found  in  all  stages,  and  of  all 
sizes  at  one  and  the  same  time.  In  all  probability  they  hybernate  in 
the  beetle  state. 

I  have  proved  by  experiment  that  Paris  green — one  part  of  the 
green  to  two  of  flour — when  sprinkled  under  the  vines,  will  kill  these 
insects,  though  not  near  so  readily  as  it  does    the   Colorado  Potato 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  ^1 

Bag.  Moreover,  as  these  Tortoise-beetles  usually  hide  on  the  under 
side  of  the  leaves,  and  as  the  vines  trail  on  the  ground,  it  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  apply  the  powder  without  running  some  risk  from  its  poison- 
ous qualities.  I  therefore  strongly  recommend  vigilance  when  the 
plants  are  first  planted,  and  by  tiie  figures  and  descriptions  given 
below  the  reader  will  be  enabled  to  recognize  and  kill  the  lew  beetles 
which  at  that  time  make  their  appearance,  and  thus  nip  the  evil  in 
the  bud.  The  Bermuda  and  Brazilian  Sweet-Potato  plants  are  more 
vigorous  than  the  Nansemond,  and  less  liable  to  be  attacked. 

THE  TWO-STRIPED  SWEET-POTATO  BEETLE— Cassirfa  Uivittata,,  Say. 

This  is  the  most  common  species  found  upon  the   Sweet-Potato^ 
[Fig.  32.]  and  seems  to  be  confined  to  that  plant,  as  I  have 

rT    r' """---^s^.^^^^      never  found  it  on  any  other  kind.    Its  transfor- 
^^^f^mations   were   first  described  by  myself  in  the 
\  '^}^:-)  Prairie  J^'armer  Annual^  for  186S,  (p.  53.)     The 

larva  (Fig, 27, 2  enlarged;  Fig.  32,  natural  size), 
«^  is  dirty  white  or  yellowish-white,  with  a  more 
or  less  intense  neutral-colored  longitudinal  line 
along  the  back,  usually  relieved  by  an  extra  light  band  each  side.  It 
differs  from  the  larvae  of  all  other  known  species  in  not  using  its  fork 
for  merdigerous  purposes.  Indeed,  this  fork  is  rendered  useless  as  a 
shield  to  the  body,  by  being  ever  enveloped,  after  the  first  moult,  in 
the  cast-off  prickly  skins,  which  are  kept  free  from  excrement. 
Moreover,  this  fork  is  seldom  held  close  down  to  the  back,  as  in  the 
other  species,  but  more  usually  at  an  angle  of  45°  over  or  from  the 
body,  thus  suggesting  the  idea  of  a  handle,  in  Kirby  &  Spence's  In- 
troduction (p.  426),  may  be  found  the  following  passage  in  reference 
to  the  positions  in  which  the  fork  of  the  larvns  of  these  Tortoise- 
beetles  is  carried:  "The  instrument  by  which  they  eftect  this  is  an 
anal  fork,  upon  which  they  deposit  their  excrement,  and  which  in 
some  is  turned  up  and  lies  flat  upon  their  backs ;  and  in  others  forms 
diflferent  angles,  from  very  acute  to  very  obtuse,  with  their  body ; 
and  occasionally  is  unbent  and  in  the  same  direction  with  it."  Reau- 
mur is  referred  to  as  authority  for  these  statements,  and  the  language 
would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  forks  were  thus  variously  carried 
by  different  species;  but  Reaumur  never  said  anything  of  the  sort. 
His  language  has  been  poorly  rendered,  for  he  distinctly  referred  to 
the  different  positions  which  the  same  insect  could  give  to  the  fork, 
and  I  believe  that  the  peculiarity  mentioned  above  has  never  been 
observed  in  the  larva?  of  any  other  species  of  the  genus. 

When  full  fed,  this  larva  attaches  itself  to  the  underside  of  the 
leaf,  and  in  two  days  the  skin  bursts  open  on  the  back,  and  is  worked 
down  towards  the  tail ;  when  the  pupa,  at  first  pale,  soon  acquires  a 
dull  brownish  color,  the  narrow  whitish  tail,  which  still  adheres  pos- 
teriorly, being  significant  of  the   species.    See  (Fig.  27,  3.) 

The  beetle  (Fig,  27,  *)  is  of  a  pale  yellow,  striped  with  black,  and 
though  broader   and  vastly  different  scientifically,  still  bears  a  gen- 


62 


SECOND   ANNUAL     REPORT   OF 


■\W'\\ 


eral resemblance  to  the  common   Cacnmher-heetle  (Bialroiica  vit- 
tata^  Fabr.) 

These  beetles  may  be  seen  quite  thick  around  young  peach  and 
apple  trees  quite  early  in  the  season,  and  a  little  later  they  venture 
into  the  trees  and  pair  off;  but  as  soon  as  the  Sweet-Potato  plants 
are  set,  they  leave  everything  else  for  them. 

THE  GOLDEN  TORTOISE-BEETLE— Ca.ssJda   aurichalcea,  Fabr. 

Next  to  the  preceding  species,  the  Golden  Tortoise-beetle  is  the 
most  numerous   on  our  sweet-potatoes;  but  it   does   not  couline  its 
'^^'^••^^•^  injuries  to  that  plant,  for  it  is  found 

in  equal  abundance  on  the  leaves  of 
the  Bitter-Sweet  and  on  the  dijfferent 
kinds  of  Convolvulus  or  Morning 
Glory.  The  lava  (Fig.  33,  a,  natural 
size  h,  enlarged  with  the  dung  taken 
liom  the  fork),  is  of  a  dark  brown 
I  fil^r,  with  a  pale  shade  upon  the 
back.  It  carries  its  fascifork  directly  over  the  back,  and  the  ex- 
crement is  arranged  in  a  more  or  less  regular  trilobed  pattern.  The 
loaded  fork  still  lies  close  to  the  back  in  the  pupa,  which  is  brown 
like  the  larva,  and  chiefly  characterized  by  three  dark  shades  on  the 
transparent  prothorax,  one  being  in  the  middle  and  one  at  each  side, 
as  represented  at  Figure  34,  c. 

The  perfect  beetle  (Fig.  34,  d)^  when  seen  in  all  its  splendor,  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  objects  that  can  well  be  imagined.  It  ex- 
actly resembles  a  piece  of  golden  tinsel,  and 
with  its  legs  withdrawn  and  body  lying  flat  to 
a  leaf,  the  uninitiated  would  scarcely  suppose 
it  to  be  an  insect,  did  it  not  suddenly  take  wing 
while  being  observed.  At  first  these  beetles 
are  of  a  dull  deep  orange  color,  which  strongly 
relieves  the  transparent  edges  of  the  wing-cov- 
ers and  helmet,  and  gives  conspicuousness  to  six  black  spots,  two  (in- 
dicated in  the  figure)  above,  and  two  on  each  side.  But  in  about  a 
week  after  they  have  left  the  pupa  shell,  or  as  soon  as  they  begin  to 
copulate,  they  shine  in  all  their  splendor,  and  these  black  spots  are 
scarcely  noticed. 

THE  PALE-THIGHBD  TORTOISE-BEETLE— Cassi(ia  paZ/Wa,  Herbst. 

Tliis  species  can  scarcely'-  be  distinguished  from  the  preceding. 
It  is  of  a  somewhat  broader,  rounder  form,  and  difl"ers  in  partially 
lacking  the  black  spots  on  the  wing-covers,  and  in  having  the  thighs 
entirely  pale  yellow,  while  in  auriGhalGea  they  are  black  at  the  base. 
It  likewise  feeds  upon  the  Sweet- Potato,  and  its  larva  differs  only 
from  that  of  the  former,  in  its  spines  being  brighter  and  lighter  col- 
ored, and  in  having  a  dull  orange  head,  and  a  halo  of  the  same  color 
on  the  anterior  portion  of  the  body. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


63 


rent  wine;  covers. 


THE  MOTTLED  TORTOISE-BEETLE— Cassidagullala,-- Oliv. 

This  species  (Fig.  3G)  which  is 
the  next  most  common  of  those 
found  on  the  Sweet-Potato  in  the 
latitude  of  St.  Louis,  is  at  once 
distinguished  from  all  the  others 
^here  described,  by  being  usually 
black,  with  the  shoulders  black  to 
the  extreme  edge  of  the  transpa- 
It  is  a  very  variable  species,  and  is  frequently  more 
or  less  speckled  or  mottled  with  gold,  while  more  rarely  it  has  a  uni- 
form golden  appearance. f 

The  larva,  which  is  represented  enlarged  and  with  the  dung  re- 
moved at  Figure  35,  a,  is  of  a  uniform  green  color,  with  a  bluish  shade 
along  the  back,  which  shade  disappears  however  whenever  the  insect 
has  fasted  for  a  few  hours.  It  carries  its  dung  in  irregular  broad 
masses,  often  branching  as  in  the  species  next  to  be  described.  The 
pupa  (Fig.  35,  h,)  is  also  of  a  uniform  green  color,  with  a  conspicuous 
black  ring  around  the  base  of  the  first  abdominal  pair  of  spiracles. 
Before  changing  to  pupa  and  previous  to  each  moult,  this  larva  is  in 
the  habit  of  removing  the  dung  from  its  fork. 


THE  BLACK-LEGGED  TORTOISE-BEETLE— Cossfda  nigripes,  Oliv. 


auriclialcea,  from   which  species 
its 


This  species,  Vv^hich  is 
likewise    found    on    the 
Sweet-Potato,  is   a  little 
the  largest  of  those  here- 
tofore   mentioned.      The 
beetle  (Fig.  38)  has  the 
power,  when  alive,  of  put- 
^ting  on  a  golden  hue,  but 
is  not  so    brilliant  as    C, 
at    once    distinguished   by 
size    and    by    its     black    legs    and    three    large    con- 
spicuous black  spots  on   each  wing-cover.     The  larva 
(Fig.  37,  Z-,)  is  of  a  pale   straw  color  with   the  spines, 
which  are  long,  tipped  with  black ;  and  besides  a  dusky 
shade  along  each  side  of  the  back,   it  has   two  dusky 
spots  immediately  behind  the  head,   and  below  these 
last,  two  larger  crescent  marks  of  the  same  color.    The 
dung  is  spread  in  a  characteristic   manner,   extending 
laterally  in  long  shreds  or  ramifications.    (See  Fig.  37,  «.)    The  pupa 

*  This  insect  is  referred  by  Boheman  to  the  genus  Cos focycZa,  which  diflFers  from  Cassirfa  by 
more  slender,  not  distinctly  clavate  and  nearly  filiform  antennae. 

f  This  species  has  very  probably  been  described  under  different  names.  It  is  C.  cruciata, 
Fabr.  ;  C.  signifer,  Herbst,  and  from  larvaj  found  on  the  same  batch  of  plants,  and  differing  in  no 
respect  whatever,  I  have  bred  specimens  which  were  determined  by  Le  Conte  as  C.  trabeala,  Lee. 


64  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

(Fig.  37,  e.)  is  dark  brown,  variegated  with  paler  brown  as  in  the   fig- 
ure, while  the  spines  around  the  edges  are  transparent  and  white. 


tup:  pickle  WOR^—PAacdlura  nitiialh,  Cramer. 

(Lepidoptera,  Marg-arodidae.) 

As  long  ago  as  the  year  1828,  Dr.  T.  W.  Harris  described  and 
named  the  common  Squash  Borer  {^■Sf/eria  [TrocJn'liuvi]  ciicurMtce). 
This  borer  is  a  true  caterpillar,  having  sixteen  legs,  and  very  much 
resembling  the  common  Peach  Borer.  It  is  hatched  in  the  early  part 
of  summer,  from  eggs  placed  by  the  parent  moth  on  the  stems  of  the 
vine,  close  to  the  root.  It  penetrates  the  stem,  and  by  devouring  the 
pith,  frequently  causes  the  death  of  the  vine.  When  full  fed  it  re- 
treats a  short  distance  into  the  ground  and  forms  a  cocoon  of  a  gummy 
substance  covered  with  particles  of  earth.  "Within  this  cocoon  it 
passes  the  winter,  and  early  the  next  summer  issues  as  a  moth.  This 
moth  is  very  beautiful,  with  a  conspicuous  orange  colored  body  spot- 
ted with  black ;  with  the  front  wings  blue-black  and  with  the  hind 
wings  perfectly  transparent. 

Ever  since  the  day  when  it  was  first  described  by  Harris,  this  in- 
sect has  been  known  as  the  Squash  Borer.  It  seems  to  be  confined, 
however,  to  a  few  of  the  more  Eastern  States,  and  although  Mr.  Wm. 
Klussman,  of  Pine  Bluff,  Arkansas,  thinks  he  is  troubled  with  this 
species,  and  has  given  up  the  growing  of  all  winter  squashes  in  con- 
sequence of  its  ravages  (  Country  Gentleman^  Nov.  11, 1869,  page  378), 
yet  it  certainly  is  not  of  common  occurrence  in  the  Yalley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, or  we  should  more  often  hear  of  it. 

There  is,  however,  another  borer  which  attacks  the  roots  of  cu- 
curbitaceous  vines,,  and  which  is  but  too  common  all  over  the  coun- 
try. 1  refer  to  that  ubiquitous  little  pest  the  Striped  Cucumber-beetle 
{DiahvotiGa  vittata^  Fabr.)  an  insect  which  annually  destroys  thou- 
sands of  dollars' worth  of  vines  in  the  United  States,  and  for  which 
remedies  innumerable — some  sensible,  but  the  greater  portion  not 
worth  the  paper  on  which  they  are  printed — are  published  every  j'ear 
in  our  different  agricultural  papers. 

The  natural  history  of  this  "Striped  Bug,"  as  it  is  more  commonly 
called,  was  first  made  known  in  the  V/est  by  Dr.  Henry  Shimer,  of  Mt. 
Carroll,  in  the  Prairie  Farmer^  for  August  12,  1865.  But  as  every- 
thing pertaining  to  such  a  very  common  and  destructive  insect,  can- 
not be  too  often  repeated,  I  will  here  relate  its  habits  in  the  briefest 
manner. 

The  parent  beetles  (Fig.  39)  make  their  appearance  quite  early 
[Fig.  39J  i,;i  the  season,  when  they  immediately  commence  their  work 
of  destruction.  They  frequently  penetrate  through  the  cracks 
that  are  made  by  the  swelling  and  sprouting  of  the  seeds  of 
melons,  cucumbers,  or  squashes,  and  by  nipping  off  the  young 
sprouts,  destroy  the  plant  before  it  is  even  out  of  the  ground. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


65 


Their  subsequent  work  when  the  vines  have  once  pushed  forth  their 
leaves,  is  too  well  known  to  need  description.  Yet  notwithstanding 
the  great  numbers  and  the  persistency  of  these  beetles,  we  finally  suc- 
ceed, with  the  proper  perseverance  and  vigilance,  in  nursing  and  pro- 
tecting our  vines,  till  we  think  they  are  large  enough  to  withstand  all 
attacks.  Besides,  by  this  time,  the  beetles  actually  begin  to  diminish 
in  numbers,  and  we  congratulate  ourselves  on  our  success.  But  lo! 
All  of  a  sudden,  many  of  our  vines  commence  to  wilt,  and  they  finally 
die  outright.  No  wound  or  injury  is  to  he  found  on  the  vine  above 
ground,  and  we  are  led  to  examine  the  roots.  Here  we  soon  discover 
the  true  cause  of  death,  for  the  roots  are  found  to  be  pierced  here  and 
there  with  small  holes,  and  excoriated  to  such  an  extent,  that  they 
present  a  corroded  appearance.  Upon  a  closer  examination  the 
authors  of  this  mischief  are  easily  detected,  either  imbedded  in  the 
root,  or  lurking  in  some  of  the  corroded  furrows.  They  are  little  whit- 
ish worms,  rather  more  than  a  third  of  an  inch  long,  and  as  thick  as  a 
good  sized  pin ;  the  head  is  blackish-brown  and  horny,  and  there  is  a 
plate  of  the  same  color  and  consistency  on  the  last  segment.  These 
worms  are  in  fact  the  young  of  the  same  Striped  Bug  which  had  been 
80  troublesome  on  the  leaves  earlier  in  the  season;  and  that  the  in- 
sect may  be  as  well  known  in  this,  its  masked  form,  as  it  is  in  the 
beetle  state,  I  present  the  annexed  highly  magnified  figures  of  the 
[Fig.  40.]  worm  (Fig.  40),  No.  1   showing  a  back  view 

and  No.  2  a  side  view.  The  beetles,  while 
feasting  themselves  on  the  tender  leaves  of 
the  vine,  were  also  pairing,  and  these  worms 
hatched  from  the  eggs  which  were  deposited 
^       ,j ,  ii,  J  »|,  near  the  roots  by  the  female.  When  the  worms 

I        iM  I        |4Ji  have  become  full-grown,  which  is   in   about  a 

I        ^'^  MJ|  month  after  they  hatch,  they  forsake  the  roots 

■*•       ^'   ''  '       *i  J/  and   retire  into  the   adjoining  earth,  where 

each  one,  by  continually  turning  around  and 
around,  and  compacting  the  earth  on  all  sides 
forms  for  itself  a  little  cavity  and  in  a  few  days 
throws  off  its  larva  skin  and  becomes  a  pupa. 
This  pupa  is  much  shorter  than  was  the  worm, 
and  is  represented  enlarged  in  the  annexed  Figure  41,  No.  1  ventral 
[Fig.  41.]  view,  and  No.  2  back  view,  the  hair  lines  at  the  sides 

showing  the  natural  size.  This  pupa  state  lasts  about 
■rtwo  weeks,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the  skin  is  again 
moulted,  and  the  perfect  beetle  form  assumed.  All 
the  parts  of  this  newly  developed  beetle  are  at  first 
soft,  but  after  remaining  motionless  in  its  cell,  till 
these  soft  parts  have  acquired  solidity  and  strength,  it  breaks  through 
the  walls  of  its  prison  and  works  itself  up  to  the  light  of  day. 

There  are  from  two  to  three  generations  each  year,  the  number 
varying  according  to  the  latitude,  or  the  length  of  the  winter.    To 
5 — E  R  .  ' 


66  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OJ* 

show  however,  how  the  different  broods  run  into  one  another,  and  to 
prove  how  diflficult  it  is  to  separate  them  by  distinct  lines,  I  will  state 
that  at  Kirkwood,  Mo.,  I  found  this  insect  abundant  in  its  three  stages 
of  larva,  pupa,  and  beetle,  during  the  first  days  of  October  last.  And 
in  a  large  jar  partly  filled  with  earth,  in  which  I  placed  a  number  of 
infested  roots  about  that  time,  I  to-day  (Nov.  8, 1869)  find  both  pupae 
and  beetles.  The  soil  in  this  jar  was  kept  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the 
same  condition  as  that  out  ot  doors,  and  as  I  noticed  the  beetles 
around  the  vines  even  after  the  first  frosts,  I  am  led  to  infer  that,  in 
this  latitude  at  least,  the  insect  often  hybernates  as  a  beetle,  and  not 
always  as  a  pupa,  as  intimated  by  Dr.  Shimer. 

Of  all  the  multifarious  remedies  proposed  against  the  attacks  of 
this  insect,  there  are  none  so  effectual  or  so  cheap  in  the  end,  as  in- 
closing the  young  vines  in  boxes  which  are  open  at  the  bottom,  and 
covered  with  millinet  on  the  top.  Such  boxes  are  made  at  a  trivial 
cost,  and  if  properly  stored  away  each  season  after  use,  will  last  for 
many  years.  Whenever  other  remedies  must  from  necessity  be 
resorted  to,  there  is  nothing  better  than  sprinkling  the  vines, 
early  in  the  morning  with  Paris-green  and  flour,  (one  part  of  the 
green  to  four  or  five  of  flour)  or  with  white  hellebore.  It  of  course 
follows,  that  if  the  beetles  are  effectually  kept  off,  there  will  after- 
wards be  no  worms  at  the  roots. 

Much  complaint  was  made  last  summer,  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  of  the  sudden  death  of  cucurbitaceous  vines,  frorE  some  un- 
known cause,  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher  seems  to  have  suffered  in 
this  manner,  like  the  rest  of  us,  but  could  find  no  worms  in  the  roots 
of  his  vines.  I  know  from  experience  that  such  vines  are  subject  to 
a  species  of  rot  in  the  root — a  rot  not  caused  by  insects,  and  for  that 
reason  the  more  serious,  since  we  cannot  tell  how  to  preventit.  I  have 
seen  whole  melon  patches  destroyed  by  this  rotting  of  the  roots,  but 
in  the  great  majority  of  instances  where  I  have  examined  vines  that 
had  died  from  "  some  unknown  cause,"  I  have  had  no  difficulty  in  either 
Jnding  the  worms  of  the  "Striped  Bug"  yet  at  work  on  the  roots,  or 
else  the  unmistakable  marks  of  their  having  been  there.  Indeed,  by 
the  time  a  vine  dies  from  the  effects  of  their  gnawings  and  burrow- 
ings,  the  worms  have  generally  become  fully  grown,  and  have  hidden 
themselves  in  their  little  pupal  cavities. 

So  much  for  the  two  borers  which  have  heretofore  been  known  to 
attack  plants  belonging  to  the  Gourd  family.  We  have  seen  how  they 
both  bore  into  the  roots  of  these  plants,  and  how  one  of  them  in  the 
perfect  state  attacks  the  leaves.  No  other  borers  have  been  known 
to  attack  these  plants,  though  the  12-Spotted  Diabrotica  (D.  12-pu7ic- 
[Fig.  42]  taia,  Fig.  42)^  may  often  be  found  embedded  in  the  rind  of 
both  melons,  cucumbers  and  squashes.  But  we  now  come  to 
a  third  insect  which  attacks  plants  of  this  same  Gourd  fam- 
i,,[,,iN~  ily.  It  neither  bores  into  the  root,  nor  devours  the  foliage, 
however,  but  seems  to  confine  itself  to  the  fruit ;  and  I  have 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


67 


called  it  the  Pickle  Worm,  from  the  fact  of  its  often  being  found    n 
cucumbers  that  have  been  pickled. 

[Fig.  43]  At  Figure  43,  <»  1  represent 

one  of  these  worms  of  tlie  \\a\- 
lal  size.  They  vary  much  m 
(ppearance,  some  being  of  a 
vellowish-white,  and  very 
MUi'h  resembling  theinsi.le  of 
1  unripe  melon,  while  oiliers 
re  tinged  more  or  less  with 
,reen.  They  are  all  quite  soft 
ind  translucent,  atid  there  is 
'  transverse  rowof  eight  shiny, 
ightly  elevated  spots  on 
u-h  segment,  and  an  addi- 
nil  tvvo  he' in)  *lui  others 
on  the  back.  (See  Fig.  43,  ^.)  Along  the  back  and  towar  t'e 
head,  these  spots  are  larger  than  at  the  sides,  and  each  spot  gives  rise 
to  a  fine  hair.  The  specimen  from  which  1  obtained  my  first  m.  th 
last  summer  was  very  light  colored,  and  these  -i^nt^  >  o  c,  ,.,  y 
the  color  of  the  body  as  to  be  scarcely  visible.  The  head  was  honey- 
yellow  bordered  with  a  brown  line  and  with  three  black  confluent 
spots  at  the  palpi. 

The  cervical  shield  or  horny  plate  on  the  first  segment  was  of  the 
same  color  as  the  body,  and  so  transparent  that  the  brown  border  of 
the  head  when  retracted  shone  distinctly  through  it  as  at  Figure  43, 
h.  The  breathing-holes  or  stigmata  are  small,  oval,  and  of  the  same 
color  as  the  body,  with  a  fulvous  ring  around  them.  In  some  of  the 
young  worms  the  shiny  spots  are  quite  black  and  conspicuous.  My 
late  associate,  Mr.  Walsh,  communicated  to  me  the  following  descrip- 
tion of  such  a  marked  specimen,  from  which  he  bred  the  very  same 
species  of  moth  as  from  the  paler  individuals  :  The  description  was 
taken  when  the  worm  was  but  half  grown. 

Length  ^  inch.  Color  pale  greenish-yellow;  16  legs.  Head  pale 
rufous,  the  Y-shaped  sutures  and  the  mouth  black.  Cervical  shield  as 
in  Figure  43,  6?,  each  half  edged  with  black,  center  rufous.  Marked 
under  shield  on  each  side  as  at^,  and  the  same  lateral  marking  on  joints, 
2  and  3.  Above  on  joints  2  and  3  as  at  f.  On  joints  4-11,  eight  (in- 
cluding 2  lateral)  spots  transversely  arranged,  and  behind  these,  two 
dorsal  spots.  Of  the  eight  spots  the  two  lateral  ones  on  eich  side  are 
substigmatal.  Stigmata  edged  with  dusky.  Anal  joint  with  five  spots 
as  in  ff,  the  middle  one  large  and  transverse.  Body  with  some  sparse 
long  dusky  hairs,  6-8  times  as  long  as  wide,  a  little  tapered  toward 
the  head.    Spins  a  thread.    Legs  and  prolegs  nearly  immaculate. 

The  worms  commenced  to  appear  in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis, 
about  the  middle  of  July,  and  they  continued  their  destructive  work 
till  the  end  of  September.  They  bore  cylindrical  holes  into  the  fruit 
and  feed  on  its  fleshy  parts.    They  are  gross  feeders  and  produce  a 


68  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

large  amount  of  soft  excrement.  I  have  found  as  many  as  four  in  a 
medium-sized  cucumber,  and  a  single  worm  will  often  cause  the  fruit 
to  rot.  They  develop  very  rapidly  and  come  to  their  growth  in  from 
three  to  four  weeks.  When  about  to  transform  they  forsake  the  fruit 
in  which  they  had  burrowed,  and  drawing  together  portions  of  some 
leaf  that  lies  on  or  near  the  ground,  spin  a  slight  cocoon  of  white  silk. 
Within  this  cocoon  they  soon  become  slender  brown  chrysalids  with 
the  head  parts  prolonged,  and  with  a  very  long  ventral  sheath  which 
encloses  the  legs.  If  it  is  not  too  late  in  the  season  the  moths  issue 
in  from  eight  to  ten  days  afterwards.  The  late  individuals,  however, 
pass  the  winter  within  their  cocoons;  though,  from  the  fact  that  some 
moths  come  out  as  late  as  November,  I  infer  that  they  may  also  win- 
ter over  in  the  moth  state. 

The  moth  produced  by  this  worm  (of  which  Figure  43,  ^■,  repre- 
sents the  male)  is  very  strikingly  marked.  It  is  of  a  yellowish-brown 
color,  with  an  iris-purple  reflection,  the  front  wings  having  an  irregu- 
lar, serai-transparent,  dull  golden-yellow  spot,  not  reaching  their 
front  edge,  and  constricted  at  their  lower  edge;  and  the  hind  wings 
having  their  inner  two-thirds  of  this  same  semi-transparent  yellow. 
The  under  surfaces  have  a  more  decided  pearly  lustre.  The  thighs, 
the  breast,  and  the  abdomen  below,  are  all  of  a  beautiful  silvery- 
white,  and  the  other  joints  of  the  long  legs  are  of  the  same  tawny  or 
golden-yellow  as  the  semi-transparent  parts  of  the  wings.  The  ab- 
domen of  the  female  terminates  in  a  small  flattened  black  brush, 
squarely  trimmed,  and  the  segment  directly  preceding  this  brush  is  of 
a  rust-brown  color  above.  The  corresponding  segment  in  the  male 
is,  on  the  contrary,  whitish  anteriorly  and  of  the  same  color  as  the 
rest  of  the  body  posteriorly,  and  he  is,  moreover,  at  once  distinguished 
from  the  female,  by  the  immense  brush  at  his  tail,  which  is  generally 
much  larger  than  represented  in  the  above  figure,  and  is  composed  of 
narrow,  lengthened  {ligulate)  scales,  which  remind  one  of  the  petals 
of  the  common  English  daisy,  some  of  these  scales  being  whitish, 
some  orange,  and  others  brown.  This  moth  was  described  nearly  a 
century  ago  by  Cramer,  under  the  scientific  name  of  Phak\_G\ellura 
nitidalis,  and  it  may  be  known  in  English  as  the  Neat  Cucumber 
Moth.  The  genus  to  which  it  belongs  is  characterized  chiefly  by  the 
partly  transparent  wings,  and  by  the  immense  scaly  brush  of  the 
males.  The  antennae  are  long,  fine  and  thread-like,  those  of  the  male 
being  very  finely  ciliated ;  the  abdomen  extends  beyond  the  wings, 
and  the  legs  are  very  long  and  slender.  The  species  are  for  the  most 
part  exotic,  and  the  larvae  of  all  of  them,  so  far  as  known,  feed  on 
cucurbitaceous  plants. 

The  following  item,  taken  from  a  St.  Louis  paper,  though  some- 
what facetious,  will  give  an  idea  uf  the  extent  of  the  injuries  caused 
by  this  insect  in  that  vicinity : 

What's  the  matter  with  the  cucumbers  ?  A  lady  of  our  acquaint- 
ance, the  other  day,  sent  to  market  to  purchase  some  cucumbers  for 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  69 


Dicklin?  purposes.  They  were  placed  in  a  vessel  to  be  washed  previ- 
ous to  bein-  put  in  the  brine.  It  was  then  observed  that,  small,  sin- 
glailoSif worms  clung  in  the  ^wrinkles' on  the  outside  of  some 
!f  the  cucumbers.  These  were  washed  oil,  when  accident  led  to  the 
dscoverv  lat  inside  every  one  of  the  cucumbers  was  secreted  a 
white  ccfrr^atecl,  creeping  th^  from  half  an  inch  to  over  an  inch 
rnl%rresembiingiUi^^  a  rattlesnake's  rattles,  and  not  a 

very  P^-etty  object  to'look  upon.  It  turns  out  that  "ear  y,  if  not  all 
the  cucumbers  brought  to  this  market  this  season  ^re  affected  the 
same  wav  These  worms  certainly  do  not  look  very  good  to  eat  in 
the  unpickled  form;  but  we  are  told  that  they  are  entirely  harmless 
n  the  natural  state  and  probably  add  to  the  pungency  and  cnspness 
of  the  gherkin  when  forming  part  of  the  chow-chow,  and  other 
relishes  which  grace  every  well  regulated  sQ^are  meal  Like  tie 
mites  in  the  cheese,  which  with  some  are  supposed  to  testify  to  ttie 
good  qualitv  and  healthfalness  of  the  artic  e,  we  f  PP^^^^^^^f/" 
the  pickles  may  fairly  be  considered  a  question  of  taste  but,  tits 
not  obtrusive,  we  will  add  that  we  do  not  believe  they  are  to  o.^;  taste 
or  digestion,  knd,  if  it  is  all  the  same  to  the  cucumber  merchants,  we 
would  rather  not  take  any  in  our'n. 

In  Missouri,  I  have  myself  found  this  insect  quite  abundant  in 
various  parts  of  St.  Louis  and  Jefferson  counties,  and  the  cucumbers 
eeem  to  have  fared  worse  than  the  melons.  That  it  was  not  confined 
to  these  two  counties,  is  also  proved  by  the  following  communication 
which  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  AgricuUure,  of  September  10, 
1869: 

Pleasant  Hill.  Mo..  Septemler  2  1869. -Last  ™t^r'„\e^^"f 
manv  glowing  accounts  of  the  "Alton  Large  Nutmeg  Melon,  I  sent 
to  Mr.  Barler  and  procured  some,  paying  thirty  cents  an  ounce  lor 
th^m;  planted  and  worked  well;  during  August,  l^«,?/0T,,'!?fJw 
The  first  few  tasted  right  well,  but  soon  mj  "Green  Citron  cantelope 
ripening,  the  difference  in  the  taste  of  the  two  was  found  to  be  so 
great  th'at  we  could  not  eat  the  Alton  Nutmeg.  Furthermore  the 
latter  had  worms  in  them-the  larvas  of  some  ^f  ect-eating  into 
nearly  every  one.  The  Green  Citron  was  rarely  at  aeked  by  them,  i 
have  raised'this  variety  of  Green  Citron  for  several  years,  and  would 
not  give  one  of  the  melons  for  a  dozen  Alton  Nutmegs.  It  is  s^Neet, 
juicy  and  very  rich  in  taste.  When  a  boy,  I  can  ^en^T^^',l'^"the 
lope  that  was  raised  by  ray  father,  called  "Persian."  1  thmk  the 
Green  Citron  probably  derived  from  it.  ^^^^^^        ^   ^    Bboadhead. 

In  Illinois,  it  was  very  destructive  around  Alton,  during  the 
month  of  August;  for,  on  July  19th,  I  received  specimens  from  G^W. 
Copley,  of  that  place,  and  found  (Sept.  2,  1869),  on  visiting  Mr.  O.  L. 
Barler's  large  melon  fields,  that  fully  three-fourths  of  his  melons  had 
been  injured  by  it.  Since  then,  several  other  Alton  men  have  as- 
sured me  that  it  was  equally  destructive  vvilh  them.  It  also  occurred 
around  Springfield,  tor  Mr.  P.  M.  Springer  sent  to  me,  the  last  of  Octo- 
ber, a  specimen  of  the  moth  which  he  had  bred  from  a  cucumber- 
boring  worm;  while  Mr.  Walsh  also  found  it  abundant  at  Kock  Is- 
land, in  the  northern  part  of  that  State. 

In  Michigan,  as  I  learned  from  Mr.  W.  B.  Ransom,  of  St.  Joseph, 


70  SECOND  ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

it  greatly  injured  the  cucumbers  and  melons  around  that  place;  and 
Mr.  Glover,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  informs  me  that  he  has 
found  the  worm  on  Squash,  in  Florida,  in  July.  Thus  it  appears  that 
this  Pickle  Worm  has  a  wide  range,  and  that  last  summer  it  simul- 
taneously fell  upon  the  cucumbers  and  melons  in  widely  different 
parts  of  the  country.  Of  course,  in  making  pickles,  the  worm  is 
pickled  with  the  cucumber,  and  we  shall  consequently  continue  to 
hear  startling  stories  about  the  worms  in  the  pickles. 

This  insect,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  has  never  before  been  fig- 
gured  or  described  in  this  country;  nor  can  I  find  any  mention  made 
of  its  destructive  work  in  past  years.  I  am,  therefore,  led  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  never  numerous  or  destructive  enough  in  the  past, 
to  attract  attention.  This  fact  becomes  the  more  astonishing,  when 
we  consider  how  wide-spread  and  general  its  injuries  were  the  past 
summer;  and  it  furnishes  another  illustration  of  the  sudden  and  enor- 
mous increase,  in  some  particular  year,  of  an  insect  which  had 
scarcely  ever  before  been  noticed. 

The  system  of  Nature  is  so  complicated,  and  every  animal  organ- 
ism is  subject  to  so  many  influences  that  affect  its  increase  or  de- 
crease, that  we  are  not  surprised  at  the  fluctuation  in  the  relative 
numbers  of  any  particular  species.  The  "  Struggle  for  Life,"  as  ex- 
pounded by  Darwin,  is  no  where  more  effectual  in  bringing  about 
changes  than  in  insect  life.  We  are  at  first  a  little  puzzled  to  ac- 
count for  the  sudden  advent,  and  the  equally  sudden  departure  of 
such  insects  as  the  Army-worm,  Chinch  Bug,  Wheat  Midge,  etc,  but 
when  we  once  acquire  a  just  conception  of  the  tangled  web  in  which 
every  insect  is  involved,  we  wonder  rather  that  the  balance  is  so  well 
kept. 

Our  Pickle-worm  is  an  indigenous  species,  and  has,  doubtless, 
existed  in  some  part  or  other  of  the  country  from  time  immemorial ; 
and  now  that  its  habits  are  recorded  and  its  history  made  known,  I 
should  not  We  at  all  surprised  to  learn  that  individuals  have  suffered 
from  it  in  years  gone  by.  The  French  Entomologist,  Guen^e,  gives 
as  its  food-plant,  a  species  of  potato,  and  it  is  just  possible  that  it  may 
not  always  have  fed  upon  the  same  plants  on  which  it  was  found  last 
summer.  At  all  events,  let  us  hope  that  it  will  disappear  as  suddenly 
as  it  appeared  ;  but  should  it  occur  in  great  numbers  again  next  year, 
the  foregoing  account  will  enable  those  who  grow  melons,  cucum- 
bers or  squashes,  to  understand  their  enemy,  and  to  nip  the  evil  in 
the  bud,  by  carefully  overhauling  their  vines  early  in  the  summer, 
and  destroying  the  first  worms  that  appear,  either  by  feeding  the  in- 
fested fruit  to  hogs  or  cattle,  or  by  killing  the  worms  on  the  spot.  I 
know  from  experience  that  this  worm  when  pickled  with  the  cucum- 
ber, does  not  in  the  least  affect  its  taste,  and  is  not  in  the  least  inju- 
rious to  the  human  system  ;  but  as  it  is  not  very  desirable  food,  pickles 
should  always  be  halved,  before  being  brought  to  the  table,  especially 
if  they  were  gathered  from  a  field  or  garden  known  to  be  infested. 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 

INSECTS  INJURIOUS  TO  THE  GRAPE-VINE. 


71 


Under  this  head,  I  shall  continue  the  series  of  articles  bef>;un  in 
my  First  Report,  in  order  to  give  the  grape-growers  of  our  State  a 
thorough  understanding  of  their  insect  enemies,  and  thus  lessen  the 
hindrances  and  drawbacks  to  viticulture — that  most  important  and 
pleasant  part  of  rural  industry,  which  is  increasing  with  such  unpre- 
cedented rapidity. 

THE  HOG-CATERPILLAR  OF  THE  YmY^—Chmrocampa  pmnpi- 

natrix^  Sm.  &  Abb.* 

[Lepidoptera,  Sphingidse.] 
[Fig.  44.1 

Of  the  large  solitary  cat- 
erpillars that  attack  the 
Grape-vine,  this  is  by  far 
the  most  common  and  inju- 
rious in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley. I  have  frequently 
found  the  egg  of  this  insect 
glued  singly  to  the  under- 
side of  a  leaf.  It  is  0.05  inch 
in  diameter,  perfectly  round 
and  of  a  uniform  delicate 
yellowish-green  color.  The 
young  worm  which  hatches 
from  it,  is  pale  green,  with 
a  long  straight  horn  at  its  tail ;  and  after  feeding  from  four  to  five 
weeks  it  acquires  its  full  growth,  when  it  presents  the  appearance  of 
Figure  4i,  the  horn  having  become  comparatively  shorter  and  ac- 
quired a  posterior  curve. 

This  worm  is  readily  distinguished  from  other  grape-feeding  spe- 
cies by  having  the  third  and  fourth  rings  immensely  swollen,  while 
the  first  and  second  rings  are  quite  small  and  retractile.  It  is  Irom 
this  peculiar  appearance  of  the  fore  part  of  the  body,  which  strikingly 
suggests  the  fat  cheeks  and  shoulders  and  small  head  of  a  blooded 
hog,  that  it  may  best  be  known  as  the  Hog-caterpillar  of  the  vine. 
The  color  of  this  worm  when  full  grown  is  pea-green,  and  it  is  wrink- 
led transversely  and  covered  with  numerous  pale-yellow  dots,  placed 

*Synonyms,  Sphinx,  [Darapsa]  myron,  Cramer  ;  Otus  cnotus,  Iluebner.  Of  the  four  different 
generic  names  under  which  this  species  has  been  classified,  "  Spkmx"  is  a  general  term  for  all  the 
Hawk-moths  and  refers  to  the  sphinx-like  attitude  often  assumed  by  their  larva3 ;  ''  Charocnmpa"  is 
derived  from  two  Greek  words  which  mean  "  Hog-caterpillar ;"  and  "  Darapsa"  and  "  0/«s"  are 
gibberish  Of  the  three  different  specific  names,  "  Myron"  refers  to  an  ancient  Greek  who  bore 
this  appellation,  "  cnotui"  is  pure  unadulterated  gibberish,  and  " pnmpinatrix"  is  from  the  Latin 
and  signifies  "a  female  vine-pruner."  Both  Harris  and  Fitch  describe  this  insect  under  the  name  of 
Chcerocampa  pampinatrix ;  and  this,  as  the  appellation  best  known  to  our  grape-growers,  and  the 
most  characteristic  of  the  habits  of  the  species,  I  should  prefer  to  retain,  although  no  doubt,  ac- 
cording to  the  strict  Law  of  Priority,  the  specific  name  of  Myron  ought  to  be  employed.  Mr. 
Walker,  Dr.  Clemens  and  Dr.  Morris  call  this  species  "Darapsa  Myron,"  and  Mr.  Grote  calls  it 
"  Otus  Myron."  By  ringing  the  changes  with  sufficient  ingenuity  upon  the  four  generic  and  the 
three  specific  names,  we  may  obtain  no  less  than  twelve  different  names  for  this  one  insect ! 


T2 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


in  irregular  transverse  rows.  An  oblique  cream-colored  lateral  band, 
bordered  below  with  a  darker  green,  and  most  distinct  on  the  middle 
segments,  connects  with  a  cream-colored  subdorsal  line,  which  is  bor- 
dered above  with  darker  green,  and  which  extends  from  the  head  to 
the  horn  at  the  tail.  There  are  five  and  often  six  somewhat  pale  yel- 
low triangular  patches  along  the  back,  each  containing  a  lozenge- 
shaped  lilac-colored  spot.  The  head  is  small,  with  yellow  granula- 
tions, and  four  perpendicular  yellow  lines,  and  the  spiracles  or  breath- 
ing holes  are  orange-brown.  When  about  to  transform,  the  color  of 
this  worm  usually  changes  to  a  pinkish-brown,  the  darker  parts  being 
of  a  beautiful  mixture  of  crimson  and  brown.  Previous  to  this 
change  of  color  Mr.  J.  A.  Lintner,  of  Schoharie,  New  York,  has  ob- 
served the  worm  to  pass  its  mouth  over  the  entire  surface  ot  its  body, 
even  to  the  tip  of  its  horn,  covering  it  with  a  coating  of  apparently 
glutinous  matter — the  operation  lasting  about  two  hours.*  Before 
[Fig.  45.]  transforming  into  the  pupa  or  <•     v  alis 

state,  it  descends  from  the  vine,  and  with- 
in some  fallen  leaf  or  under  any  other 
,  rubbish  that  may  be  lying  on  the  ground, 
forms  a  mesh  of  strong  brown  silk,  within 
which  it  soon  changes  to  a  chrysalis  (Fig. 
45.)  of  a  pale,  warm  yellow,  speckled  and 
spotted  with  brown,  but  characterized  chiefly  by  the  conspicuous 
dark  brown  spiracles  and  -broad  brown  incisures  of  the  three  larger 
abdominal  segments. 

The  moth  (Fig.  46)  which 
in  time  bursts  from  this 
.chrysalis,  has  the  body  and 
front  wings  of  a  fleshy -gray, 
marked  and  shaded  with 
olive-green  as  in  the  figure, 
while  the  hind  wings  are  of 
a  (h^ep  rust  color,  with  a 
small  shade  of  gray  near 
their  inner  angle. 
This  insect  is,  in  northerly  regions,  one-brooded,  but  tow  Md<  the 
south  two-brooded,  the  first  worms  appearing,  in  the  latitude  of  St. 
Louis,  during  June  and  July,  and  giving  out  the  moths  about  two 
weeks  after  they  become  chrysalids,  or  from  the  middle  of  July  to  the 
first  of  August.  The  worms  of  the  second  brood  are  full  grown  in 
September,  and  passing  the  winter  in  the  chrysalis  state,  give  out  the 
moths  the  following  May.  On  one  occasion  1  found  at  South  Pass, 
Illinois,  a  worm  but  one-half  grown  and  still  feeding  as  late  as  0«;to- 
ber  20th,  a  circumstance    which   would    lead    to   the  belief  that  at 


^^ 


«Proc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  Ill,  p. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


73 


points  where  the  winters  are  mild,  they  may  even  hybernate  in  the 
larva  state. 

This  worm  is  a  most  voracious  feeder,  and  a  single  one  will  some- 
times strip  a  small  vine  of  its  leaves  in  a  few  nights.  According  to 
Harris  it  does  not  even  confine  its  attacks  to  the  leaves,  but  in  its 
progress  from  leaf  to  leaf,  stops  at  every  cluster  of  fruit,  and  either 
from  stupidity  or  disappointment,  nips  off  the  stalks  of  the  half-grown 
grapes  and  allows  them  to  fall  to  the  ground  untasted.  It  is  fortu- 
nate for  the  grape-grower,  therefore,  that  Nature  has  furnished  the 
ready  means  to  prevent  its  ever  becoming  excessively  numerous,  for 
I  have  never  known  it  to  swarm  in  very  great  numbers.  The  obvious 
reason  is,  that  it  is  so  freely  attacked  by  a  small  parasitic  Ichneumon 
fly— belonging  to  a  genus  {Microgaster)  exceedingly  numerous  in 
species— that  three  out  of  every  four  worms  that  we  meet  with  will 
generally  be  found  to  be  thus  victimized.  The  eggs  of  the  parasite 
are  deposited  within  the  body  of  the  worm,  while  it  is  yet  young,  and 
the  young  maggots  hatching  from  them  feed  on  the  fatty  parts  of  their 
victim.  After  the  last  moult  of  a  worm  that  has  been  thus  attacked, 
numerous  little  heads  may  be  seen  gradually  pushing  through  differ- 
ent parts  of  its  body;  and  as  soon  as  they  have  worked  themselves 
so  far  out  that  they  are  held  only  by  the  last  joint  of  the  body,  they 
commence  forming  their  small  snow-white  cocoons,  [Fig.  48.] 
[Fi-.  47.]  which  stand  on  ends  and  present 

e  r"'^  ^i  sm^Bl  ^^^^^  appearance  of  Figure  47.  In 
^^'"^'W^'y^S^^^J  about  a  week  the  fly  (Fig.  48,  «, 
y^^K^Sg.  magnified ;  J,  natural  size)  pushes 
open  a  little  lid  which  it  had  pre- 
viously cut  with  its  jaws,  and  soars  away  to  fulfil  its  mission.  It  is 
one  of  those  remarkable  and  not  easily  explained  facts,  which  often 
confront  the  student  of  Nature,  that,  while  one  of  these  Hog-cater- 
pillars in  its  normal  and  healthy  condition  may  be  starved  to  death 
in  two  or  three  days,  another,  that  is  writhing  with  its  body  full  of 
parasites  will  live  without  food  for  as  many  weeks.  Indeed,  I  have 
known  one  to  rest  for  three  weeks  without  food  in  a  semi-paralyzed 
condition,  and  after  the  parasitic  flies  had  all  escaped  from  their 
cocoons,  it  would  rouse  itself  and  make  a  desperate  eff'ort  to  regain 
strength  by  nibbling  at  a  leaf  which  was  offered  to  it.  But  all  worms 
thus  attacked  succumb  in  the  end,  and  I  cannot  conclude  this  ar- 
ticle to  better  advantage  than  by  reminding  the  Grape-grower,  that 
he  should  let  alone  all  such  as  are  found  to  be  covered  with  the  white 
cocoons  above  illustrated,  and  not,  as  has  been  often  done,  destroy 
them  under  the  false  impression  that  the  cocoons  are  the  eggs  of  the 
worm.  Numbers  of  these  little  white  cocoons  are  sent  to  me  every 
year  under  tlie  supposition  that  they  are  eggs,  and  no  doubt  many  of 
them  get  destroyed  by  the  very  persons  who  ought  to  cherish  them. 


74  SECOND     ANNUAL    REPORT   OP 

THE  ACHEMON  SFRlNX—FJiilampelus  aehemon,  Drury.* 

(Lepidoptera,  Sphingidse.) 
[Fig.  49.] 


This  is  another  of  the  large  Grape-vine-feeding  insects,  belonging 
to  the  great  Sphinx  family,  and  which  may  be  popularly  known  as 
the  Achemon  Sphinx.  It  has  been  found  in  almost  every  State  where 
the  Grape  is  cultivated,  and  also  occurs  in  Canada.  It  feeds  on  the 
American  Ivy  {Ampelopsis  quinquefoUa^  with  as  much  relish  as  on 
[Fig-  50.]  the   Grape-vine,   and   seems   to 

show  no  preference  for  any  of 
|the  different  varieties  of  the  lat- 
ter. It  is,  however,  worthy  of 
remark,  that  both  its  food-plants 
belong  to  the  same  botanical  Family. 

The  full  grown  larva  (Fig.  49.)  is  usually  found  during  the  latter 
part  of  August  and  fore  part  of  September.  It  measures  about  3^ 
inches  when  crawling,  which  operation  is  effected  by  a  series  of  sud- 

[Fig.  51.] 


den  jerks.  The  third  segment  is  the  largest,  the  second  but  half  its 
size  and  the  first  still  smaller,  and  when  at  rest  the  two  last  men- 
tioned segments  are  partly  withdrawn  into  the  third  as  shown  in  the 
figure.  The  young  larva  is  green,  with  a  long  slender  reddish  horn 
rising  from  the  eleventh  segment  and   curving  over  the  back,  and 

*The  synonyms  for  this  insect  are  Sphinx  Grantor,  Cramer,  and  Pholus  crantor,  Huebner.  The 
genus  Philampelm — meaning  literaUy  "  fond  of  the  vine" — was  erected  by  Harris  to  include  this 
and  the  next  species. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  75 

though  I  have  found  full  grown  specimens  that  were  equally  as 
green  as  the  younger  ones,  they  more  generally  assume  a  pale  straw 
or  reddish-brown  color,  and  the  long  recurved  horn  is  invariably 
replaced  by  a  highly  polished  lenticular  tubercle.  The  descriptions 
extant  of  this  worm  are  quite  brief  and  incomplete.  The  specimen 
from  which  my  drawing  was  made,  was  of  a  pale  straw  color  which 
deepened  at  the  sides  and  finally  merged  into  a  rich  vandyke-brown. 
A  line  of  a  feitille-morie  brown,  deep  and  distinct  on  the  anterior 
part,  but  indistinct  and  almost  effaced  on  the  posterior  part  of  each 
segment,  ran  along  the  back,  and  another  line  of  the  same  color,  con- 
tinuous, and  with  its  upper  edge  fading  gradually,  extended  along 
each  side.  The  six  scalloped  spots  were  cream-colored ;  the  head, 
thoracic  segments  and  breathing-holes  inclined  to  flesh-color,  and  the 
prolegs  and  caudal  plate  were  deep  brown.  The  worm  is  covered 
more  or  less  with  minute  spots  which  are  dark  on  the  back  but  light 
and  annulated  at  the  sides,  while  there  are  from  six  to  eight  trans- 
verse wrinkles  on  all  but  the  thoracic  and  caudal  segments. 

The  color  of  the  worm,  when  about  to  transform,  is  often  of  a 
most  beautiful  pink  or  crimson.  The  chrysalis  (Fig.  50)  is  formed 
within  a  smooth  cavity  under  ground.  It  is  of  a  dark  shiny  mahogany- 
brown  color,  shagreened  or  roughened,  especially  at  the  anterior 
edge  of  the  segments  on  the  back. 

Unlike  the  Hog-caterpillar  of  the  Vine,  just  described,  this  in- 
sect is  everywhere  single-brooded,  the  chrysalis  remaining  in  the 
ground  through  the  fall,  winter  and  spring  months,  and  producing 
the  moth  towards  the  latter  part  of  June.  I  rather  incline  to  believe 
however  that  there  may  be  exceptions  to  the  rule  in  southerly  lati- 
tudes, and  that  in  such  latitudes  it  may  sometimes  be  double- 
brooded  ;  for  I  have  known  the  moth  to  issue  near  St.  Louis  during 
the  first  days  of  August,  and  have  this  very  year  found  two  worms  in 
the  same  locality  as  late  as  the  25th  of  October,  neither  of  which  was 
quite  full  grown,  though  the  leaves  on  the  vines  upon  which  they 
were  found  had  almost  all  fallen.  Apparently  such  premature  de- 
velopment of  Sphuix  moths  is  a  well-known  occurrence  among  the 
different  European  species;  for  Chas.  Darwin  remarks  that  "  a  num- 
ber of  moths,  especially  Sphinx  moths,  when  hatched  in  the  autumn 
out  of  their  proper  season,  are  completely  barren ;  though  the  fact  of 
their  barrenness  is  still  involved  in  some  obscurity.* 

The  moth  (Fig.  51),  is  of  a  brown- gray  color  variegated  with 
light  brown,  and  with  the  dark  spots,  shown  in  the  figure,  deep  brown. 
The  hind  wings  are  pink  with  a  dark  shade  across  the  middle,  still 
darker  spots  below  this  shade,  and  a  broad  gray  border  behind.  I 
once  had  an  excellent  opportunity  of  observing  how  it  burst  open 
the  chrysalis  shell,  for  while  examining  a  chrysalis,  the  moth  emerged. 
By  a  i'ew  sudden  jerks  of  the  head,  but  more  especially  by  friction 


»See  Variation  of  Animals  and  Plants,  etc.,  U,  pp.  167-8,  English  Edition,  and  the  reference* 
there  given  in  the  foot-note. 


76 


SECOND  ANNUAL    REPOKT   OF 


with  the  knees  of  the  middle  pair  of  legs,  it  severed  and  ruptured  the 
thin  chrysalis  shell,  and  the  very  moment  the  anus  touched  the  rup- 
tured end,  the  creamy  fluid  usually  voided  by  newly-hatched  moths 
was  discharged. 

I  have  never  found  any  parasite  attacking  this  species,  but  its 
solitary  habit  and  large  size  make  it  a  conspicuous  object,  and  it  is 
easily  controlled  by  hand,  whenever  it  becomes  unduly  numerous 
upon  the  Grape-vine. 


THE  SATELLITE  ^VKl^X.—Pliilampelus  satelUtia,  Linn.* 

(Lepidoptera  Sphingidse.) 

Like  the  preceding  insect  this  one  occurs  in  almost  evt^ry  State  in 

the  Union.  It  also  bears  a  strong 
resemblance    to  the    Achemon 
Sphinx,  and  likewise  feeds  upon 
the  Ampelopsis  as  well  as  upon 
the  Grape-vine ;  but  the   worm 
fs  may    readily   be    distinguished 
"^frora  the  former  by  having  five 
cream-colored  spots  each  side, 
instead  of  six,  and  by  the  spots 
themselves  being  less  scalloped. 
In   the  latitude   of  St.  Louis, 
this   worm  is  found  full  grown 
throughout  the   month  of  Sep- 
tember,  and  a  few    specimens 
may  even  be  found  as  late   as 
the  last  of  October.    The  eggs 
of  this    species,  as  of  all   other 
Hawk-moths    {Sphinx     family) 
known  to  me,  are  glued   singly 
to  the  leaf  of  the  plant  which  is 
to  furnish  the  future  worm  with 
)  food.     When  first  hatched,  and 
for    sometime    afterwards,    the 
larva  is  green,   with  a  tinge  of 
pink   along,  the  sides,   and  with 
an     immensely     long    straight 
pink  horn  at  the  tail.    This  horn  soon  begins  to  shorten,  and  finally 


«The  svnonyms  for  this  insect  are  Sphinx  hjcaon,  Cramer;  Pholun  lyraon,  Huebner,  and  Ihiphni 
pandorus,  Huebner.  Mr.  A.  Grote  (Proc  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  I,  p.  60),  believes  that  the  Sphinx  hjiaon 
of  the  authors  above  quoted,  is  distinct  from  S.  Satellitta,  Linn.,  and  would  fain  "eliminate'  a 
third  species  {posticatus).  For  reasons  which  it  would  be  tedious  to  give  here,  1  prefer  to  regard 
ll/caon  as  a  variety  of  satellitia. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  71 

curls  round  like  a  dog's  tail,  as  at  Figure  52,  c.  As  the  worm  grow& 
older  it  changes  to  a  reddish-brown,  and  by  the  third  moult  it  entirely 
loses  the  caudal  horn. 

When  full  grown,  it  measures  nearly  four  inches  in  length,  and 
when  crawling,  appears  as  at  Figure  52,  a.  It  crawls  by  a  series  of 
sudden  jerks,  and  will  often  tling  its  head  savagely  from  side  to  side 
when  alarmed.  Dr.  Morris*  describes  the  mature  larva  as  being 
green,  with  six  side  patches;  but  though  I  have  happened  across 
many  specimens  of  this  worm  during  the  last  seven  years,  I  never 
once  found  one  that  was  green  after  the  third  moult ;  nor  do  I  believe 
that  there  are  ever  any  more  than  five  full-sized  yellow  spots  each  side, 
even  in  the  young  individuals.  The  specimen  from  which  the  above 
figure  was  made,  occurred  in  1867,  at  Hermann,  Missouri,  in  Mr.  Geo. 
Husmann's  vineyard.  The  back  was  pinkish,  inclining  to  flesh-color; 
the  sides  gradually  became  darker  and  darker,  and  the  five  patches 
on  segments  6 — 10  inclusive,  were  cream-yellow  with  a  black  annula- 
tion,  and  shaped  as  in  the  figure.  On  segments  2,  3,  4,  5  and  6,  were 
numerous  small  black  dots,  but  on  each  of  the  following  five  seg- 
ments there  were  but  two  such  dots.  A  pale  longitudinal  line  ran 
above  the  yellow  patches,  and  the  head  and  first  joint  were  uniformly 
dull  reddish-brown. 

The  most  common  general  color  of  the  full-grown  worm  is  a  rich 
velvety  vinous-brown.  When  at  rest,  it  draws  back  the  fore  part  of 
the  body,  and  retracts  the  head  and  first  two  joints  into  the  third  (see 
Fig.  52,  J),  and  in  this  motionless  position  it  no   doubt  manages  to 

[Fig.  53.] 


escape  from  the  clutches  of  many  a  hungry  insectivorous  bird.  Dr. 
Morris,  copying  perhaps  after  Harris,  erroneously  states  that  the 
three  anterior  joints,  together  with  the  head,  are  retracted  into  the 
fourtK  and  Mr.  J.  A.  Lintnerf  makes  the  same  false  assertion.    It  is 

♦Synopsis  of  N.  A.  Lepidoptera,  p.  178. 
fProc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  Ill,  p.  659. 


78 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 


the  third  segment  in  this  species,  as  well  as  in  the  Achemon  Sphinx, 
which  is  so  much  swollen,  and  into  which  the  head  and  first  two  seg- 
ments are  retracted. 

When  about  to  transform,  the  larva  of  our  Satellite  Sphinx  enters 
a  short  distance  into  the  ground,  and  soon  works  off  its  caterpillar- 
skin  and  becomes  a  chrysalis  of  a  deep  chestnut-brown,  and  very 
much  of  the  same  form  as  that  of  the  Achemon  Sphinx,  figured  on 
page  74.  The  moth  (Fig.  53),  makes  its  appearance  in  June  of 
the  following  year,  though  it  has  been  known  to  issue  the  same  year 
that  it  had  existed  as  larva.  In  this  last  event,  it  doubtless  becomes 
barren,  like  others  under  similar  circumstances,  as  was  shown  on 
page  75.  The  colors  of  the  moth  are  light  olive-gray,  variegated  as 
in  the  figure  with  dark  olive-green.  The  worms  are  easily  subdued 
by  hand-picking. 


THE  ABBOT  ^VRmX—Thyreus  AUotii,  Swainson. 

(Lepidoptera,  Sphingidae.) 

This  is  another  of  the  large  Grape-feeding  insects,  occurring  on 
the  cultivated  and  indigenous  vines  and  on  the  Virginia  Creeper,  and 
[Fig.  54.]  having    in  the  full-grown 

larva  state,  a  polished  tu- 
^bercle  instead  of  a  horn 
at  the  tail.  Its  habitat  is 
given  by  Dr.  Clemens,  as 
New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Georgia,  Massachusetts, 
and  Ohio  ;  but  though  not 
so  common  as  the  Sphinx 
moths  previously  describ- 
ed, yet  it  is  often  met  with 
both  in  Illinois  and  Mis- 
souri. The  larva  which  is 
represented  in  the  upper 
part  of  Figure  54,  varies  considerably  in  appearance.  Indeed,  the 
ground-color  seems  to  depend  in  a  measure  on  the  sex,  for  Dr.  Morris 
describes  this  larva  as  reddish-brown  with  numerous  patches  of  light- 
green,  and  expressly  states  that  the  female  is  of  a  uniform  reddish- 
brown,  with  an  interrupted  dark  brown  dorsal  line  and  transverse 
strire.  I  have  reared  two  individuals  which  came  to  their  growth 
about  the  last  of  July,  at  which  time  they  were  both  without  a  ves- 
tige of  green.  The  ground-color  was  dirty  yellowish,  especially  at 
the  sides.  Each  segment  was  marked  transversely  with  six  or  seven 
alightly  impressed  fine  black  lines,  and  longitudinally  with  wider 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  79 

non-impressed  dark  brown  patches,  alternating  with  each  other,  and 
giving  the  worm  a  checkered  appearance.  These  patches  become 
more  dense  along  the  subdorsal  region,  where  they  form  two  irregu- 
lar dark  lines,  which  on  the  thoracic  segments  become  single,  with  a 
similar  line  between  them.  There  was  also  a  dark  stigmatal  line  with 
a  lighter  shade  above  it,  and  a  dark  stripe  running  obliquely  down- 
wards from  the  posterior  to  the  anterior  portion  of  each  segment. 
The  belly  was  yellow  with  a  tinge  of  pink  between  the  prolegs, 
and  the  shiny  tubercle  at  the  tail  was  black,  with  a  yellowish 
ring  around  the  base.  The  head,  which  is  characteristically  marked, 
and  by  which  this  worm  can  always  be  distinguished  from  its  allies — 
no  matter  what  the  ground-color  of  the  body  may  be — is  slightly 
roughened  and  dark,  with  a  lighter  broad  band  each  side,  and  a  cen- 
tral mark  down  the  middle  which  often  takes  the  form  of  an  x.  This 
worm  does  not  assume  the  common  Sphinx  attitude  of  holding  up  the 
head,  but  rests  stretched  at  full  length,  though  if  disturbed  it  will 
throw  its  head  from  side  to  side,  thereby  producing  a  crepitating 
noise. 

The  chrysalis  is  formed  in  a  superficial  cell  on  the  ground ;  its 
surface  is  black  and  roughened  by  confluent  punctures,  but  between 
the  joints  it  is  smooth  and  inclines  to  brown;  the  head-case  is  broad 
and  rounded,  and  the  tongue-case  is  level  with  the  breast ;  the  tail 
terminates  in  a  rough  flattened  wedge-shaped  point,  which  gives  out 
two  extremely  small  thorns  from  the  end. 

The  moth  (Fig.  54,  below)  appears  in  the  following  March  or 
April,  there  being  but  one  brood  each  year.  It  is  of  a  dull  chocolate 
or  grayish-brown  color,  the  front  wings  becoming  lighter  beyond  the 
middle,  and  being  variegated  with  dark  brown  as  in  the  figure  ;  the 
hind  wings  are  sulphur-yellow,  with  a  broad  dark  brown  border 
breaking  into  a  series  of  short  lines  on  a  flesh-colored  ground,  near 
the  body.  The  wings  are  deeply  scalloped,  especially  the  front  ones, 
and  the  body  is  furnished  with  lateral  tufts.  When  at  rest,  the  abdo- 
men is  curiously  curved  up  in  the  air. 


THE  BLUE  CATERPILLAKS  OF  THE  VINE. 

Besides  these  large  Sphinx  caterpillars,  every  grape-grower  must 
have  observed  certain  so-called  "  Blue  Caterpillars,"  which,  though 
far  from  being  uncommon,  are  yet  very  rarely  sufficiently  numerous 
to  cause  alarm,  though  in  some  few  cases  they  have  been  known  to 
strip  certain  vines.  There  are  three  distinct  species  of  these  blue 
caterpillars,  which  bear  a  sufficiently  close  resemblance  to  one 
another,  to  cause  them  to  be  easily  confounded.  The  firbt  and  by  far 
the  most  common  with  us  is  the  larva  of 


80 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 


THE    EIGHT-SPOTTED    FORESTER— .l/i/yjia  octomaculata,   Fabr. 
(Lepidoptera,  Zygcenidse.) 

At  Plate  I,  Figure  18  of  my  First  Ke* 
port,  the  male  of  this  moth  is  illustrated 
by  the  side  of  its  supposed  larva,  Figure 
19  of  the  same  Plate.  In  the  text  (pp. 
136-7)  I  expressed  some  doubts  as  to 
whether  this  last  was  the  rightful  larva  of 
tlie  Eight-spotted  Forester,  and  as  I  have 
since  reared  several  moths  from  the  larva 
state,  and  ascertained  that  the  worm  there 
.figured  does  r^ot  belong  to  the  Eight- 
spotted  Forester,  but  in  all  probability  to 
the  Pearl  Wood  Nymph,  I  will  now  give  the  characters  of  these  three 
diflferent  blue  caterpillars,  so  that  they  may  readily  be  distinguished 
hereafter. 

The  larva  of  the  Eight-spotted  Forester  may  often  be  found  in 
the  latitude  of  St.  Louis  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  May,  and  more 
abundantly  in  June,  while  scattering  individuals  (probably  of  a  second 
brood)  are  even  met  with,  but  half-grown,  in  the  month  of  Septem- 
ber. The  young  larvos  are  whitish  with  brown  transverse  lines,  the 
colors  not  contrasting  so  strongly  as  in  the  full-grown  specimens, 
though  the  black  spots  are  more  conspicuous.  They  feed  beneath 
the  leaves  and  can  let  themselves  down  by  a  web.  The  fullgruwn 
larva  often  conceals  itself  within  a  folded  leaf.  It  is  of  the  form  of 
Figure  55,  a,  and  is  marked  transversely  with  white  and  black  lines, 
each  segment  having  about  eight  light  and  eight  dark  ones.  The 
bluish  appearance  of  this  caterpillar  is  owing  to  an  optical  phenome- 
non from  the  contrast  of  these  white  and  black  stripes.  The  head 
and  the  shield  on  the  first  segment  are  of  a  shiny  bright  deep  orange 
color,  marked  with  black  dots,  and  there  is  a  prominent  transverse 
orange-red  band,  faint  on  segments  2  and  3  ;  conspicuous  on  4  and  11 
and  uniform  in  the  middle  of  each  of  the  other  segments.  In  the 
middle  segments  of  the  body  each  orange  band  contains  eight  black 
conical  elevated  spots  or  tubercles,  each  spot  giving  rise  to  a  white 
hair.  These  spots  are  arranged  as  in  the  enlarged  section  shown  in 
the  engraving  (Fig.  55,  Z>),  namely,  four  on  each  side  as  follows  :  the 
upper  one  on  the  anterior  border  of  the  orange  band,  the  second  on 
its  posterior  border,  the  third  just  above  spiracles  on  its  anterior  bor- 
der—each of  the  three  interrupting  one  of  the  transverse  black  lines 
— and  the  fourth,  which  is  smaller,  just  behind  the  spiracles.  The 
venter  is  black,  slightly  variegated  with  bluish-white,  and  with  the 
orange  band  extending  on  the  legless  segments.  The  legs  are  black, 
and  the  false-legs  have  two  black  spots  on  an  orange  ground,  at  their 
outer  base;  but  the  characteristic  feature,  which  especially  distin- 
guishes it  from  the  other  two  species,  is  a  lateral  white  wavy  band — 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  ^1 

obsolete  on  the  thoracic  segments,  and  most  conspicuous  on  10  and 
11 — running  just  below  the  spiracles,  and  interrupted  by  the  trans- 
verse orange  band. 

I  quote  here  Harris's  full  description  of  this  larva  (Correspondence,  p.  286),  as  it  agrees  with 
mine,  except  in  giving  the  number  of  transverse  black  lines  as  6  on  each  segment,  instead  of  8, 
from  the  fact  that  he  does  not  include  the  two  which  border  the  orange  band,  on  account  of 
their  being  interrupted.  I  have  preferred  to  consider  each  segment  of  this  worm  as  8-banded,  to 
distinguish  it  more  readily  from  the  other  two  species,  which  have  respectively  only  six  and  four. 
"  Length,  when  at  rest,  one  inch  and  two-tenths,  very  pale  blue,  transversely  banded  with  orange 
on  the  middle  of  each  segment,  the  bands  dotted  with  small  black  points,  producing  hairs,  and 
surmounted  by  black  lines,  and  between  each  of  the  bands  six  transverse  black  lines.  A  large, 
irregular,  white  spot  on  the  side  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  segments,  and  a  series  of  smaller  white 
!>pots  on  each  of  the  other  segments  except  the  first  three.  Head  orange  dotted  with  black.  Legs 
blackish  externally.  The  full-grown,  have  a  decidedly  bluish  tinge,  entirely  owing,  however,  to 
an  optical  phenomenon  from  the  contrast  of  the  white  with  the  transverse  black  lines.  The  head 
is  of  a  pale  dirty  orange  or  rusty  yellow,  with  about  eight  black  dots  on  each  side  ;  [about  10 
large  and  14  small  dots  in  all,]  a  semicircular  plate  on  the  top  of  the  first  segment  and  the  anal 
valves  are  pale  orange  dotted  with  black.  There  is  a  transverse  series  of  black  dots  on  the  second 
and  third  segments,  without  an  orange  band.  Each  of  the  other  segments  is  transversely  banded 
with  orange  and  dotted  with  black ;  the  dots  being  in  two  alternate  rows,  and  all  of  them  emitting 
distinct,  long  whitish  hairs.  [The  anterior  dots  on  the  back  of  segments  4,  5  and  6  and  the  pos- 
terior ones  on  11,  are  considerably  larger  than  the  rest].  Between  each  of  the  bands  there  are  six 
slender,  continuous,  black  transverse  lines.  The  points  are  also  connected  by  interrupted  black 
lines.  Legs  at  base  orange,  black  externally  and  at  tip,  except  the  anal  pair  which  are  orange, 
(lotted  with  black.  The  large  white  lateral  spot  is  common  to  the  side  of  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  segments.  The  other  lateral  white  spots  are  situated  immediately  behind  the  bands  on 
the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  segments,  the  anterior  spots  being  largest ;  and 
thence  they  diminish  to  the  ninth,  while  again  the  posterior  spot  is  very  large  and  very  distinct.  The 
orange  bands  are  interrupted  on  the  top  of  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  segments." 

This  larva  transforms  to  chysalis  within  a  very  slight  cocoon 
formed  without  silk,  upon,  or  just  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and 
issues  soon  after,  as  a  very  beautiful  moth  of  a  deep  blue-black  color, 
with  orange  shanks,  yellow  shoulder-pieces,  each  of  the  front  wings 
with  two  large  light  yellow  spots,  and  each  of  the  hind  wings  with 
two  white  ones.  The  illustration  (Fig.  55,  c)  represents  the  female, 
and  the  male  differs  from  her  in  having  the  wing  spots  larger,  and  in 
having  a  conspicuous  white  mark  along  the  top  of  his  narrower  ab- 
domen. 

I  have  on  one  or  two  occasions  known  vines  to  be  partly  defoli- 
ated by  this  species,  but  never  knew  it  to  be  quite  so  destructive  as  it 
is  represented  in  the  following  communication  from  Mr.  W.  V.  An- 
drews, of  New  York  city,  which  I  take  from  the  February  (1869)  num- 
raer  of  the  American  Naturalist : 

"That  a  man  should  desire  to  raise  his  own  Isabellas  is  laudable 
and  praiseworthy  ;  and  I  see  no  reason  why  such  desire  should  exist 
exclusively  in  the  breasts  of  our  bucolic  friends.  The  inhabitants  ot 
New  York,  as  a  general  thing,  clearly  are  of  the  same  opinion,  as  is 
evidenced  by  the  number  of  grape-vines  ornamenting  the  doors  and 
trellis- work  of  the  houses  of  our  citizens;  not,  of  course,  in  the  be- 
nighted regions  of  Wall  street,  but  up-town ;  say  from  Sixteenth 
street  northward.  A  friend  of  mine  residing  on  Thirty-fourth  street, 
showed  me,  in  March  last,  a  very  fine  vine,  which  he  calculated  would 
produce  him  sundry  pounds  of  choice  grapes,  and  in  the  pride  of  bis 
6 — E  B 


82  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

heart  he  invited  me  to  "  call  along"  occasionally,  and  feast  my  eyes 
on  the  gradual  development  of  the  incipient  bunches.    Thinking  that 
August  would  be  a  good  month  for  my  visit,  I  "  called  along,"  won- 
dering in  my  mind  whether  my  friend  would,  when  the  time  of  ripe 
grapes   came,  desire   me   to   help  myself  out  of  his  abundance ;  or 
whether  he  intended   to   surprise  me   with  a  little  basket  of  nice 
bunches,  garnished  with  crisp,  green  leaves.    The  first  glance  at  the 
grape-vine  banished  all  doubts  on  this  point.    There  were  an  abun- 
dance  of  bunches   on  the  vine,  in  a  rather  immature  condition,  of 
course,  but  of  foliage  there  was  not  a  trace.    Of  course  I  expressed 
my  surprise,  though,  for  certain  reasons,  I  felt  none  ;    and  asked  my 
friend  why  he  selected  a  species  of  vine  for  shelter,  ornament,  and  use, 
which  produced  no  foliage.    He  rebuked  my  ignorance  pretty  sharply, 
'    and  told  me  that  a  few  weeks  before,  the  vine  was  covered  with  leaves ; 
(   but,  for  some  inexplicable  reason,  they  had  all  disappeared — eaten,  he 
■■   guessed,   by  something.    He   guessed  right.    There  were  at  least  a 
^   hundred  of  the  larvae  of  J.,  octomaciilata^  the  rear  guard  of  a  mighty 
"  host,  wandering  about  the  branches,  apparently  for  the  purpose  of 
''■  making  sure  that  no  little  particle  of  a  leaf  was  left  undevoured. 
!■  Pretty  little  things  they  were,  with  harmoniously  blended  colors  of 
"'  black,  yellow  and  blue,  but  so  terribly  destructive  !    I  had  the  curi- 
'  osity  to  walk  through  all  the  streets  to  the  east  of  Third  avenue,  as 
low  as  Twenty-third  street,  and  every  vine  was  in  the  same  predica- 
ment.   If  grape  leaves,  instead  of  fig  leaves,  had  been  in  request  for 
.„ making  aprons,  and  one  Alypia  had  been  in  existence  at  the  time,  I 
i!„jdoubt  if  in  the  whole  Garden  of  Eden  enough  material  would  have 
been  found  to   make  a  garment  of  decent  size.    The  destruction  of 
the  crop  for  1868  was  complete. 

"  This  was  bad.  But  it  was  not  half  so  bad  as  the  helpless  ignor- 
■  j^ance  which  possessed  nearly  all  of  the  unfortunate  owners  of  vines. 
,  Scarcely  one  that  I  conversed  with  had  the  remotest  idea  of  the  cause 
'  ^  of  the  disaster,  and  when  I  explained  that  it  was  the  caterpillar  of  a 
^'■".beautiful  little  black  moth,  with  eight  whitish-yellow  spots  on  its 
ill  livings,  which  had  eaten  up  the  foliage,  my  assertion  was  received 
.yiiyith  such  a  smile  ol  incredulity,  as  convinced  me  that  there  is  no  use 
^;j.in  trying  to  humbug  such  very  sharp  fellows  as  are  the  New  York 
'  grape-growers. 

"It  is  a  little  remarkable,  however,  that  the  destruction  was  con- 
fined to  the  eastern  part  of  the  city.    I  saw  several  luxuriant  vines 
'■'6h  the  western  side  ;  and  across  the  river  at  Hoboken,  and  at  Hudson 
'i  €!ity,  not  a  trace  of  A.  octomaculata  was  discernible. 
f ;  /\      "The  insect,  then,  is  very  local  in  its  habits,  and  it  is  a  day-flyer  J 
:  ;:aaad,  from  these  facts,  I  infer  that  its  ravages  may  be  very  materially 
checked.    A  little  poisoned  molasses,  exposed  in  the  neighborhood  of 
,.  t-he  vine,  would  operate  on  the  perfect  insect  [extremely  doubtful] ; 
'^''#hile  a  good  syringing  with  soft  soap  and  water  would  bring  down 
f'-'th'e  caterpillars  eflfectually." 

hna  i 
-9d  9 
ill  a  at) 

hfnoT/ 
aid  )o 


.THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  83 

THE  BEAUTIFUL  WOOD  NYMPR—Eudryas  grata,  Fabr. 
(Lepidoptera,  Zygaenidae.) 

Here  is  another  moth  (Fig.  56),  surpassing  in  real  beauty,  though 
(J'S-  S6.]  not  in  high  contrast,  the  species  just  de- 

[Scribed.  The  front  wings  are  milk-white, 
broadly  bordered  and  marked,  as  in  the 
figure,  with  rusty-brown,  the  band  on  the 
outer  margin  being  shaded  on  the  inner 
(i^$^^^^^5l^^\^^^i)  s^^®  with  olive-green,  and  marked  to- 
wards the  edge  with  a  slender  wavy  white 
line :  under  surface  yellow,  with  two 
dusky  spots  near  the  middle.  The  hind  wings  are  nankin-yellow, 
with  a  deep  brown  border,  which  does  not  extend  to  the  outer  angle, 
and  which  also  contains  a  wavy  white  line :  under  surface  yellow 
with  a  single  black  spot. 

Surely  these  two  moths  are  as  unlike  in  general  appearance  as 
two  moths  well  can  be  ;  and  yet  their  caterpillars  bear  such  a  close 
resemblance  to  each  other,  and  both  feed  upon  the  Grape-vine  !  The 
larva  of  the  Beautiful  Wood  Nymph  is,  in  fact,  so  very  similar  to  that 
of  the  Eight-spotted  Forester,  that  it  is  entirely  unnecessary  to  figure 
it.  It  differs  more  especially  from  that  species  by  invariably  lacking 
the  white  patches  along  the  sides,  by  the  hairs  arising  from  the  black 
spots  being  less  conspicuous,  and  by  the  hump  on  the  eleventh  seg- 
ment being  more  prominent.  The  light  parts  of  the  body  have  really 
a  slight  bluish  tint,  and  in  specimens  which  I  have  found,  I  have  only 
noticed  six  transverse  black  stripes  to  each  segment.  This  larva, 
when  at  rest,  depresses  the  head  and  raises  the  third  and  fourth  seg- 
ments. Sphinx-fashion.  It  is  found  on  the  vines  in  the  central  por- 
tion of  the  State  as  early  as  May  and  as  late  as  September,  and  it  de- 
vours all  portions  of  the  leaf,  even  to  the  midrid.  It  descends  to  the 
ground,, and  without  making  any  cocoon,  transforms  to  a  chrysalis, 
which  is  dark  colored,  rough,  with  the  tip  of  the  abdomen  obtusely 
conical,  ending  in  four  tubercles,  the  pair  above,  long  and  truncate, 
those  below  broad  and  short  (Packard).  Some  of  them  give  out  the 
moth  the  same  summer,  but  most  of  them  pass  the  winter  and  do  not 
issue  as  moths  till  the  following  spring. 

THE  PEARL  WOOD  NYMPH— JEttdryas  unio,  Huebnen 
(Lepidoptera,  Zygsenidas.) 

This  is  another  pretty  little  moth,  so  closely  allied  to,  and  so 
much  resembling  the  preceding  species,  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
produce  its  picture.  It  is  a  smaller  species,  and  differs  from  the  Beau- 
tiful Wood  Nymph  in  having  the  outer  border  of  the  front  wings  paler 
and  of  a  tawny  color,  with  the  inne?,§(}ge  .^^y^iipatejad)  of^^tfMght ; 


Ci  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

and  in  that  of  the  hind  wings  being  less  distinct,  more  double,  and 
extending  to  the  outer  angle. 

The  larva  is  said  by  Dr.  Fitch  to  so  much  resemble  that  of  the 
preceding  species  that  "we  as  yet  know  not  whether  there  are  any 
marks  whereby  they  can  be  distinguished  from  each  other."    (Report 

[Fig.  57.]         3^  §  124.)    The  moth  is  more   common 

with  us  than  its  larger  ally,  and  though 
I  have  never  bred  it  from  the  larva, 
^^  yet  I  have  often  met  with  a  worm 
(Fig  57,  «,)  which  there  is  every  rea- 
son to  believe,  belongs  to  this  species, 
and  which  is  easily  recognized  from  the  preceding.  It  never  grows 
to  be  quite  so  large  as  the  other,  and  may  readily  be  distinguished  by 
its  more  decided  bluish  cast ;  by  having  but  four  light  and  four  dark 
stripes  to  each  segment  (Fig.  57,  b,)  ;  by  having  no  orange  band  across 
the  middle  segments,  and  by  the  spots,  with  the  exception  of  two  on 
the  back  placed  in  the  middle  light  band,  being  almost  obsolete.  The 
head,  shield  on  the  1st  segment,  hump  on  the  11th,  and  a  band  on  the 
12th,  are  orange,  spotted  with  black,  the  hump  being  marked  as  at 
Figure  57,  c.  Venter  orange,  becoming  dusky  towards  head  ;  feet  and 
legs  also  orange,  with  blackish  extremities,  and  with  spots  on  their 
outside  at  base. 

The  worm  works  for  the  most  part  in  the  terminal  buds  of  the 
vine,  drawing  the  leaves  together  by  a  weak  silken  thread,  and 
cankering  them.  It  forms  a  simple  earthen  cocoon,  or  frequently 
bores  into  a  piece  of  old  wood,  and  changes  to  chrysalis,  which  aver- 
ages but  0.36  inch  in  length  ;  this  chrysalis  is  reddish-brown,  covered 
on  the  back  with  rows  of  very  minute  teeth,  with  the  tip  of  the  abdo- 
men truncated,  and  terminating  above  in  a  thick  blunt  spine  each  side. 

From  the  above  accounts  it  is  hoped  that  the  reader  will  have  no 
difficulty  in  distinguishing  between  these  three  blue  caterpillars  of 
the  Grape-vine.  But,  says  the  practical  grape-grower,  "  what  does  it 
concern  me  to  know  whether  the  little  blue  varmints  that  are  defoli- 
ating my  vines,  belong  to  this  species  or  to  that?  All  I  wish  to  know 
is  how  to  get  rid  of  them,  and  as  they  are  all  three  so  nearly  alike, 
the  remedy  applied  to  one  must  be  equally  effectual  with  the  others." 
Gently,  dear  reader ;  it  ma2/  prove  of  considerable  importance  that 
you  know  which  particular  species  infests  your  vines !  If,  for  instance, 
a  person  living  m  the  "West  should  find  the  larvae  of  the  Beautiful 
Wood  Nymph,  then  he  need  feel  no  alarm ;  while  if  a  person  living  in 
the  East  should  find  that  of  the  Pearl  Wood  Nymph,  he  may  in  like 
manner  put  his  hands  in  his  pockets  and  go  his  way  with  an  easy 
mind ;  for  neither  of  these  species  are  likely  to  become  troublesome 
in  those  respective  sections  of  the  country,  since  heretofore  they  have 
always  been  quite  rare  in  those  parts.  Again,  the  larvae  of  the  two 
Wood  Nymphs  have  a  fondness  for  boring  into  old  pieces  of  wood,  to 
transform  to  the  chrysalis  state,  and  Mr.  T.  B.  Ashton,  of  White  Creek, 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOQIST. 


S5 


New  York,  found  that  they  would  even  bore  into  corn  cobs  for  this 
purpose  in  preference  to  entering  the  ground,  wherever  such  cobs 
were  accessible.*  The  Eight-spotted  Forester,  on  the  contrary,  has 
no  such  habit,  and  while  the  only  mode  of  combating  it,  is  to  pick  the 
larva3  off  and  burn  them,  the  Wood  Nymphs  may  be  more  easily  sub- 
dued by  scattering  a  few  corn  cobs  under  the  vines  in  the  summer, 
to  be  raked  up  and  burned  in  the  winter. 


THE   AMERICAN   FROCmS—Procris  [Acoloii/ms]    A7nericana\ 

Boisd. 

(Lepidoptera,  Ctenuchidae.) 

During  the  months  of  July  and  August,  the  leaves  of  the  Grape- 
vine may  often  be  found  denuded  of  their  softer  parts,  with  nothing 
[Fig.  58.]  jjut,  l^jjQ  veins,  and   sometimes  only 

a  few  of  the  larger  ribs  left  skeleton- 
^^W^l^  ^A^       ■^^^®'  ^^  ^®^^  ^^  ^^^  mischief  that  has 

^^BrfY^^T'  jM^       been  done.     Very  frequently,  only 

^^^  ^©^      portions  of  the  leaf  will  be  thus  de- 

nuded, and  in  that  event,  if  we  ex- 
amine such  a  leaf  closely,  we  shall 
find  the  authors  of  the  mischief 
drawn  up  in  line  upon  the  yet  leafy 
tissue  with  their  heads  all  towards 
ihe  margin,  cutting  away  with  their  little  jaws  and  retreating  as  they 
feed. 


^^i^ 


[Fig.  59.] 


These  little  soldier-like  files 
are  formed  by  worms  in  black 
and  yellow  uniforms  which  pro- 
duce a  moth  popularly  known 
as  the  American  Procris.  The 
eggs  from  which  they  hatch,  are 
laid  in  small  clusters  on  the  un- 
derside of  the  leaves,  and  while 
the  worms  are  small,  they  leave 
untouched  the  most  delicate 
veins  of  the  leaf,  which  then  pre- 
sents a  delicate  net- work  appear- 
ance as  ^shown  at  the  right  of 
Figure  59 ;  but  when  they  be- 
come older  and  stronger  they 
devour  all  but  the  larger  ribs,  as 
at  the  left  of  the  figure. 


*Fitch's  Rep.  Ill,  p.  82. 

fThis  is  the  Aglaope  Americana  of  Clemens,  Procris  Americana  of  Boisduval  and  Harris,  and 
Ctenucba  Americana  of  Walker. 


86  SECOND    ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

The  full  grown  larva  (Figure  58,  a)  measures  rather  more  than  half  an  inch,  and  tapers  a 
little  towards  each  end.  It  is  of  a  sulphur-yellow  color,  with  a  transverse  row  of  six  velvety-black, 
prickly  tufts  on  each  of  the  principle  segments,  the  lower  tufts  being  less  distinct  than  those  OB 
the  back.  The  first  segment  is  entirely  black  with  a  yellow  edge,  while  the  spots  on  segments  11  and  12 
usually  run  into  one  another.  Head  small,  brown,  and  retractile,  being  usually  hidden  in  the  first 
segment.  Fine  scattering  hairs  anteriorly,  laterally  and  posteriorly.  The  young  worm  is  of  a 
very  pale  yellow,  covered  with  numerous  fine  white  hairs,  with  a  slight  grayish-brown  tint  on  the 
head,  and  with  the  fifth  and  seventh  segments  paler  than  the  rest,  and  having  the  black  spots 
scarcely  visible. 

When  full  grown  these  worms  disperse  over  the  vines  or  forsake 
them  entirely,  and  each  spins  for  itself  a  small,  tough,  whitish,  flat- 
tened cocoon  (Fig.  58,  c)  within  which,  in  about  three  days,  it  changes 
to  a  chrysalis  (Fig.  58,  J),  0.30  inch  long,  broad,  flattened  and  of  a 
light  shiny  yellowish-brown  color.  In  about  ten  days  afterwards  the 
moths  (Fig.  58,  e  and  d)  begin  to  issue.  This  little  moth  is  the  Ameri- 
can representative  of  the  European  Procris  mtis;  it  is  wholly  of  a 
black  color,  except  the  collar,  which  is  of  a  deep  orange,  and  the 
body  ends  in  a  broad  fan-like  notched  tuft,  especially  in  the  male. 
The  wings  are  of  a  delicate  texture,  reminding  one  of  crape,  and  when 
the  insect  is  at  rest  they  generally  form  a  perfect  cross  with  the 
body,  the  hind  wings  being  completely  hidden  by  the  front  ones, 
which  are  stretched  out  straight  at  right  angles,  as  in  the  genus  Ptero- 
jpTiOTus^  to  which  belongs  the  Grape-vine  Plume.*  I  have,  however, 
on  one  or  two  occasions  found  the  American  Procris  resting  in  the 
manner  shown  at  Figure  58,  d. 

This  is  the  only  Grape-vine  feeding  caterpillar  which  has  a 
gregarious  habit,  and  as  gregarious  insects  are  always  more  easily 
subdued  than  those  of  a  solitary  nature,  the  American  Procris  need 
never  become  very  destructive.  Its  natural  food  is  undoubtedly  the 
wild  grape-vines  of  our  forests,  and  the  Virginia  Creeper,  and  Mr. 
Jordon,  of  St.  Louis,  has  noticed  that  while  it  very  commonly  attacks 
the  foliage  of  the  Concord,  yet  it  never  touches  the  Clinton  and  Tay- 
lor in  his  vineyard — a  taste  which  is  remarkable  and  not  easily 
accounted  for,  since  the  foliage  of  the  latter  kinds  is  more  tender  and 
generally  more  subject  to  insect  depredations  than  that  of  the 
former. 

There  are  two  broods  of  this  insect  each  year  with  us,  some  of 
the  moths  from  the  second  brood  of  worms  issuing  in  the  fall,  but  the 
greater  part  not  leaving  their  cocoons  till  the  following  summer. 
During  the  month  of  June  they  may  be  seen  in  pairs  about  the  vines, 
and  I  have  also  frequently  observed  around  Hermann,  a  very  closely 
allied  but  smaller  and  difi"erent  moth  {AcoloWius  falsarius^  Clem.) 
about  the  same  season  of  the  year.  This  last,  though  so  closely  re- 
sembling the  other,  may  be  distinguished  by  being  scarcely  more 
than  half  as  large;  by  the  body  lacking  the  anal  tuft  and  being 
comparatively  much  thicker  and  shorter ;  by  the  hind  wings  being 
comparatively  larger,  and  by  the  collar  being  of  a  paler  orange  and 
divided  on  the  top  by  a  black  point. 

*First  Rep.,  PI.  II,  Fig.  15. 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


87 


The  American  Procris,  though  the  fact  is  not  mentioned  by  other 
authors,  is  subject  to  the  attack  of  at  least  one  parasite,  with  us  ; 
for  I  have  bred  from  it  a  very  peculiar  little  four-winged  black  fly 
belonging  to  the  great  Chalcis  family,  and  which  Mr.  Oresson  of  Phil- 
adelphia refers  doubtingly  to  Perilampus  platyg aster ^  Say. 


THE  NEW  GRAPE-ROOT  BORER. 

Under  this  head  I  published  last  year*  an  account  of  a  gigantic 
Grape-root  borer  which  had  at  that  time  not  been  bred,  and  of  which, 
in  consequence,  the  perfect  insect  was  not  with  certainly '.known.    In 

_     [Fig.  60.] ._    _^^_     order    that    the 

^^^  reader  may  get 
^K?  well  familiarized 
with  its  appear- 
ance, the  figure  is 
here  reproduced 
(Fig.  60 ).  For 
reasons  then  given  I  inferred  that  this  borer  belonged  to  the  Prionus 
family  of  the  Long-horned  beetles,  and  that  it  would  perhaps  produce 
the  Cylindrical  Orthosoma  (  Orthosoma  cylindricum^  Fabr.),  a  large 
flattened  bay-colored  beetle  which  is  common  throughout  the  coun- 
try, and  especially  so  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  which  I  illus- 
trated at  the  time.  I  expressed  the  hope  to  be  able  another  year 
to  settle  this  matter,  and  am  glad  to  be  able  to  do  so. 

Last  July  I  bred  from  worms  that  had  been  sent  to  me  the  year 
before,  as  occurring  in  Grape  root,  a  different,  though  very  closely 
allied  species  to  that  which  I  had  inferred  they  would  produce, 
namely, 

THE  BROAD-NECKED  PRION  US— Prtonus  laticollis,  Drury.  * 

(Coleoptera,  Prionidae.) 

This  species  is  usually  of  a  darker  color 
than  the  Cylindrical  Orthosoma,  and  differs 
materially  from  that  species  by  its  larger 
size  and  broader  form.  The  female,  which  is 
represented  at  Figure  61,  differs  from  the  male 
in  having  shorter  and  narrower  antennae, 
though  her  body  is  usually  larger. 

In  all  probability  this  insect  lives  nearly 
three  years  in  the  larva  state,  for  three  dis- 
tinct sizes  may  be  found.  Those  I  have  bred^ 
left  the  roots  they  were  inhabiting  when  about 
to  become  pupas,  and  formed  for  themselves 
smooth  oval  chambers  in  the  earth  wherein 
they  eventually  cast  their  larval  skins,  and 


[Fig.  61.] 


*rir8t  Rep.,  pp.  124-8. 


S8  SECOND  ANNUAL     KEPOBT   OP 

^Fig^^62.]  assumed  the  pupa  form  represented  at  Figure  62,  but 
in  all  probability  they  transform  within  the  root,  when 
in  more  natural  conditions.  This  change  takes  place 
towards  the  end  of  June,  and  the  perfect  beetle  ap- 
pears in  about  three  weeks  afterwards. 

Soon  after  breeding  this  beetle  from  Grape-feed- 
ing borers,  I  bred  a  female  of  the  same  species  from  a 
very  large  borer  which  I  had  found  the  same  spring,  in 
an  apple  root,  it  having  entirely  killed  a  young  apple 
tree,  by  hollowing  out  nearly  all  the  roots,  and  by 
finally  severing  the  tap  root  near  the  butt  of  the  tree. 
Thus  it  results  that  the  Broad-necked  Prionus 
bores  in  the  larva  state  indiscriminately  in  the  roots 
of  the  Grape-vine  and  Apple,  and  perhaps  in  those  of  the  closely  allied 
Pear.  According  to  Harris  it  also  inlests  the  roots  of  different  kinds 
of  poplars,  and  it  is  consequently  a  pretty  general  feeder. 

Few  persons  are  really  aware  of  the  amount  of  damage  these  gi- 
gantic borers  are  capable  of  causing.  Last  March  I  received  a  long 
letter  from  Mr.  Robert  S.  Munford,  of  Munfordsville,  Ky.,  minutely 
describing  this  borer,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  destroyed  three 
hundred  dollars'  worth  of  his  apple  trees  ;  while  Mr  C.  R.  Edwards, 
of  Bowling  Green,  Ky.,  writes  that  they  have  been  quite  injurious  to 
his  grape-vines  of  all  varieties,  though  his  lonas  suffered  most  from 
their  attacks.  Mr.  Emory  S.  Foster,  of  Bushburg,  sent  me  a  specimen 
in  May  with  the  statement  that  it  cut  off  a  vine,  after  the  fall  of  the 
leaf,  and  then  went  some  six  inches  further  down,  and  entered  the 
main  root,  making  for  itself  a  comfortable  residence  where  it  spent 
the  winter.  Messrs.  Bush  and  Spaulding  inform  me  that  they  are  con- 
tinually losing  vines  from  this  borer,  and  that  they  consider  it  one  of 
the  worst  enemies  they  have  to  contend  against. 

Little  can  be  done  to  prevent  the  ravages  of  these  underground 
borers  after  they  are  once  in  a  viue,  the  death  of  which  is  usually  the 
only  manifestation  of  their  presence.  Still,  every  vine-grower  should 
make  it  a  rule  to  search  for  them  whenever  he  finds  vines  suddenly 
dying  from  any  unknown  cause,  and  upon  finding  such  a  borer  should 
at  once  put  an  end  to  its  existence.  The  beetles,  which  may  often  be 
found  during  the  summer  and  fall  months,  and  which  not  unfrequently 
rush  with  heavy,  noisy  flight,  into  our  lighted  rooms,  should  also  be 
ruthlessly  sacrificed  whenever  met  with.  As  I  shall  presently  show, 
however,  much  may  be  done  by  judicious  management  to  prevent 
their  getting  into  the  vines. 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  89 

THE  TILE-HORNED  PRIONUS— Pnonus  imbricornis,  Linu. 
(Coleoptera  Prionidre.) 

There  is  another  species,  the  Tile-hornedFrionus  (Prionus imdri- 
'■^'°'  ^^'^        ...u6*t^    cornis,  Linn.,  Fig.  63  c?)— so  called  from 
the  joints  of  the  male  antennae  lapping 
^over  one  another  like  the  tiles  or  shing- 
les of   a  root^ — which  very    closely  re- 
sembles the  Broad-necked  Prionus,  and 
is  with  us  much  commoner.    It  may  be 
distinguished  at  once  from  this  last  by 
the  antennas   of  the  male  being  about 
19jointed,  and  those  of  the  female  about 
16-jointed  ;*  whereas  both  sexes   of  the 
Broad-necked  Prionus  have   12-jointed 
antennas.    In  other  respects,  these  two 
<^  ■  beetles  are  almost  exactly  alike,  so  that, 

if  the  antennae  happen  to  be  broken,  it  is  not  very  easy  to   tell  one 
from  another. 

Hitherto  it  has  not  been  known  upon  what  kind  of  tree  this  spe- 
cies fed,  but  I  was  fortunate  enough  last  summer  to  ascertain  that  it 
also  infests  grape-roots.  On  the  first  of  July  last,  Mr.  Isidor  Bush,  of 
Bushburg,  brought  me  quite  a  number  of  full-grown  larvee  which  he 
had  taken  from  the  roots  of  his  grape  vines.  These  were  so  very  sim- 
ilar in  appearance  to  those  which  produced  the  Broad-necked  species, 
that  I  had  not  a  suspicion  they  would  produce  anything  else,  and  I 
was  consequently  greatly  surprised  when  I  bred  from  them  a  number 
of  the  Tile-horned  species  under  consideration.  By  collecting  to- 
gether fibres  and  chips  of  the  roots,  they  form  a  loose  sort  of  cocoon, 
and  transform,  either  inside  or  outside  of  the  root,  to  pupag,  which  re- 
semble so  closely  that  shown  in  Figure  62,  that  they  can  scarcely  be 
distinguished  from  it. 

We  have,  therefore,  two  distinct  insects  which  bore  into  the  roots 
of  the  Grape-vine,  and  which,  though  distinct,  are  so  closely  allied, 
that  the  females  can  only  be  distinguished  by  the  number  of  joints  in 
their  antennae.  One  of  these  is  known  to  attack,  besides  the  Grape, 
the  Apple,  the  Lombardy  poplar  and  the  Balm  of  Gilead,  and  the 
other  is  very  likely  equally  indifferent  as  to  its  choice  of  diet. 

The  accounts  given  in  my  former  article,  of  the  immense  borers 
found  in  Osage  Orange  roots,  and  even  in  the  roots  of  corn-stalks,  un- 
doubtedly refer  to  one  or  the  other  of  these  insects,  and  probably  to 
the  Tile-horned  species,  as  that  is  the  most  common. 

*  Having  examined  nearly  20  males  of  this  species,  I  have  found  the  antennal  joints  to  vary 
in  number  from  18  to  20,  the  same  specimen  often  having  a  different  number  of  joints  in  the  right 
and  left  antenna.  In  one  $  the  antennsB  are  both  of  them  16-jointed,  in  another  $  they  are  both 
of  them  17-jointed.  The  typical  number  of  joints  in  the  Coleopterous  antenna  is  only  11  ;  and  the 
number  being  so  variable  in  these  many-jointed  antennae  is  in  accordance  with  the  general  rule, 
that  multiple  parts  are  often  variable. 


90  SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT   OF 

Several  persons  who  have  recognized  this  immense  borer  from 
the  figure  and  description  which  I  published  last  year,  have  informed 
me  that  they  have  found  it  on  prairie  land,  and  Mr.  Wm.  O.  Holmes, 
nurseryman,  of  Plattsburg,  writes :  "  The  Borer  described  on  page  124 
of  your  Keport  is  destroying  a  good  many  of  our  apple  grafts,  set  last 
spring.  The  root  not  being  large  enough  for  them  to  work  inside, 
they  eat  out  about  one-third  of  the  bark,  and  hollow  out  the  rest  of 
the  root.  Our  nursery  is  on  prairie,  broke  in  the  fall  of  1867  and  spring 
of  1868."  Now  the  fact  of  these  large  root-feeding  borers  occurring 
in  such  numbers  in  recently  turned-up  prairie  land  where  no  large 
roots  exist,  would  have  been  perfectly  inexplicable  had  I  not  been 
cognizant  of  other  facts  which  threw  light  on  the  subject. 

There  is  a  small  dimorphous  male  form  of  the  Tile-horned  Prionus 
not  more  than  half  the  normal  size,  and  of  a  much  paler  yellowish 
color,  which  is  quite  common  in  the  West,  and  which  I  have  found 
even  more  common  around  St.  Louis,  than  the  true  type.  I  know 
that  this  form  is  often  found  in  prairie  regions,  and  my  entomological 
friend  Chas.  Sonne,  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  informs  me  that  a  relation  of 
his,  Mr.  F.  Jaeger,  of  Siegel,  Illinois,  in  digging  a  cellar,  once  found 
immense  numbers  of  these  large  grubs  near  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
A  whole  lot  of  them  were  sent  to  Mr,  Sonne,  and  he  bred  from  them 
numerous  specimens  of  this  small  form  of  the  Tile-horned  Prionus, 
every  one  of  them  males,  and  every  one  with  nineteen  joints  to  the 
antennae.  On  another  occasion,  at  the  same  place,  Mr.  Sonne,  having 
placed  a  lamp  on  a  grind-stone,  found  that  these  beetles  swarmed 
around  the  light,  and  next  day  upon  examining  a  number  which  he 
captured,  they  all  proved  to  be,  in  like  manner,  the  small  yellow 
form,  and  all  males.  Now,  Mr.  Jaeger's  house  is  remote  from  any 
timber  whatever,  there  being  but  a  few  scrub  willows  here  and  there 
near  by ;  and,  from  these  facts,  and  those  mentioned  by  Mr.  Holmes, 
we  are  forced  to  the  belief  that  these  grubs  (at  least  those  of  the 
small  c?  dimorphous  form)  are  able,  not  only  to  subsist  on  the  roots 
of  small  shrubs  and  very  young  trees,  but  also  upon  those  of  herba- 
ceous plants.  Mr.  H.  A.  Mungor,  of  Lone  Cedar,  Martin  county,  Min- 
nesota, has  had  a  similar  experience ;  for  he  often  ploughs  up  these 
grubs  in  prairie  land,  and  has  captured  the  beetles  a  full  mile  away 
from  any  trees  or  shrubs,  except  a  few  specimens  of  a  sufFruticose 
plant  known  as  the  Lead-plant  {AmorpJia  Canescens)^  which  very 
seldom  grows  a  root  there,  of  over  one-half  inch  diameter.  He  has 
also  actually  bred  the  beetle  frompup^  found  in  such  prairie  ground. 
Therefore,  some  of  the  accounts — such  as  their  occurring  full  grown 
in  the  roots  of  annuals  like  corn  and  cabbage,  and  in  those  of  grape- 
vines but  one  year  planted — which  were  not  easily  explained  before  ; 
become  perfectly  clear,  now  that  we  have  a  better  understanding  of 
the  facts  in  the  case. 

Now  then  comes  the  point  of  practical  importance.    It  may  with 
reason  be  argued,  that  it  matters  little  to  the  Grape-grower  to  which 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  91 

particular  species  these  borers  belong,  so  they  have  the  habit  in  com- 
mon, of  infesting  the  roots  of  his  vines.  But  a  more  important 
question  presents  itself  to  the  thinking  mind.  Is  any  danger  to  be 
apprehended  from  these  borers,  from  growing  grape-vines  and  fruit 
trees  among  decaying  oak  stumps  ?  In  my  former  article,  from  the 
testimony  of  practical  vineyardists,  I  have  hinted  that  there  is,  and 
have  advised  not  to  plant  on  land  covered  with  such  stumps,  or  even 
to  use  oak  stakes,  where  those  made  of  cedar  can  be  had;  and  I  am 
glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  this  advice  is  well  founded. 

As  a  general  rule,  the  larvae  of  the  Long-horned  Boring  Beetles 
either  inhabit  green  and  living  wood  or  else  decaying  and  dead  wood, 
the  same  species  never  attacking  both  kinds  of  wood  indiscriminate- 
ly ;  and  as  I  knew  that  the  larva  of  the  Cylindrical  Orthosoma  fed  on 
rotten  pine  wood,  I  thought  it  very  probable  that  it  also  fed  on  rotten 
oak  stumps,  and  had  been  confounded  by  practical  men  with  those  of 
the  Broad-necked  and  Tile-horned  species,  which  it  so  much  resem- 
bles. This  opinion  was  supported  by  the  fact  that  it  occurred  abun- 
dantly in  Union  county,  South  Illinois,  in  1861,  where  there  are  no 
pine  trees  growing,  and  where,  at  that  period,  the  so  called  "poplar" 
or  white-wood  was  universally  used  in  buildings,  in  place  of  pine  im- 
ported from  the  North ;  and  I  last  summer  ascertained  that  it  really 
does  breed  in  rotten  oak  stumps,  as  well  as  in  decaying  pine,  for  I 
found  it  in  the  former  wood,  both  in  the  larva,  pupa,  and  fresh  beetle 
state.  But  what  is  still  more  important  I  also  find  that  the  Broad- 
necked  Prionus,  is  an  exception  to  the  rule  above  mentioned,  and 
that  it  breeds  as  freely  in  decaying  oak  stumps  as  in  living  roots.  For 
this  fact  I  am  indebted  to  Mrs.  Mary  Treat  of  Vineland,  N.  J.,  who 
has  sent  me  specimens  of  the  beetle  bred  from  larva?  that  are  found 
abundant  in  the  oak  stumps  in  that  vicinity. 

Summary.— To  sum  up  the  whole  matter  in  a  few  words,  it  is  ob- 
vious that  we  have  in  Missouri  three  large  boring  grubs,  which  so 
closely  resemble  each  other,  that  they  cannot  be  distinguished  by  any 
marks  which  we  are  yet  acquainted  with— that  the  Broad-necked 
Prionus  feeds  indiscriminately  on  the  living  roots  of  Apple,  Grape- 
vine, Poplar  (and  perhaps  of  several  other  trees),  and  on  decaying 
oak  stumps,  and  will  travel  through  the  ground  from  one  place  to 
another— that  the  Tile-horned  Prionus  not  only  attacks  the  Grape- 
vine, but  can  subsist  on  the  roots  of  herbaceous  plants,  and  in  all 
probability  will  also  feed  on  decaying  oak,  like  the  former  species ; 
and  finally,  that  the  Cylindrical  Orthosoma  feeds  on  decaying  pine 
and  oak,  but  has  not  yet  been  found  in  living  roots.  From  these  facts 
we  may  deduce  the  important  corollary,  that  it  will  not  do  to  leave 
oak  stumps  to  rot  on  ground  which  is  .intended  for  a  vineyard  or 
orchard— which  was  the  thing  to  be  proved. 


92 


SECOND  ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 


THE  GRAPE  SEED-MAGGOT— Isoso7na  vitis,  Saunders. 

(Ilymenoptera,  Chalcididae.) 

In  my  First  Report  (pp.  125-31),  I  gave  an   account  of  a  minute 
maggot  (Fig.  64)  which  had  been  found  by  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders,  of  Lon- 
[Fig.  64.]  (Jon,  C.  W.,  to  infest  the  seeds  of  growing  grapes, 

and  to  occasion  much  damage  around  London  and 
.Paris,  by  causing  the  berries  of  the  Clinton,  Dela- 
ware, Rogers'  No.  4,  and  some  of  Mr.  Arnold's  Seed- 
lings, to  shrivel  up  without  maturing.  There  are  so  many  noxious 
insects,  common  in  Missouri,  that  occur  also  in  the  southern  portions 
of  Canada  West,  that  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  give  the  grape- 
growers  of  the  State  a  diagnosis  of  its  work,  in  case  it  should  at  any- 
day  make  its  appearance  in  our  vineyards. 

From  the  appearance  of  this  maggot,  I  inferred,  with  every  one 
else  who  gave  an  opinion,  that  it  would  most  likely  produce  some 
small  species  of  snout-beetle  (CurouUo  family).  Now  mark  how 
dangerous  a  thing  it  is,  for  even  an  entomologist  to  guess  at  the  char- 
acter of  some  insects,  when  in  this  masked  form.  We  flatter  our- 
selves that  there  are  but  very  few  insects  among  the  half  million  dif- 
ferent species  that  are  estimated  to  exist  in  the  whole  extent  of  this 
terrestrial  globe  of  ours,  that  we  cannot  place  at  a  glance  in  its  proper 
Order,  even  when  in  the  larva  state;  but  let  us  humbly  acknowledge 
that  there  are  some  few  larval  forms  among  the  more  minute  Four- 
winged  Flies  (order  Ilymenoptera)  and  Beetles  (order  Coleoptera) 
which  it  is  almost,  if  not  absolutely,  impossible  to  distinguish  the 
one  from  the  other. 

Last  August  I  had  the  pleasure  of  spending  a  few  hours  with  Mr. 
Saunders,  at  his  place  in  London,  and  I  was  gratified  to  learn  that  he 
had  bred  the  perfect  insect  from  this  seed-maggot.  It  proved  to  be  a 
little  Four- winged  fly  ( Chalcis  family),  and  upon  my  return  home,  I 
found  a  few  specimens  of  the  very  same  species  of  fly,  in  a  bottle  in 
which  were  placed  some  infested  grapes  received  the  year  before 
from  Mr.  A.  S.  Fuller  of  New  Jersey,  and  obtained  by  him  from  Canada. 

This  fly  so  closely  resembles 
the  notorious  Joint- worm  Fly  {Iso' 
soma  Ac>r6?<?*,  Harris)  that  the  ac- 
companying highly  magnified 
sketch  (Fig.  65)  of  that  insect — a 
representing  the  female,  h  the 
male,  g  the?  antenna, <f  the  ^  do., 
e  the  ?  abdomen  and /"the  ^  do. — 
will  atford  a  very  correct  idea  of 
its  appearance. 

The  Grape  Seed-maggot  Fly 
differs  principally  from  the  Joint- 
worm  Fly  in  its  somewhat  smaller 
size,  in  the  legs  being  marked 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  93 

with  black  on  the  thighs  and  shanks,  in  the  d"  abdomen  being 
comparatively  shorter,  and  in  its  third  ring  conspicuously  overhang- 
ing the  fourth.  The  following  account  and  description  from  Mr.  Saun- 
ders himself,  is  taken  from  the  November  number  of  the  Canadian 
Entomologist : 

"  In  October  I  detached  a  larva  from  the  inside  of  the  seed,  and 
placed  it  in  a  small  glass  cell  between  two  plates  of  glass,  in  which 
state  it  remained  until  early  in  January,  when  it  became  a  pupa,  hav- 
ing first  attached  itself  to  the  sides  of  the  cell  by  a  few  short  silky 
threads.  It  had  now  contracted  in  length,  become  nearly  oval,  and 
assumed  a  yellowish  tint,  with  a  few  short  loose  silky  threads  adher- 
ing to  different  parts  of  its  surface.  On  the  11th  of  February  I  exam- 
ined some  seeds  and  found  the  larva  within,  still  alive  and  active,  just 
as  it  appeared  in  the  fall.  On  the  7lh  of  July  further  specimens  were 
opened  and  the  inmates  found  soft  and  motionless  ;  these  appeared  to 
be  in  the  pupa  state,  but  I  did  not  examine  them  with  sufficient  care 
to  enable  me  to  be  positive.  During  the  remaining  part  of  July,  I 
looked  many  times  into  the  bottles  in  which  the  grapes  were  enclosed 
but  could  not  discover  anything.  On  the  9th  of  August,  feeling  sure 
that  the  time  for  the  appearance  of  the  insect  must  be  fully  come,  if 
not  already  past,  I  resolved  on  a  thorough  search  for  it.  As  soon  as 
the  contents  of  the  bottles  had  been  emptied  on  a  piece  of  white 
paper,!  observed  a  number  of  small  four- winged  flies  among  the 
dried-up  grapes.  They  were  all  dead  and  stiff,  some  of  them  more 
brittle  than  others.  From  the  observations  made,  I  should  judge  that 
they  made  their  escape  from  the  middle  to  the  end  of  July." 

laosoMA  viTis,  Saunders,  $ — Head  large,  flattened  in  front,  black,  thickly  punctured,  and  cov- 
ered with  many  short  whitish  hairs  ;  mandibles  pale  brown  at  base,  tipped  with  black;  antennse 
(scape  and  8  joints),  9-jointed,  black,  thickly  covered  with  whitish  hairs  inserted  in  deep  sockets  ; 
the  scape  pale  brown,  slender,  nearly  as  long  as  the  three  following  joints  together  ;  the  second  short ; 
third  to  eighth  inclusive  nearly  equal  in  length ;  the  terminal  joint  longer,  tapering  slightly 
towards  the  tip.  Thorax  black,  punctured  and  covered  with  whitish  hairs.  Legs,  front  pair  pale 
brown,  trochanters  nearly  black ;  second  and  third  pairs,  trochanters  black,  femora  and  tibiae 
nearly  black  along  the  middle,  pale  brown  at  tips  ;  tarsi  pale  brown.  Abdomen,  long,  black, 
straight,  smooth,  with  a  polished  surface  ;  placed  on  a  short  pedicel ;  a  little  contracted  at  base, 
thickest  on  third  joint,  tapering  gradually  to  fifth,  and  then  suddenly  to  extremity ;  the  basal 
joint  very  short,  second  and  third  each  somewhat  longer,  fourth  as  long  as  the  three  preceding, 
fifth  less  than  half  as  long  as  fourth,  sixth  a  little  shorter,  terminal  joint  rather   longer. 

(^  diflfers  from  $  in  having  the  antennse  somewhat  longer  and  more  thickly  covered  with 
hairs.  His  abdomen  is  short,  thick  and  blunt,  placed  on  a  moderately  stout  pedicel  nearly  its  own 
length.  The  abdominal  rings  have  about  the  same  relative  size  as  in  the  female,  but  the  posterior 
edge  of  third  overhangs  the  fourth,  the  latter  appearing  as  if  partially  drawn  within  the  project- 
ing edge  of  the  third  ring. 

Length  $  0.10,  ^,  0.06  inch. 

"  Having  kept  the  grapes  in  bottles,  only  occasionally  opened  for 
ventilation,  in  a  dry  room,  they  had  become  quite  hard,  dry  and  shriv- 
elled. In  consequence  of  this,  many  of  the  flies  were  unable  to  make 
their  way  out,  the  seed  having  become  too  hard  for  their  jaws  to  eat 
through.  On  opening  some  of  these  the  flies  were  found  dead  with 
wings  fully  developed  and  surrounded  by  small  fragments  of  the  in- 
terior coating  of  the  seed  which  they  had  evidently  gnawed  off  while 


94 


SECOND    ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 


endeavoring  to  escape.  Those  which  had  found  their  way  out  had 
eaten  a  small  nearly  round  irregular  hole  through  seed  and  skin.  In 
many  similar  cases  where  the  larva  feeds  within  a  hard  substance 
it  provides  for  the  escape  of  the  perfect  insect  by  eating  away  the 
bard  enclosure  until  it  is  reduced  so  thin  as  to  appear  almost  trans- 
parent, then  a  very  little  effort  is  sufficient  to  remove  the  obstruction 
to  the  outward  passage  of  the  imago.  In  this  instance  I  have  been 
unable  to  detect  any  such  preparation,  and  believe  that  the  whole 
work  of  escape  is  accomplished  by  the  perfect  fly. 

"Notwithstanding  the  abundance  of  this  insect  last  year,  I  have 
as  yet  been  unable  to  detect  their  presence  or  any  evidence  of  their 
work  during  the  present  season;  probably  the  cold  and  wet  character 
of  the  summer  has  been  unfavorable  to  their  operations." 


THE  CAl^KEU-WOUK—Anisopter^/x  vernata,  Peck. 

[Lepidoptera  Phalaenidce.] 

This  word  Canker-worm  has  formed  the  heading  of  so  many  arti- 
cles in  our  various  Agricultural  and  Horticultural  journals  during 
the  last  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  its  natural  history  has  been  so  fully 
given  in  the  standard  work  of  Dr.  Harris,  that  one   almost   wonders 

[Fig.  66.] 


where  there  can  be  a  reading  farmer  who  does  not  know  how  prop- 
erly to  fight  it.  But  then,  new  generations  are  ever  replacing  those 
which  pass  away,  so  that  the  same  stories  will  doubtless  have  to  be 
repeated  to  the  end  of  time.  Facts  in  Nature  will  always  bear  re- 
peating, and  as  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  maxim  that  no  injurious  in- 
sect can  be  successfully  combated  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
its  habits  and  transformations,  I  will  first  recount  those  of  the  Canker- 
worm,  and  afterwards  state  the  proper  remedy. 

The  eggs  of  this  insect  are  very  minute,  measuring  about  0.03 
inch  in  length  and  0.02  in  diameter.  In  form  they  are  not  unlike  a 
miniature  hen's  egg,  minutely  roughened  and  with  longitudinal  irregu- 
lar depressions.  They  reflect  prismatic  colors,  and  are  deposited 
close  together  in  rows,  forming  batches  such  as  that  shown  in  the 
above  Figure  6Q,  a  representing  them  of  the  natural  size,  and  I  rep- 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  95 

resenting  them  magnified.  They  are  glued  together  by  a  grayish  var- 
nish which  the  mother  moth  secretes,  and  they  are  attached  to  the 
trunk,  or  to  some  one  or  other  of  the  twigs  of  the  tree,  and  may  often 
be  found  on  the  inside  of  loose  scales  of  bark,  each  batch  consisting 
of  upwards  of  a  hundred  eggs. 

As  the  leaves  begin  to  form,  these  eggs  hatch  into  minute,  thread- 
like span-worms,  which  in  from  three  to  four  weeks  afterwards  ac- 
quire their  full  size,  when  they  appear  as  at  Figure  66  c.  The  Can- 
ker-worm is  distinguished  from  most  other  caterpillars  that  attack 
the  Apple,  by  having  but  four  prolegs  at  the  end  of  the  body.  The 
normal  number  of  such  prolegs  in  caterpillars,  is  ten ;  and  it  is  the 
lack  of  the  foremost  six  which  obliges  our  insect  to  span  or  loop, 
from  which  habit  the  characteristic  name  Geometridje  has  been  given 
to  the  group  to  which  it  belongs. 

When  full-grown  this  worm  measures  scarcely  an  inch  in  length, 
and  is  commonly  ash-gray  on  the  back,  darker  at  the  side  and  yellowish 
[Fig.  67.]  beneath.  It  varies  greatly  in  the  intensity  of  its  mark- 
ings however,  ash-gray,  green,  and  yellow  ones  occur- 
ring in  the  same  brood,  and  the  most  constant  character 
by  which  it  may  be  distinguished  from  other  span-worms 
of  the  same  size,  is  the  pattern  of  the  head,  which, 
no  matter  what  the  general  hue  of  the  body  may  be,  is 
usually  shaded  and  marked  as  in  the  annexed  Figure  67. 
The  markings  of  the  worm  vary  indeed  so  much,  that,  without  this 
criterion  I  could  hardly  venture  to  determine  a  Canker-worm  larva 
myself. 

I  subjoin  a  very  full  description  of  this  worm  from  numerous 
average  specimens,  as  it  is  of  considerable  importance,  that  an  orch- 
ardist  may  be  able  to  ascertain  definitely  whether  he  is  troubled  with 
the  true  Canker-worm  or  not.  For  if  he  mistakes  some  other  span- 
worm  which  produces  winged  females  as  well  as  winged  males,  for 
the  genuine  Canker-worm  which  is  apterous  in  the  female  moth  state, 
it  becomes  very  obvious  that  all  his  efi"orts  to  try  and  prevent  the 
ravages  of  the  spurious  Canker-worm  by  the  most  approved  and  well- 
tried  methods,  will  not  only  fail  most  absolutely,  but  he  will  lose  all 
faith  in  such  remedies,  and  may  perchance,  if  he  is  given  to  the  use 
of  the  quill,  vent  his  wrath  and  disappointment  by  sending  to  some 
one  of  the  horticultural  journals  of  the  land,  a  pithy  article  "based 
upon  FACTS  [?]  and  experience"  showing  up  the  utter  worthlessness  of 
the  Canker-worm  remedies ! 

It  is  from  such  lack  of  true  knowledge  that  the  City  Fathers  of  Bal- 
timore, Maryland,  went  to  the  useless  expense  of  furnishing  oil  troughs 
for  all  their  large  elm  trees  which  were  being  defoliated,  under  the 
delusive  idea  that  the  insect  committing  the  ravage  was  the  Canker- 
worm;  whereas  it  turned  out  to  be  the  larva  of  a  little  imported  Bee- 
tle (  Galeruca  calmariensis^  Fabr.),  the  female  of  which  has  ample 
wings,  and  can  fly  as  readily  as  a  bird  from   tree  to  tree ;  and  it  is 


96  SECOND   ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

from  such  oversights,  that  paragraphs  like  the  following  take  their 
rise.  This  one  may  be  found  in  the  Boston  Journal  for  may  23d, 
1866: 

Origin  of  Canker-worms. — A  Medford  correspondent  says  that 
last  fall  he  applied  to  his  trees  protectors  which  were  pronounced 
the  best  in  the  neighborhood,  and  notwithstanding  not  a  single  grub 
passed  over  them,  the  trees,  like  others  in  the  vicinity,  are  this  sea- 
son covered  with  worms  which  are  now  pursuing  their  devastating 
work.  In  his  opinion  the  Canker-worms  do  not  originate  from  the 
grub,  and  he  challenges  proof  that  they  do.  The  subject  is  one 
worthy  of  investigation ! 

Whe-e-e-e-ou  !    It  needs  no  comments  in  this  Report. 

When  first  hatchedjihe  young  Canker-worms  are  of  a  dark  olive-green  or  brown  hue,  with  a 
shiny  black  head  and  thoracic  leg-s,  with  a  whitifch  lateral  and  dorsal  band,  the  latter  having  a 
darker  central  line  along  it.  After  the  first  moult,  the  head  becomes  lighter  and  mottled,  and  the 
light  bands  less  conspicuous.  After  the  second  moult  the  bands  are  almost  obliterated  and  the 
body  becomes  more  uniformly  mottled  and  speckled  with  livid-brown  ;  the  head  becomes  still 
lighter  and  the  prolegs  being  now  large,  spread  out  at  almost  a  level  with  the  venter.  After  the 
third  (and  I  believe  last)  moult  the  appearance  changes  but  little.  The  full  grown  larva  averages 
0.9Q  inch  in  length  with  an  average  diameter  of  0.10  inch,  being  broadest  on  joint  11.  It  varies 
from  light  fleshy-gray  to  almost  black.  Head  mottled  as  in  Figure  67.  Ends  of  body  somewhat 
darker  than  middle.  Joint  1  with  a  yellowish  dorsal  shield,  the  hinder  margin  in  form  of  a 
rounded  W.  Viewed  under  a  lens  the  body  has  a  series  of  eight  fine  light  yellowish,  irregular, 
somewhat  broken  lines,  running  the  whole  length  of  the  body,  each  one  relieved  by  a  darker  shade 
each  side  of  it.  The  two  along  middle  of  dorsum  are  close  together,  with  the  space  between  them 
usually  dark,  and  occupied  at  anterior  edge  and  middle  of  joints  5,  6,  7  and  11  by  black  marks 
somewhat  in  form  of  x,  these  marks  being  represented  by  simple  black  dots  on  the  other  joints. 
Space  between  these  dorsal  lines  and  the  next  lowest,  lighter,  and  containing  four  black  pilifer- 
ous  spots  to  each  joint,  the  posterior  ones  rather  further  apart  than  the  anterior  ones  which  on  joint 
II  form  two  larger  elevated  shiny  black  spots.  Space  between  lines  2  and  3  darker  than  any  other 
part  of  the  body.  That  between  lines  .3  and  4  lighter  than  any  other  part  of  body  and  containing 
the  stigmata  which  are  perfectly  round  and  black  with  a  light  centre,  with  a  small  pilif  erous  spot 
anteriorly  above  and  below  them,  and  another  behind  them,  this  last  becoming  large  on  joints  5, 
6,  7  and  8.  Venter  dark  and  livid  at  borders,  with  a  pale  greenish  band  along  the  middle,  which  lias  s^ 
pinkish  patch  in  it  on  joints  6,  6,  7  and  8.  Legs  greenish  at  base,  color  of  body  at  extremity.  The 
markings  are  most  distinct  on  the  light  specimens. 

The  Canker-worm  is  by  no  means  confined,  in  its  destructive 
work,  to  the  Apple,  for  it  likewise  attacks  the  Plum,  the  Cherry,  the 
Elm,  and  a  variety  of  other  trees.  Mr.  R.  J.  Mendenhall,  of  Minnea- 
polis, Minn.,  even  informs  me,  in  a  recent  letter,  that  "the  Currant 
worm"  spoken  of  in  a  late  number  of  the  Farmer^s  C^w^07^  as  infesting 
the  currant  bushes  in  the  gardens  around  that  city,  were  really  Can- 
ker-worms, but  he  is  most  assuredly  mistaken.  The  Canker-worm  is 
seldom  ever  noticed  on  our  trees  till  the  riddled  and  seared  appear- 
ance of  the  foliage  tell  of  its  presence  ;  for,  like  most  other  span- 
worms,  it  has  the  habit  of  resting  in  a  stifi"  straight  posture,  either 
at  an  angle  of  about  45°  from,  or  flat  and  parallel  with  the  twig  which 
it  occupies — thus  eluding  detection. 

After  it  has  attained  its  full  size  it  either  crawls  down  the  tree  or 
lets  itself  down  by  means  of  a  silken  thread,  and  burrows  into  the 
ground.  Here,  at  a  depth  of  two  or  three  inches,  it  forms  a  rude  co- 
coon of  particles  of  earth  intermixed  with  silk  (Fig.  QQ^  d).  Within 
two  days  after  completing  the  cocoon  the  worm  becomes  a  chrysalis 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  9T 

of  alight  brown  color.  The  sexes  are  now  distinguishable,  the  male 
chrysalis  (Fig.  66,  e)  being  slender,  pointed  in  front,  and  showing  the 
wing-sheaths ;  while  that  of  the  female  is  larger  and  destitute 
of  wing-sheaths. 

In  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  the  worms  have  generally  descended 
from  the  trees  and  entered  the  ground  by  the  middle  of  May,  though 
some  remain  till  about  the  first  of  June.  As  I  have  amply  proved 
during  the  past  two  summers,  there  is  but  one  brood  each  year  in  this 
State,  just  as  there  is  but  one  brood  in  Maine, and  whether  the  worms 
enter  the  ground  the  first  or  the  last  of  May,  they  remain  there  as 
chrysalids  all  through  the  summer  and  fall  months,  and  the  great 
majority  of  them  till  th^  following  spring.  A  frost  seems  to  be  neces- 
sary to  their  proper  development.  Some  come  out  during  the  first 
mild  weather  that  succeeds  the  first  frosts  in  November;  others  issue 
all  through  the  winter  whenever  the  ground  is  thawed,  and  the  great 
bulk  issue  as  soon  as  the  frost  is  entirely  out  of  the  ground  in  spring. 
Many  which  I  bred  this  winter  issued  during  the  warm  weather  of 
January. 

The  moths  (Fig.  66  /"  (5",  ^  ?  )  show  great  disparity  of  sex,  the  male 
being  fully  winged  while  the  female  is  entirely  destitute  of  these  ap> 
pendages.  The  front  wings  of  the  male  are  pale  ash-gray,  crossed  by 
three  equidistant  jagged,  more  or  less  defined,  black  lines,  all  curved 
inwardly,  and  most  distinct  on  the  front  or  costal  border ;  and  by  a 
somewhat  broader  whitish  line,  which  runs  from  the  posterior  angle 
to  the  apex;  the  inner  and  terminal  borders  also  being  marked  with 
black.  The  hind  wings  are  silvery-gray,  and  the  under  surfaces  are  of 
the  same  uniform  silvery-gray  color,  each  wing  with  a  dusky  discal 
spot,  the  front  wings  each  with  an  additional  spot  on  the  costa.  Such 
is  the  appearance  of  the  more  common  perfect  specimens  found  in 
the  West,  but  the  wings  are  very  thin  and  silky,  and  the  scales  easily 
rub  off,  so  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  capture  a  perfect  specimen 
at  large.  They  vary  considerably  also — so  much  so  that  Dr.  Harris 
ranks  a  smaller  form  as  a  distinct  species  {A.pomeiaria)  which  I  have 
however  bred  promiscuously  with  the  more  typical  specimens.  The 
most  common  variation  from  the  brief  description  above  given,  is 
found  in  such  specimens  which  have  the  dark  lines  obsolete,  and  an 
additional  white  line  inside  the  one  described.  The  female  is  ash- 
gray,  the  thorax  with  a  black  spot,  the  body  more  or  less  marked 
with  black  along  the  back,  and  the  legs  alternately  marked  with  black 
and  white. 

In  Missouri  the  Canker-worm  is  not  so  injurious  over  broad  tracts 
of  country,  as  it  is  in  some  of  the  more  eastern  States.  Yet  it  is  suf- 
ficiently distributed  in  different  parts,  to  require  vigilance  to  keep  it 
down.  "R.  P.,"  of  Mexico,  Mo.,  found  it  very  injurious  in  the  spring 
of  1868,  and  sent  me  many  specimens,  and  they  were  the  genuine 

article.    Around  Pevely,  I  have  likewise  found  it  common  on  the 
7— E  R 


98  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OP 

farms  of  Dr.  Varnum  and  Mr.  Foster.  Mr.  Wm.  M.  Beal  of  Edina 
tells  me  that  it  is  considered  one  of  the  very  worst  enemies  in  Knox 
county,  and  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  J.  D.  Dopf,  editor  of  the  Jour- 
nal^ Rockport,  Atchison  Co.,  it  was  exceedingly  troublesome  to  the 
elms  there  in  1866.  Where  they  have  once  become  established,  and 
are  neglected,  their  ravages  soon  become  very  great;  and  they  were 
so  bad  in  certain  parts  of  Michigan  a  few  years  ago,  and  especially  in 
the  Grand  Traverse  region  in  1865,  that,  unless  my  memory  fails  me, 
a  certain  Eastern  editor,  in  response  to  an  appeal  for  a  remedy  from 
Mr.  Sanford  Howard,  the  Secretary  of  the  Michigan  State  Board  of 
Agriculture  very  foolishly  urged  the  Wolverines  to  cut  down  their 
trees.  May  I  hope  that  these  Entomological  Reports  will  be  the 
means  of  protecting  IMissouri  from  the  fearful  ravages  of  this  worm 
which  has  so  often  discouraged  the  orchardists  in  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and  some  of  the  Middle  States. 

It  is  the  apterous  condition  of  the  female  moth  which  gives  us 
such  complete  control  of  this  enemy,  and  which  indicates 

THE  PROPER  REMEDY. 

The  sole  object  of  the  female,  after  she  leaves  the  earth,  seems 
to  be  to  provide  for  the  continuance  of  her  kind,  and  she  instinctively 
places  the  precious  burden,  which  is  to  give  birth  to  the  young  which 
she  herself  is  destined  never  to  behold,  upon  the  tree  whose  leaves 
are  to  nourish  those  young.  All  her  life-energy  is  centered  in  the 
accomplishment  of  this  one  object,  and  she  immediately  makes  for 
the  tree  upon  issuing  from  the  ground.  Consequently,  anything  that 
will  prevent  her  ascending  the  trunk  will,  in  a  great  measure  (but  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  not  entirely)  preserve  the  tree  from  the 
ravages  of  the  worm. 

Numerous  indeed  have  been  the  devices — patented  or  unpatented 
— which  have  at  different  times  and  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
been  used  to  accomplish  this  desired  end;  and  every  year  our  Agri- 
cultural journals  report  individual  experiments  with  some  one  or 
other  of  these  devices — some  favorable  and  others  adverse.  Tar, 
applied  either  directly  around  the  body  of  the  tree,  or  on  strips  of 
old  canvas,  on  sheep-skin,  or  on  stiff  paper;  refuse  sorghum  molasses, 
printers'  ink,  or  slow-drying  varnishes,  or  melted  India  rubber, 
which  always  retains  its  soft  viscid  state,  applied  in  a  similar  man- 
ner; tin,  lead,  and  rubber  troughs  to  contain  oil;  belts  of  cotton- 
wool, etc.,  etc.,  have  all  been  used,  and  with  both  good  and  bad 
results,  very  much  according  as  they  have  been  used  intelligently  or 
otherwise.  Now,  all  these  appliances,  of  whatsoever  character,  are 
divisible  into  two  classes:  first,  those  which  prevent  the  ascension  of 
the  moth  by  entangling  her  feet,  and  trapping  her  fast,  or  by  drown- 
ing her;  and,  second,  those  which  accomplish  the  same  end  by  pre- 
venting her  from  getting  a  foothold,  and  thus  causing  her  repeatedly 
to  fall  to  the  ground  until  she  becomes  exhausted  and  dies. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  99 

The  first  class  of  remedies  are  thoroughly  effectual  when  applied 
understandingly  and  persistently.  And  by  this  I  mean,  that  the 
orchardist  must  know  that  many  of  the  moths  issue  in  the  fall  of  the 
year,  and  that  the  applications  must,  in  consequence,  be  made  at 
least  as  early  as  the  latter  part  of  October,  and  that  they  must 
be  kept  sticky,  through  all  but  freezing  weather,  till  the  leaves  have 
well  put  out,  in  the  following  spring.  Furthermore  he  must  know 
that  many  of  the  moths— frustrated  in  their  efforts  to  climb  the  tree- 
will  deposit  their  eggs  near  the  ground  or  anywhere  below  the  appli- 
cation, and  that  the  young  worms  hatching  from  them  are  able  to 
pass  behind  the  slighest  crevice  or  over  the  finest  straw.  Thus,  if 
troughs  are  used,  they  must  be  fitted  over  a  bandage  of  cotton-wool, 
so  that  when  the  trough  is  drawn  tightly  around  the  tree,  it  will  do 
no  injury,  and  will  at  the  same  time  cause  the  cotton  to  fill  up  all  in- 
equalities of  the  bark;  the  joint  must  likewise  be  kept  smeared 
either  with  tar  or  molasses,  and  then  the  worms  will  not  be  able  to 
pass.  In  the  neglect  to  thus  fasten  them,  lies  the  secret  of  failure  which 
many  report  who  use  such  troughs.  The  second  class  of  contrivances 
are  of  no  avail  whatever,  for  although  the  moth  is  unable  to  travel  over 
a  very  smooth  surface,  I  know  from  experience  that  the  young  worms 
can  march  over  the  smoothest  glass  by  aid  of  the  glutinous  silken 
thread  which  they  are  able  to  spin  from  the  very  moment  they  are 
born.  For  these  reasons,  even  the  "Merritt's  Patent  Tree-Protector," 
which  was  so  well  advertised  by  Mr.  Howard  in  his  otherwise  excel- 
lent article  on  the  Canker-worm,  in  the  Michigan  Agricultural  Re- 
port for  1865,  must  be  classed  with  the  worthless  patents.  This 
"  Protector"  consists  of  a  ring  of  glass  grooved  below  and  hung  from 
the  tree  by  a  tent  of  canvas,  to  which  it  is  fastened  by  an  iron 
clamp. 

I  might  enumerate  a  number  of  such  ingenious  contrivances  both 
of  glass,  wood,  tin,  and  isinglass,  for  heading  off  the  female  moth  only, 
and  some  few  which  are  sufficiently  thorough  to  head  off  the  young 
larvae  also ;  but  they  are  all  so  expensive,  that  I  am  perfectly  convinced 
they  will  never  be  adopted  in  our  large  orchards ;  nor  are  they  nec- 
essary, for  some  of  the  remedies  already  mentioned  are  altogether 
more  simple  and  more  effectual. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  it  requires  a  great  deal  of  time,  labor 
and  expense  to  continually  renew  the  applications  of  tar  on  every 
tree  in  a  large  orchard  during  so  many  months  of  the  year ;  while  its 
application  directly  to  the  bark  is  more  or  less  injurious  to  the  trees. 
For  these  reasons,  refuse  sorghum  molasses  will  be  found  much  bet- 
ter for  the  purpose,  as  it  does  not  harden  so  rapidly,  and  is  said  not 
to  be  injurious  to  the  tree.  In  neighborhoods  where  sorghum  is 
grown,  it  is  also  much  cheaper.  That  it  will  pay  to  do  this  work  in 
orchards  where  the  Canker-worm  is  known  to  be  numerous,  there  can- 
not be  the  least  doubt.  The  old  adage,  "  What  is  worth  doing  at  all 
IS  worth  doing  well,"  was  never  truer  than  in  fighting  this  insect. 


100  SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

Apply  the  remedy  thoroughly  during  two  successive  years,  and  you 
have  utterly  routed  the  enemy,  and  this  is  more  especially  the  case 
where  an  orchard  is  not  in  too  close  proximity  to  the  timber,  or  to 
slovenly  neighbors.  Fail  to  apply  the  remedy,  and  the  enemy  will, 
in  all  probability,  rout  you.  The  reason  is  simple.  The  female  being 
wingless,  the  insect  is  very  local  in  its  attacks,  sometimes  swarming 
in  one  orchard  and  being  unknown  in  another  which  is  but  a  mile 
away.  Thus,  after  it  is  once  exterminated,  a  sudden  invasion  is  not 
to  be  expected,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Tent  Caterpillar,  and  of  many 
other  orchard  pests  ;  but  when  it  has  once  obtained  a  footing  in  an 
orchard,  it  multiplies  the  more  rapidly,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  does 
not  spread  fast. 

If  oil  troughs  are  used,  it  will  be  found  much  safer,  and  surer  to 
sink  them  in  the  ground  close  around  the  butt  of  the  tree,  instead  of 
winding  them  around  the  trunk  higher  up.  There  will  then  be  no 
chance  for  the  young  worms  to  get  up  between  the  trough  and  the 
tree.  But  it  follows,  that  this  plan  can  only  be  adopted  in  an  orchard 
which  is  kept  perfectly  clean. 

As  for  muriate  of  lime,  which  has  been  so  earnestly  recom- 
mended as  a  preventive,  by  interested  parties,  here  is  what  Mr.  San- 
ford  Howard  says  of  it  in  the  Western  Rural  of  August  18th,  1866,. 
and  Mr.  Joseph  Breck,  editor  of  the  old  American  Journal  of  Horti- 
culture ;  G.  C.  Brackett,  correspondent  of  the  Maine  Farmer^  and 
several  other  persons  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  all  testify,  after 
having  thoroughly  tried  it,  to  its  utter  worthlessness  for  this  purpose  : 

The  editor  of  the  Farmer  says,  there  are  statements  to  the  effect, 
that  a  substance  called  Gould's  Muriate  of  Lime,  applied  to  the  soil 
in  autumn,  had  entirely  prevented  the  subsequent  appearance  of 
Canker-worms  on  trees  standing  on  the  ground,  although  the  trees  had 
previously  been  much  damaged  by  the  insect.  It  is  also  stated  that 
on  other  trees,  not  ten  rods  distant,  where  none  of  the  so-called  mu- 
riate of  lime  was  applied,  the  worms  were  very  destructive. 

I  cannot  think  that  this  amounts  to  any  proof  that  the  substance 
applied  destroyed  the  worms,  or  had  any  effect  on  them.  The  non- 
appearance of  the  insect  in  the  case  alluded  to,  was  probably  due  to 
other  causes.  If  this  substance  will  kill  or  injure  the  insect  in  any 
of  its  stages,  it  would  be  easy  to  prove  it  by  a  direct  application  to 
soil  containing  insects,  in  a  box.  Several  years  ago,  I  took  pains  to 
make  a  particular  experiment  with  this  so-called  muriate  of  lime,  the 
result  of  which  Was  that  the  Canker-worm  underwent  its  transforma- 
tions naturally,  and  to  all  appearance  healthfully,  in  a  soil  composed 
of  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  articles  of  which  it  was  said  a  small 
proportion  only  was  necessary  to  totally  destroy  them  ?  If  the  sub- 
stance is  the  same  in  composition  now  that  it  was  then,  it  is  reasona- 
ble to  suppose  that  the  result  of  its  application  would  be  the  same. 

As  to  the  "  Plug  Ugly  Theory,"  which  consists  of  filling  an  auger 
bore  with  sulphur  and  plugging  it  tight,  and  which  originated,  some 
years  since,  in  the  inventive  brain  of  some  Prairie  Farmer  corres- 
pondent ;  it  is  altogether  too  absurd  to  need  consideration,  for  even 
if  the  mode  of  application  were  not  so  downright  ridiculous,  it  is  well 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  101 

known  to  entomologists  that  many  caterpillars  will  thrive  exceed- 
ingly on  leaves  that  have  been  thickly  sprinkled  with  sulphur. 

Vigilance  is  the  price  of  reward,  and  as  it  is  always  easier  to  pre- 
vent than  to  cure,  it  were  well  for  the  owners  of  young  orchards,  in 
neighborhoods  where  the  Canker-worm  is  known  to  exist,  to  keep  a 
sharp  look-out  for  it;  so  that  upon  its  first  appearance  the  evil  may 
be  nipped  in  the  bud.  In  the  same  manner  that  it  is  exterminated  in 
the  individual  orchard,  in  like  manner,  it  may,  by  concert  of  action, 
be  exterminated  from  any  given  locality.  When  once  the  worms  are 
on  a  tree,  a  good  jarring  will  suspend  them  all  in  mid- air,  when  the 
best  way  to  kill  them  is  by  swinging  a  stick  above  them,  which  breaks 
the  web,  and  causes  them  to  fall  to  the  ground  ;  when  they  may  be 
prevented  from  ascending  the  tree,  by  the  methods  already  described, 
or  by  strewing  straw  on  the  ground  and  setting  fire  to  it. 

One  word  in  commendation  of  late  fall  plowing  and  the  use  of 
hogs.  A  good  deal  has  been  said  both  for  and  against  fall  plowing, 
and  the  following  discussion  which  took  place  at  the  November  (1868) 
meeting  of  the  Alton  (Ills.)  Horticultural  Society,  will  afford  a  sample 
of  the  different  opinions  held  by  individuals : 

Dr.  Long  took  the  ground  that  fall  plowing  was  one  of  the  best 
and  surest  means  of  eradicating  those  insects  which  stay  in  the  ground 
over  winter.  He  said,  some  five  or  six  years  ago  my  orchard  was 
badly  infested  with  the  Canker-worm  ;  by  late  cultivation,  I  almost, 
if  not  entirely,  got  rid  of  them. 

Dr.  Hull — I  do  not  believe  that  fall  plowing  will  destroy  the  lar- 
vae of  insects  to  any  extent.  I  have  dug  up  frozen  lumps  containing 
larvye  that  were  not  affected  by  freezing.  I  think  the  Canker-worm 
will  not  spread  here  as  in  New  England, 

J.  Huggins — I  have  been  led  to  believe — contrary  to  Dr.  Hull's 
statement — that  they  will  spread,  and  feel  that  there  is  great  danger 
of  their  spreading.  I  believe  fall  plowing  a  great  aid  in  the  extermi- 
nation of  them.  Cites  a  case  where  they  have  been  almost  entirely 
destroyed  by  late  plowing,  in  an  orchard  that  was  nearly  ruined  by 
them. 

Dr.  Hull — If  it  be  true  that  they  will  spread,  why  is  it  that  none 
of  Dr.  Long's  neighbors  have  them?  He  says  he  was  badly  overrun 
with  them,  and  the  fact  that  his  neighbors  were  not,  I  think  confirm- 
ation of  my  statement  that  they  will  not  spread. 

Dr.  Long — My  brother's  orchard,  adjoining  mine,  had  double  as 
many  as  my  own.  He  fall  plowed,  and  has  very  few  left.  He  also 
cites  the  case  of  an  old  orchard,  in  this  section,  that  was  almost  de- 
stroyed by  them,  but  fall  plowing  has  almost,  if  not  entirely,  destroyed 
them. 

The  following  item  from  the  New  York  Weekly  Tribune  of  Feb- 
ruary 26th,  1869,  also  bears  on  this  point: 

Canker-worms  Destroyed  by  Plowing. — Mr.  McNeil  Witherton, 
in  answer  to  W.  V.  Monroe's  request :  1  will  state  thatl  think  that  the 
Canker-worm  can  be  destroyed  by  plowing  the  ground  where  they 
are,  late  in  the  fall.  The  2Sth  of  Nov.,  1867, 1  was  at  my  son  David's 
in  Wisconsin.  He  told  me  that  the  Canker-worms  were  in  his  orchard, 
and  had  injured  his  apple  trees  very  much  the  past  season;  that  a 
man  who  owns  a  nursery  and  keeps  apple  trees  for  sale,  w^entinto  the 
orchard  and  examined  the  trees  and  worms,  and  said  it  was  the  Can- 


102  SECOND    ANNUAL    KEPORT  OF 

ker-worra  that  was  injuring  his  orchard.  I  told  him  that  about  fifty 
years  ago  they  had  been  in  my  father's  orchard  some  six  years,  and 
killed  a  large  number  of  the  trees  ;  that  we  plowed  it  late  in  the  fall, 
and  have  never  seen  the  Canker-worm  there  since.  I  advised  him  to 
plow  his  orchard  immediately.  The  next  day  he  plowed  it  as  far  as 
the  worms  had  been  in  it.  I  received  a  letter  from  him  a  few  weeks 
ago,  stating  that  the  Canker-worms  were  not  in  his  orchard  this  year, 
and  those  trees  that  were  injured  and  not  killed  last  year,  revived 
some  this  year. 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  but  late  plowing  will  produce  somewhat 
diiFerent  ejffects,  according  to  the  character  of  the  soil,  and  the  depth 
of  the  plowing ;  but  that  it  is  more  generally  beneficial  than  other- 
wise I  am  perfectly  convinced,  and  as  for  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Wm.  P. 
Lippincott,  of  Vernon,  Iowa,  made  some  time  ago,  in  the  Iowa  Home- 
steady  namely,  that  it  left  the  ground  full  of  harbors  for  the  next  year's 
breeding,  it  suffices  to  say  that  the  insect  does  not  breed  in  the 
ground,  and,  holes  or  no  holes,  the  worms  will  penetrate  the  soil 
whenever  the  time  arrives  to  change  to  chrysalis.  After  the  summer 
months  the  insect  invariably  lies  in  the  chrysalis  state  snugly  en- 
tombed in  a  little  earthen  cell  very  thinly  lined  with  silk,  from  two 
to  six  inches  below  the  surface.  This  cell,  though  frail,  is  a  sufficient 
protection,  so  long  as  it  is  whole,  from  any  excess  of  moisture,  and  at 
the  same  time  prevents  too  much  evaporation  in  case  of  summer 
drouth  or  dry  winter  freezing.  Now  I  have  proved  by  experiment 
that  whenever  this  cell  is  disturbed  or  broken  in  cold  weather,  the 
chrysalis  has  not  the  power  to  penetrate  the  ground  again,  and  in  the 
great  majority  of  instances,  either  rots,  dries  out,  becomes  mouldy,  or, 
if  on  the  surface,  is  devoured  by  birds.  Even  summer  plowing,  if 
performed  after  the  first  of  July  would  work  beneficially  ;  and  it  is  for 
this  reason,  that  clean,  well  cultivated  orchards  are  more  free  from 
the  attacks  of  this  insect,  than  slovenly  and  neglected  ones.  The  only 
advantage  of  late  fall  plowing,  lies  in  the  facts,  that  the  chrysalis  is  at 
that  time  too  benumbed  to  work  itself  into  the  ground  and  form  an- 
other cell,  and  that  birds  are  then  harder  pushed  for  food,  and  more 
watchful  for  any  such  dainty  morceau. 

As  to  the  efficiency  of  hogs,  in  rooting  up  and  devouring  the  chry- 
salids,  during  the  summer  months,  abundant  favorable  testimony 
might  be  cited  ;  but  the  facts  are  too  obvious  to  need  argument. 

ENEMIES   OF   THE   CANKER-W^ORM. 

Like  most  of  our  noxious  insects,  the  Canker-worm  is  subject  to 
[Fig.  68.]  w^Q  attacks  of  cannibal  and  parasitic  insects.    It  is 

also  devoured  by  very  many  different  birds,  some  of 
which  almost  entirely  live  on  it ;  and  Dr.  Packard, 
of  Salem,  Mass.,  has  observed  an  elongated  mite 
{Nothrus  ovivorns,  Fig.  68,  enlarged)  devouring  its 
eggs.  The  most  common  parasite  which  I  have  yet 
discovered  with  us,  is  an  undescribed  small  four- 
winged  fly  belonging  to  the  genus  Microgaster^  of 
the  same  size,  but  differing  from  the  Military  Micro- 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


103 


gaster  (Fig.  23)  which  preys  upon  the  Army- worm.  It  differs  also 
from  most  other  insects  of  the  same  genus,  by  each  individual  larva 
as  it  eats  through  the  skin  of  the  Canker-worm,  spinning  its  pale 
greenish-white  cocoon  alone,  and  not  in  company.  About  ten  per 
cent,  of  the  worms  which  I  have  endeavored  to  breed,  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  this  parasite.  Harris  mentions  the  larva  of  another  four- 
winged  fly,  and  that  of  a  two-winged  fly  belonging  to  the  genus  Ta- 
china^  which  also  infest  the  worm,  destroying  about  one- third  of  them 
in  Massachusetts.  There  is  also  a  very  minute  and  undescribed  ^^^e- 
ciQ^oi Platygaster  vi\\\c\\i)^QVQe?,  the  egg  of  the  Canker-worm,  and 
drops  one  of  her  own  into  it,  from  which  in  due  time  the  perfect  fly 
develops. 

Among  the  Cannibal  insects,  which  prey  upon  it,  may  be  men- 
tioned the  Ground-beetles,  two  of  which  I  have  found  preying  upon 
this  worm,  namely,  the  Rummaging  Ground-beetle  {Calosoma  scruta- 
[Mg.  69.]  iQ^,^  Fabr.  Fig.  69),  a  large  and  beautiful 

insect,   with    the    wing-  [Fig.  to.J 

covers  golden-green,  and 
the  rest  of  the  body 
marked  with  violet-blue, 
gold,  green,  and  copper; 
and  the  Fiery  Ground- 
beetle  ( Calosoma  cali- 
dum^  Fabr.  Fig.  70.),  a 
black  species  of  almost 
equal  size,  with  copper 
colored  spots  on  the  wing- 
covers.  These  beetles  are  very  active,  and  run  over  the  ground  in 
search  of  soft-bodied  worms,  and  will  even  mount  upon  the  trunks  of 
trees  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  Fraternal  Potter-wasp  {Eumenes  fraterna^  Say),  is  stated  by 
[Fig.  71.]  Harris,  to  store  her  cells  with  Can- 

ker-worms, often  gathering  eighteen 
or  twenty  of  them  for  a  single  cell. 
This  wasp  (Fig.  71,  «),  is  quite  com- 
mon in  St.  Louis  county,  and  uses 
other  species  besides  Canker-worms 
as  food  for  its  young.  Its  clay  nest 
(Fig.  71  5,  entire ;  c',  the  same  cut 
open  shortly  after  it  was  built,  show- 
ing the  manner  in  which  it  is  com- 
pactly crowded  with  green  worms),  may  often  be  found  attached  to 
the  stems  of  the  Goldenrod  and  of  other  plants  in  the  open  air,  or 
cemented  under  the  loose  bark  of  some  tree.  It  has  even  been  found 
attached  to  the  leaves  of  a  deciduous  plant,  where  it  must  neces- 
sarily fall  to  the  ground  in  winter  and  lie  there  till  the  perfect  insect 
issues  in  the  following  summer. 


104 


SECOND  ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

CABBAGE  WORMS. 


Of  the  various  insects  that  affect  this  important  esculent,  the- 
three  following  are  among  the  most  injurious  in  this  State  : 

THE  SOUTHERN  CABBAGE  BVTTEnFLY—Pieris  protodice,  Boisd. 
(Lepidoptera,  Pieridae.) 

Mr.  S.  H.  Scudder,  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  from 
an  examination  of  a  large  number  of  specimens  of  this  butterfly, 
[Fig.  72.]  found  that  it  enjoys  a  wide  geo- 

graphical range,  "  extending 
from  Texas  on  the  southwest, 
Missouri  on  the  west,  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Red  River  of  the 
North  on  the  northwest,  as  far 
as  Connecticut,  and  the  South- 
ern Alantic  States  on  the  east."* 
But  while  the  species  is  scarce 
in  the  more  northern  States,  it 
is  the  common  white  butterfly  of  Missouri,  abounding  in  many  parts 
of  the  State,  and  sometimes  flitting  so  thickly  around  the  truck  gar- 
[Fig.  73.]  dens  near  large   cities,  as  to  remind 

one  at  a  distance,  of  the  falling  of 
snow.  It  often  proves  exceedingly 
injurious,  and  I  learn  from  a  Missis- 
sippi exchange,  that  "  there  were 
last  year  thousands  of  dollars'  worth 
of  cabbages  devastated  and  ruined 
by  worms  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Corinth."  The  paragraph  goes  on  to 
state,  "that  cabbages  could  not,  in  consequence,  be  had  there  even  at 
ten  cents  per  head."  The  "worm"  referred  to,  was  doubtless  the  spe- 
cies under  consideration. 

I  have  often  passed  through  cabbage  beds  near  St.  Louis,  and 
been  unable  to  find  a  perfect  head,  though  few  of  the  gardeners  had 
any  suspicion  that  the  gay  butterflies  which  flitted  so  lazily  from  one 
plant  to  another,  were  the  real  parents  of  the  mischievous  worms 
which  so  riddled  the  leaves. 

The  larva  (Fig.  72,  a)  may  be  summarily  described  as  a  soft  worm, 
of  a  greenish-blue  color,  with  four  longitudinal  yellow  stripes,  and 
covered  with  black  dots.  When  newly  hatched  it  is  of  a  uniform 
orange  color  with  a  black  head,  but  it  becomes  dull  brown  before  the 
first  moult,  though  the  longitudinal  stripes  and  black  spots  are  only 
visible  after  said  moult  has  taken  place. 

I  subjoin  a  more  complete  description  of  it: 

Average  length   ■when  full   grown    1.15   inches.     Middle   segments   largest.     Most  cominoa 
ground-color  green   verging   onto   blue  ;  sometimes   clear  pale  blue  and  at  others  deep  indigo  or 

*  See  Proc.  Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  VIII,  1861,  p.  180. 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


105 


parplish-blue.  Each  segment  with  six  transverse  wrinkles,  of  which  the  first  and  fourth  are 
somewhat  wider  than  the  others.  Four  longitudinal  yellow  lines,  each  equidistant  from  the 
other,  and  each  interrupted  by  a  pale  blue  spot  on  the  aforementioned  first  and  fourth  transverse 
wrinkles.  Traces  of  two  additional  longitudinal  lines  below,  one  on  each  side  immediately  above 
prolegs.  On  each  transverse  wrinkle  is  a  row  of  various  sized,  round,  polished  black,  slightly 
raised,  piliferous  spots  ;  those  on  wrinkles  one  and  four  being  largest  and  most  regularly  situated. 
Hairs  arising  from  these  spots,  stifif  and  black.  Venter  rather  lighter  than  ground-color  above, 
and  minutely  speckled  more  or  less  with  dull  black.  Head  same  color  as  body  ;  covered  with 
black  piliferous  spots,  and  usually  with  a  yellow  or  orange  patch  each  side— quite  variable.  The 
black  piliferous  spots  frequently  have  a  pale  blue  annulation  around  the  base,  especially  in  the 
darker  specimens. 

The  chrysalis  (Fig.  72,  J),  averages  0.65  inch  in  length,  and  is  as  vari- 
able in  depth  of  ground-color,  as  the  larva.  The  general  color  is 
light  bluish-gray,  more  or  less  intensely  speckled  with  black,  with  the 
ridges  and  prominences  edged  with  buj[f  or  with  flesh-color,  and 
having  larger  black  dots. 

The  female  butterfly  (Fig.  73)  dif- 
fers remarkably  from  the  male  which 
I  represent  at  Figure  74.  It  will  be 
seen,  upon  comparing  these  figures 
that  the  ?  is  altogether  darker  than 
the  (?.  This  sexual  diff'erence  in  ap- 
pearance is  purely  colorational,  how- 
ever, and  there  should  not  be  the  dif- 
ference in  the  form  of  the  wings  which  the  two  figures  would  indi- 
cate, for  the  hind  wings  in  the  <^  cut,  are  altogether  too  short  and 
rounded. 

This  insect  may  be  found  in  all  its  difi'erent  stages  through  the 
months  of  July,  August  and  September.  It  hybernates  in  the  chrys- 
alis state.  I  do  not  know  that  it  feeds  on  anything  but  Cabbage,  but 
I  once  found  a  c?  chrysalis  fastened  to  a  stalk  of  the  common  nettle 
(Solanum  carolinense),  which  was  growing  in  a  cemetery  with  no 
cabbages  within  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile  :  and  Mr.  J.  K.  Muhleman 
is  reported  as  having  stated  at  a  late  meeting  of  the  Alton  (Illinois) 
Horticultural  Society,  that  it  is  injurious  to  turnips  and  other  plants 
of  the  cabbage  family.  There  are  two  broods  of  this  insect  each  year. 
As  already  stated,  in  the  more  northern  and  eastern  States  our 
[Fig-  75  Southern  Cabbage  Butterfly   occurs  in 

^^^^^N  comparatively  small  numbers,  but  it  is 
replaced  by  the  Potherb  Butterfly 
{Pieris  oleracea^  Boisd.),  an  indigenous 
species  which  does  not  occur  with  us. 
This  last  (Fig.  75,  butterfly  with  the 
larva  beneath)  is  in  reality  a  northern 
species,  for  it  rarely  reaches  as  far  south 
as  Pennsylvania,  but  extends  east  to 
Nova  Scotia,  west  to  Lake  Superior, 
and  north  as  far  as  the  Great  Slave  Lake 
in  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  territory.    It  is  readily  distinguished 


106  SECOND   ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 

from  our  species  by  being  perfectly  plain,  with  no  black  spots  on  the 
wings.  The  body  is  black,  and  the  front  wings  have  a  slight  shade 
of  this  color  at  their  base,  front  edge,  and  tips.  Its  larva  is  pale  green 
[Fig^  76.]  and  feeds  on  various  other  cruciferous  plants  besides  cab- 
bages ;  its  chryalis  (Fig.  76)  is  also  pale  green  or  whitish, 
regularly  and  finely  dotted  with  black. 

This  butterfly  has  existed  from  time  immemorial  on  the 
American  continent,  within  the  geographical  limits  already 
given,  and  yet  has  never  made  its  way  into  Missouri  or  any  of 
the  southwestern  States.  Nor  is  it  likely  to  ever  do  so  ;  and  why?  Be- 
cause some  insects  are  constitutionally  incapacitated  to  live  beyond 
certain  geographical  limits.  The  range  of  an  insect  is  governed  by 
various  influences  which  I  have  not  time  to  enumerate  at  present; 
but  the  principal  influence  is  undoubtedly  climate — temperature — 
heat.  The"  isothermal"  lines,  or  the  lines  of  equal  heat,  as  all  phys- 
ical geographers  are  well  aware,  do  not  run  parallel  with  the  lines  of 
latitude,  as  one  might  at  first  thought  suppose  ;  but  if  our  isothermal 
maps  are  to  be  relied  on,  vary  most  astonishingly  to  points  north  and 
south  of  a  given  line.  The  same  variation  from  a  given  line  of  lati- 
tude is  noticeable  in  the  distribution  of  insects,  or — to  coin  a  word — 
we  have  "isentomic,"or  iso-insect  lines,  which  are  as  variable  as  the 
lines  of  equal  heat,  by  which  they  are  doubtless  to  a  great  extent 
governed.  In  Central  Missouri  we  live  on  nearly  the  same  latitude  as 
that  of  Southern  Pennsylvania,  and  in  North  Missouri,  as  that  of 
Southern  New  York  ;  yet  we  do  not  live  on  tie  same  insect  line,  but 
nearly  on  that  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  even  in  the  ex- 
treme northern  part  of  the  State,  a  number  of  insects  are  found, 
which  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  are  never  known  to  occur  north  of 
Virginia,  and  the  same  rule  holds  good  with  the  birds  and  fishes  of 
the  United  States.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  our  Central  and  South- 
ern counties.  In  other  words  many  of  our  insects  are  southern^ 
not  Qiortliern  B^QCiQQ^  and  as  familiar  examples,  I  might  mention  the 
Tarantula  of  Texas  {MygaU  Hentzii,  Girard),  and  its  large  Digger- 
wasp  enemy  {Pepsis  formosa^  Say),  which  have  been  frequently 
found  in  St.  Louis  county  during  the  past  two  years,  though  they  were 
for  a  long  time  supposed  to  be  confined  to  Texas. 

Now,  since  the  indigenous  Potherb  Butterfly  has  never,  in  the 
course  of  past  ages,  extended  to  any  point  South  of  Pennsylvania, 
although  its  cruciferous  food-plants  have  always  flourished  South  of 
that  line,  we  are  justified  in  concluding  that  it  never  will  do  so,  and 
that  though  a  brood  of  the  worms  were  introduced  directly  on  to 
some  cabbage  patch  in  the  extreme  Northern  part  of  this  State,  they 
would  soon  die  out  there. 

Consequently  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  this  butterfly  which 
has  always  troubled  our  northeastern  friends.  But  the  case  is  very 
di3"erent  with  another  white  cabbage  butterfly  which  is  now  commit- 
ting sad  havoc  to  the  cabbages  in  some  parts  of  Canada,  and  some 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  107 

of  the  Eastern  States.  The  species  I  refer  to  is  the  Eape  Butterfly 
(Pieris  rapce^  Schrank},  a  recent  importation  from  ICurope,  and  while 
I  have  no  fear  of  any  evil  results  arising  from  the  introduction  of  the 
Potherb  Butterfly,  I  should  hate  to  try  the  experiment  of  introducing 
a  brood  of  worms  of  the  Rape  Butterfly  into  any  portion  of  the  State  ; 
because,  for  the  reasons  detailed  in  the  paper  read  before  the  State 
Horticultural  Society,  and  which  is  published  at  the  beginning  of  this 
lieport,  I  have  not  a  doubt  but  they  would  flourish  exceedingly,  and 
become  far  more  injurious  than  either  of  the  indigenous  species.  In- 
deed, the  history  of  this  insect,  since  its  introduction  into  this  coun- 
try, afl'ords  suflicient  proof  that  such  would  be  the  result,  for  M.  Pro- 
vancher  in  a  recent  number  of  his  journal,  Ze  Naturalista  Canaclien^ 
says  that  it  alone,  has  caused  more  damage  around  Quebec,  since  its 
arrival  there,  than  all  other  noxious  butterflies  put  together,  in  the 
same  space  of  time;  and  he  estimates  that  it  annually  destroys  $240,- 
000  worth  of  cabbages  around  that  town.  In  short,  as  this  insect  is 
rapidly  spreading  westward,  there  is  every  reason  to  fear  that  it  may 
some  day  get  a  foothold  in  our  midst,  unless  the  proper  measures  are 
taken  to  prevent  such  an  undesirable  occurrence.  It  will  be  well 
therefore  to  familiarize  the  reader  with  its  appearance,  for  "to  be  fore- 
warned is  to  be  forearmed  1" 

Little  did  I  dream,  when,  many  years  ago,  I  watched  this  butter- 
fly fluttering  slowly  along  some  green  lane  or  over  some  cabbage 
patch  in  England,  where  it  is  the  butterfly  ;  or  when  I  found  its  chry- 
salis so  abundantly  in  the  winter  time  on  old  palings  or  even  on  the 
kitchen  wall  indoors — that  I  should  some  day  be  fearing  its  presence 
here.  But  just  as  little  did  our  forefathers  dream  of  the  immense 
though  gradual  changes  which  have  come  over  this  broad  land  dur- 
ing the  last  two  or  three  centuries  !  Coming  events  are  said  to  cast 
their  shadows  before  them,  but  verily  we  know  not  what  the  morrow 
will  bring  forth. 

This  Rape  Butterfly  is  the  bane  of  every  cabbage  grower,  and  its 
larva  is  the  dread  of  every  cook  in  many  parts  of  Europe.  Unlike  the 
two  indigenous  N.  A.  species  already  alluded  to,  this  worm  is  not  con- 
tent with  riddling  the  outside  leaves,  but  prefers  to  secrete  itself  in 
the  heart,  so  that  every  cabbage  has  to  be  torn  apart  and  examined 
before  being  cooked,  and  it  is  also  necessary  to  keep  a  continual  look- 
out, even  after  it  is  dished  up,  lest  one  gets  such  an  admixture  of  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  food  as  is  not  deemed  palatable  by  the  most  of 
men.  It  is  on  account  of  this  habit  of  boring  into  the  heart  of  cab- 
bages, that  the  French  call  it  the  "  Ver  du  Coeur"  or  Heart- worm. 

It  was  introduced  about  1856  or  1857,  having  been  first  taken  in 
Quebec  in  1859.  In  1864  Mr.  G.  J.  Bowles,  who  published  an  account 
of  it  in  the  Canadian  N'aturaUst  and  Geologist^  for  August,  1864, 
p.  258,  estimated  that  it  had  not  then  extended  more  than  forty  miles 
from  Quebec  as  a  centre.  In  1866  it  was  taken  in  the  northern  parts 
of  New  Hampshire   and  Vermont;  in  1868  it  had  advanced  as  far 


108 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 


South  as  Lake  Winnepesaugee.  It  having  since  been  taken  at  Ban- 
gor, and  at  other  points  in  Maine ;  in  certain  parts  of  New  Jersey, 
and  the  past  year  around  Boston  and  New  York. 

It  was  in  all  probability  introduced  into  this  country  in  the  egg 
state,  for  the  eggs  are  deposited  on  the  underside  of  the  leaves,  and 
there  is  nothing  more  likely  than  that  a  batch  may  have  been  thrown 
with  refuse  leaves  from  some  vessel,  and  that  after  hatching  the 
young  larvos  managed  to  find  suitable  food  close  by. 

[Fig.  77.]  The  larva  (Fig.  77,  a),  is  pale   green,  finely  dotted 

with  black,  with  a  yellowish  stripe  down  the  back,  and 
a  row  of  yellow  spots  along  each  side  in  aline  with  the 
breathing  holes.  When  about  to  transform,  it  leaves 
the  plant  upon  which  it  fed,  and  shelters  under  the 
coping  of  some  wall  or  fence,  or  on  anything  that  may 
be  conveniently  at  hand,  and  changes  to  a  chrysalis 
(Fig.  76,  h)  which  though  variable  in  color,  is  usually 
pale  green,  speckled  with  minute  black  dots.  The  in- 
sect passes  the  winter  in  this  state  and  as  with  the  two 
indigenous  species,  there  are  two  broods  each  year. 
The  butterflies  have  the  bodies  black  above,  with  the  wings 
[Fig.  78.]  white,  and  marked  as  in   the   accom- 

panying cuts  ;  the  female  (Fig.  78) 
being  distinguished  from  the  male 
(Fig.  79)  by  having  two  round  spots 
(sometimes  three)  instead  of  only  one 
on  the  front  wings.  Underneath,  both 
sexes  are  alike,  there  being  two  spots 
on  the  front  wings  and  none  on  the 
hind  ones,  which  are  yellowish,  sometimes  passing  into  green.  The 
species  varies  very  much,  and  there  is  a  specimen  in  my  collection  in 
which  all  the  spots  are  so  nearly  obsolete  above,  that  if  it  were  not 

for  the  characteristic  under-surfaces, 
it  could  scarcely  be  distinguished  from 
[the  Potherb  Butterfly.  There  is  also 
in  England  a  variety  of  the  male  sex 
which  has  the  ground-color  canary 
yellow  instead  of  white,  and  curiously 
enough,  this  same  variety  has  been 
taken  in  this  country. 
Although  some  caterpillars  are  poly- 
phagous,  feeding  indiscriminately  on  a  great  variety  of  plants,  yet 
most  of  them  are  confined  to  plants  of  the  same  botanical  family,  or 
at  all  events  of  the  same  natural  order.  Such  is  the  case  with  the 
two  indigenous  cabbage  butterflies  above  mentioned,  for  they  are  not 
known  to  go  beyond  cruciterous  plants  for  food.  The  Rape  Butterfly 
has  a  less  epicurean  palate  however,  and  departs  from  this  rule,  inas- 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


109 


much  as  it  has  been  known  to  feed  upon  the  weeping  willow  in  Eng- 
land. 

Remedies.— One  way  of  counterworking  the  evil  effects  of  these 
cabbage  butterflies,  is  to  search  for  the  eggs  at  the  proper  season,  and 
destroy  them.  These  eggs  are  pear-shaped,  yellowish  and  longi- 
tudinally ribbed,  but  as  they  are  deposited  singly  or  in  clusters  of  not 
more  than  two  or  three,  the  operation  becomes  tedious  and  some- 
what impracticable  on  a  large  scale.  Still,  children  should  be  taught 
how  to  find  them,  and  incited  to  search  for  them  by  the  hope  of  a  re- 
ward for  a  certain  number.  The  butterflies  are  slow  lumbering  flyers 
and  may  easily  be  caught  in  a  net  and  killed.  A  short  handle,  per- 
haps four  feet  long,  with  a  wire  hoop  and  bag-net  of  muslin  or  musquito 
netting,  are  the  only  things  needed  to  make  such  a  net,  the  total  cost  of 
which  need  not  be  more  than  fifty  or  seventy-five  cents.  Or  a  more 
durable  one  may  be  made,  in  the  following  manner:  Get  a  tinsmith 
t^'^-  ^"-l  to  make  a  hollow  handle   of  brass  or 

tin  from  six  to  seven  inches  in  length 
and  tapering  at  one  end,  as  seen  in 
Figure  80,5;  then  procure  a  piece  of 
stout  wire,  rather  more  than  a  yard 
^long,  and  bend  it  in  the  manner  shown 
in  Figure  80,  q.  Place  the  ends  of  the 
6  wire  in  the  small  end  of  the  handle, 
solder  it  on,  and  then  fill  in  one-third  of  the  handle  with  molten  lead, 
so  as  to  make  the  wire  doubly  fast  and  solid.  Now  make  a  bag  of 
some  strong  but  light  fabric,  and  fasten  it  well  to  the  wire.  The  depth 
of  the  bag  should  be  more  than  twice  the  diameter  of  the  wire  hoop. 
If  a  handle  is  required,  a  wooden  one  is  easily  made  to  fit  into  the 
hollow  brass  or  tin,  as  at  Figure  80,  4.  Poultry,  if  allowed  free  range 
in  the  cabbage  field,  will  soon  clear  off  the  worms  of  our  indigenous 
species. 

By  laying  pieces  of  board  between  the  cabbage  rows,  and  sup- 
porting them  about  two  inches  above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  the 
worms  will  resort  to  them  to  undergo  their  transformations,  and  may 
then  be  easily  destroyed. 

Either  Paris  green  or  white  hellebore  will  kill  the  worms,  if 
sprinkled  on  to  them,  but  cannot  be  used  on  cabbages,  as  it  is  difficult 
to  free  the  plants  of  these  substances  which  are  poisonous.  The 
saponaceous  compounds  of  cresylic  acid  are  effectual,  and  without 
these  objections. 

In  Europe  there  are  many  parasites  which  serve  to  check  the  in- 
crease of  the  Rape  Butterfly,  and  Curtis  enumerates  at  least  four. 
But  on  this  continent,  but  one  such  parasite  has  so  far  been  found  to 
attack  it,  and  that  was  a  two-winged  fly— probably  a  TacTdna  fly— which 
M.  Provancher  bred  from  the  chrysalis,  in  Quebec,  Can.*  M.  Provan- 
cher,  after  remarking  that  he  found  a  chrysalis  which,  from  its  blacken- 

*{yaturalitte  Canadien  Vol.  II,  p.  18.) 


110 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OP 


ing  in  the  middle,  he  suspected  would  not  develop  into  a  butterfly,  says 
of  this  parasite  that  he  afterwards  found  a  cocoon  [pupa  ?]  by  its  side 
which  was  smooth  blackish  and  oblong,  and  so  large  that  he  could 
scarcely  believe  it  had  escaped  from  the  chrysalis,  which  was,  how- 
ever, now  pierced  in  the  middle  and  empty.  M.  Provancher  goes  on 
to  say:  "Ten  days  afterwards,  we  perceived  one  morning  that  the  co- 
coon was  open  at  one  end,  and  there  was  buzzing  about  in  the  vial  a 
fly,  which  we  recognized  as  belonging  to  the  genus  Sarcojyhagal^e^h- 
flies],  the  larvag  of  which  are  known  to  develop  in  meat.  Here  then, 
we  exclaimed,  when  we  saw  this  fly,  is  an  enemy  of  the  Rape  Butter- 
fly. But  unfortunately  the  flesh-flies  feed  indiscriminately  on  almost 
any  kind  of  flesh,  and  never  being  very  numerous,  cannot  become 
very  redoubtable  enemies  of  this  butterfly." 

With  all  due  respect  to  my  friend  Provancher,  I  incline  to  believe 
that  he  has  mistaken  a  Tachinafiiy  which  is  a  true  parasite,  for  a  flesh- 
fly  {Sarcopliaga)  which  is  only  a  scavenger.  And  if  this  be  so,  his 
reasoning  falls  to  the  ground,  for,  as  we  may  see  in  the  Army-worm 
article  in  this  Report,  there  are  no  more  efiicient  checks  to  the  in- 
crease of  injurious  insects  than  these  same  TacJiina  flies. 

THE  CABBAGE  PLUSIA— P/wsia  brassicce,  N.  Sp. 

(Lepidoptera,  Plusida;.) 
[Fig- 81.]  rp..       .      n  -  - 

Ihis  is  the  next  most  com- 
mon insect  which  attacks  the 
Cabbage  with  us,  and  curiously 
enough  it  has  never  yet  been 
described.  It  is  a  moth,  and 
not  a  butterfly,  and  flies  by 
night  instead  of  by  day.  In 
the  months  of  August  and  Sep- 
tember the  larva  (Fig.  81,  a) 
may  be  found  quite  abundant 
on  this  plant,  gnawing  large, 
irregular  holes  in  the  leaves. 
It  is  a  pale  green  translucent 
worm,  marked  longitudinally 
with  still  paler  more  opaque  lines,  and  like  all  the  known  larvae  of 
the  family  to  which  it  belongs,  it  has  but  two  pair  of  abdominal  pro- 
legs,  the  two  anterior  segments  which  are  usually  furnished  with  such 
legs  in  ordinary  caterpillars,  not  having  the  slightest  trace  of  any. 
Consequently  they  have  to  loop  the  body  in  marching,  as  represented 
in  the  figure,  and  are  true  "Span-worms."  Their  bodies  are  very 
soft  and  tender,  and  as  they  live  exposed  on  the  outside  of  the  plants, 
and  often  rest  motionless,  with  the  body  arched,  for  hours  at  a  time, 
they  are  espied  and  devoured  by  many  of  their  enemies,  such  as 
birds,  toads,  etc.  They  are  also  subject  to  the  attacks  of  at  least  two 
parasites  and  die  very  often  from  disease,  especially  in  wet  weather ; 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  Ill 

SO  that  they  are  never  likely  to  increase  quite  as  badly  as  the  butter- 
flies just  now  described. 

When  full  grown  this  worm  weaves  a  very  thin  loose  white 
cocoon,  sometimes  between  the  leaves  of  the  plant  on  which  it  fed, 
but  more  often  in  some  more  sheltered  situation;  and  changes  to 
a  chrysalis  (Fig.  81,  h)  which  varies  from  pale  yellowish-green  to 
brown,  and  has  a  considerable  protruberance  at  the  end  of  the  wing 
and  \Qg  cases,  caused  by  the  long  proboscis  of  the  enclosed  moth 
being  bent  back  at  that  point.  This  chrysalis  is  soft,  the  skin  being 
very  thin,  and  it  is  furnished  at  the  extremity  with  an  obtuse 
roughened  projection  which  emits  two  converging  points,  and  several 
short  curled  bristles,  by  the  aid  of  which  it  is  enabled  to  cling  to  its 
cocoon. 

The  moth  is  of  a  dark  smoky-gray  inclining  to  brown,  variegated 
with  light  grayish-brown,  and  marked  in  the  middle  of  each  front  wing 
with  a  small  oval  spot  and  a  somewhat  U-shaped  silvery  white  mark, 
as  in  the  figure.  The  male  (Fig.  81,  c)  is  easily  distinguished  from 
the  female  by  a  large  tuft  of  golden  hairs  covering  a  few  black  ones, 
which  springs  from  each  side  of  his  abdomen  towards  the  tip. 

The  suggestions  given  for  destroying  the  larvas  of  the  Cabbage 
Butterflies,  apply  equally  well  to  those  of  this  Cabbage  Plusia,  and 
drenchings  with  a  cresylic  wash  will  be  found  even  more  effectual, 
as  the  worms  drop  to  the  ground  with  the  slightest  jar. 

Plusia  brassic^,  N.  Sp. — Larva — Pale  yellowish  translucent  green,  the  dorsum  made  lighter  and 
less  translucent  by  longitudinal  opaque  lines  of  a  whitish-green  ;  these  consist  each  side,  of  a  rather 
dark  vesicular  dorsal  line,  and  of  two  very  fine  light  lines,  with  an  intermediate  broad  one.  Tapers 
gradually  from  segments  1-10,  descending  abruptly  from  11  to  extremity.  Piliferous  spots  white, 
giving  rise  to  hairs,  sometimes  black,  sometimes  light  colored ;  and  laterally  a  few  scattering 
white  specks  in^addition  to  these  spots.  A  rather  indistinct  narrow,  pale  stigmatal  line,  with  a 
darker  shade  above  it.  Head  and  legs  translucent  yellowish-green,  the  head  having  five  minute 
black  eyelets  each  side,  which  are  not  readily  noticed  with  the  naked  eye.  Some  specimens  are 
of  a  beautiful  emerald-green,  and  lack  entirely  the  pale  longitudinal  lines.  Described  from 
numerous  specimens. 

Crysalis — Of  the  normal  P/M«a-form,  and  varying  from  yellowish-green  to  brown. 

Moth. — Front  wings  dark  gray  inclining  to  brown,  the  basal  half  line,  transverse  anterior, 
transverse  posterior,  and  subterminal  lines  pale  yellow  inclining  to  fulvous,  irregularly  undulate, 
and  relieved  more  or  less  by  deep  brown  margins  ;  the  undulations  of  the  subterminal  line  more 
acuminate  than  in  the  others,  and  forming  some  dark  sagittate  points  ;  the  basal  half-line,  the 
transverse  anterior  near  costa,  and  the  transverse  posterior  its  whole  length,  being  sometimes 
obscurely  double :  four  distinct  equidistant  costal  spots  on  the  terminal  half  of  wing,  the  third 
from  apex  formed  by  the  termination  of  the  transverse  posterior;  posterior  border  undulate  with 
a  dark  brown  line  which  is  sometimes  marked  with  pale  crescents ;  a  series  of  similar  crescents 
(often  mere  dots)  just  inside  the  terminal  space;  the  small  sub-cellulary  silver  spot  oval,  some- 
times uniformly  silvery-white  but  more  often  with  a' fulvous  centre,  sometimes  free  from,  but 
more  often  attached  to  the  larger  one  which  has  the  shape  of  a  constricted  U,  very  generally 
with  a  fulvous  mark  inside,  which  extends  basally  to  the  transverse  anterior  at  costa.  Fringes 
dentate,  of  the  color  of  the  wing,  and  with  a  single  undulating  line  parallel  to  that  on  the  terminal 
border.  Hind  luings  fuliginous,  inclining  to  yellowish  towards  base,  and  with  but  a  slight  pearly 
lustre  ;  fringes  very  pale  with  a  darker  inner  line.  Under  surfaces  pale  fuliginous  with  a  pearly 
lustre,  the  front  wings  with  a  distinct  fulvous  mark  under  the  sub-cellulary  spots,  speckled  more 
or  less  with  the  same  color  around  the  borders  of  the  wing,  the  fringes  being  dentate  with  light 
and  dark;  the  hind  wings  speckled  with  fulvous  on  their  basal  half,  and  with  the  fringes  as 
above.     Thorax  variegated  with  the  same  color  as  front  wings,  the  tufts  being  fulvous  inclining  to 


112 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPOET    OF 


pink.  Abdomen  $  gray,  with  a  few  pale  hairs  near  the  base,  and  scarcely  extending  beyond  the 
margin  of  the  hind  wings  ;  (^  longer,  covered  with  pale  silky  hairs,  a  distinct  dorsal  brown  tuft  on 
each  of  the  three  basal  segments,  and  two  large  lateral  either  fawn-colored  or  golden-yellow 
brushes  on  the  fifth  segment,  meeting  on  the  back  and  partly  covering  two  smaller  brushes  on  the 
sixth,  which  are  tipped  with  black :  terminal  segment  flattened  and  with  two  lateral  more  dusky  and 
smaller  tufts  :  underside  of  thorax  and  abdomen  gray,  mixed  with  flesh-color.  Alar  expanse  1.65 
inches.  Described  from  numerous  bred  specimens.  In  a  suite  of  specimens  bred  from  the  sama 
brood  of  larvaa  a  considerable  difference  in  the  general  depth  of  color  is  found,  some  being  fully  as 
dark  again  as  others. 

Closely  resembles  Plusia  ni,  Engr.,  which  occurs  in  Italy,  Sicily,  France,  and  the  northern 
parts  of  America.  Mr.  P.  Zeller  of  Stettin,  Prussia,  to  whom  I  sent  specimens,  considers  it  dis- 
tinct however  from  the  European  ni,  and  I  have  consequently  given  it  a  name  in  accordance  with 
its  habits. 

There  is  another  worm  which  may  be  known  as  the  Thistle  Plusia, 
and  which  occurs  on  our  common  thistles,  and  cannot  therefore  be 
considered  very  injurious.  It  differs  only  from  that  of  the  Cabbage 
Plusia  in  having  the  sides  of  the  head,  the  thoracic  legs,  a  row  of  spots 
above  the  lateral  light  line,  and  a  ring  around  the  breathing  pores, 
black.  I  have  bred  from  it  the  Plusia  precationis*  of  Guen6e — an 
insect  whose  larval  history  has  not  hitherto  been  known. 

THE  ZEBRA  C  ATERPILL AR— Mamcstra  picta,  Harr. 


(Lepidoptera,  Apamidse.) 

This  is  another  insect  which  often  proves  injurious  to  our  cauli- 
[Fig.  82.]  flowers  and  cabbages,  though 

it  by  no  means  confines  itself 
to  these  two  vegetables.  Ear- 
ly in  June  the  young  worms 
which  are  first  almost  black, 
though  they  soon  become  pale 
and  green,  may  be  found  in 
dense  clusters  on  these  plants, 
for  they  are  at  that  time  gre- 
garious. As  they  grow  older 
they  disperse  and  are  not  so 
easily  found,  and  in  about  four 
weeks  from  the  time  of  hatch- 
ing they  come  to  their  full 
growth.  Each  worm  (Fig.  82. 
a,)  then  measures  about  two  inches  in  length,  and  is  velvety-black 
with  a  red  head,  red  legs,  and  with  two  lateral  yellow  lines,  between 
which  are  numerous  transverse  white,  irregular,  zebra-like  finer  lines, 
which  induced  Dr.  Melsheimer  to  call  this  worm  the  "Zebra."  Though 
it  does  not  conceal  itself,  it  invariably  curls  up  cut-worm  fashion,  and 
rolls  to  the  ground  when  disturbed. 

It  changes  to  chrysalis  within  a  rude  cocoon  formed  just  under 
the  surface  of  the  ground,  by  interweaving  a  few  grains  of  sand  or  a 


Gft. 


*  Some  oi  these  bred  specimens  apprcach  refy  near  to  PU  iota,  €fn.  im&  ev*Q   to  PI.  u-brevit,' 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  113 

few  particles  of  whatever  soil  it  happens  on,  with  silken  threads.  The 
chrysalis  is  |  of  an  inch  in  length,  deep  shiny  brown  and  thickly  punc- 
tured except  on  the  posterior  border  of  the  segments  and  especially 
of  those  three  immediately  below  the  wing-sheaths,  where  it  is  red- 
dish and  not  polished  ;  it  terminates  in  a  blunt  point  ornamented  with 
two  thorns.  The  moth  (Fig.  82,  5,)  which  is  called  the  Painted  Mam- 
estra,  appears  during  the  latter  part  of  July,  and  it  is  a  prettily  marked 
gpecies,  the  front  wings  being  of  a  beautiful  and  rich  purple-brown, 
blending  with  a  delicate  lighter  shade  of  brown  in  the  middle  ;  the 
ordinary  spots  in  the  middle  of  the  wing,  with  a  third  oval  spot  more 
or  less  distinctly  marked  behind  the  round  one,  are  edged  and  tra- 
versed by  white  lines  so  as  to  appear  like  delicate  net- work ;  a  trans- 
verse zigzag  white  line,  like  a  sprawling  W  is  also  more  or  less  visible 
near  the  terminal  border,  on  which  border  there  is  a  series  of  white 
vspecks ;  a  few  white  atoms  are  also  sprinkled  in  other  places  on  the 
wing.  The  hind  wings  are  white,  faintly  edged  with  brown  on  the 
upper  and  outer  borders.  The  head  and  thorax  are  of  the  same  color 
as  the  front  wings,  and  the  body  has  a  more  grayish  cast.  There  are 
two  broods  of  this  insect  each  year,  the  second  brood  of  worms  ap- 
pearing in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis  from  the  middle  of  August  along 
into  October,  and  in  all  probability  passing  the  winter  in  the  chrysalis 
state,  though  a  few  may  issue  in  the  fall  and  hybernate  as  moths,  or 
may  even  hybernate  as  worms;  for  Mr.  J.  H.  Parsons,  of  N.  Y.,  found 
that  some  of  the  worms  which  were  on  his  Ruta  Baga  leaves,  stood  a 
frost  hard  enough  to  freeze  potatoes  in  the  hill,  without  being  killed.* 
I  have  noticed  that  the  spring  brood  confines  itself  more  especially  to 
young  cruciferous  plants,  such  as  cabbages,  beets,  spinach,  etc.,  but 
have  found  the  fall  brood  collecting  in  hundreds  on  the  heads  and 
flower-buds  of  asters,  on  the  White-berry  or  Snow-berry  (Si/mphori- 
t'arpiis  racemosus) ;  on  different  kinds  of  honey-suckle,  on  mignonette, 
and  on  asparagus  :  they  are  also  said  to  occur  on  the  flowers  of  clover^ 
and  are  quite  partial  to  the  common  Lamb's-quarter  or  Goosefoot 
{Chenopodium  album). 

On  account  of  their  gregarious  habit  when  young,  they  are  very 
easily  destroyed  at  this  stage  of  their  growth. 


THE  TARNISHED  F L A.l>iT - BJJG— Cap sns  ohUneaius,  S&y.\ 

[Heteroptera  Capsidae.] 

Quite  early  last  spring  while  entomologizing  in  Southern  Illinois, 


*  Practical  Entomologist,  TI,  p.  21. 

f  This  bii^  was  originally  described  by  Beauvois  as  Coreus  linearis,  and  subsequently  as  Cap- 
*us  oblineatas  by  Say.  Harris  in  speaking  of  it  refers  it  to  the  sub-genus  Phytocoris  Fallen,  and  by 
mistake,  changes  Beauvois'  specific  name  linearis,  to  lineolaris,  which  he  translates  into  popular 
language  as  the  "  Little-lined  Plant-bug."  As  Say's  description  is  the  only  one  I  have  access  to, 
I  have  retained  the  name  he  gave  it,  as  being  eminently  appropriate. 
8 — E  R 


114  '     SECOND    ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

[Fig.  83.]  I  spent  a  day  with  Mr.  E.  J.  Ayres  of  Villa  Ridge, 
and  was  surprised  to  learn  that  he  had  become  quite 
discouraged  in  his  efforts  to  grow  young  pear  trees, 
on  account  of  the  injuries  of  a  certain  bug,  which 
T  ^«nHfil&n  upon  examination  I  found  to  be  the  Tarnished  Plant- 
[  /  JHWwX  bug,  represented  enlarged  at  Figure  83,  the  hair  line 
at  its  side  showing  the  natural  size.  The  family  to 
which  this  bug  belongs  is  the  next  in  a  natural  ar- 
rangement to  that  which  includes  the  notorious 
Ohinch-bug,  and  the  insect  is,  like  that  species,  a  ver- 
itable bug,  and  obtains  its  food  by  sucking  and  not  Jjiting.  The  Cap- 
sus  family  is  a  very  large  one,  containing  numerous  species  in  this 
country,  but  among  them,  none  but  the  species  under  consideration 
have  thrust  themselves  upon  public  notice  by  their  evil  doings. 

The  Tarnished  Plant-bug  is  a  very  general  feeder,  attacking  very 
many  kinds  of  herbaceous  plants,  such  as  dahlias,  asters,  marigolds, 
balsams,  cabbages,  potatoes,  turnips,  etc. ;  and  several  trees,  such  as 
apple,  pear,  plum,  quince,  cherry,  etc.  Its  puncture  seems  to  have 
a  peculiarly  poisonous  efiect,  on  which  account,  and  from  its  great 
numbers,  it  often  proves  a  really  formidable  foe.  It  is  especially  hard 
on  young  pear  and  quince  trees,  causing  the  tender  leaves  and  the 
young  slioots  and  twigs  (o  turn  black,  as  though  they  had  been 
burned  by  fire.  On  old  trees  it  is  not  so  common,  though  it  fre- 
quently congregates  on  such  as  are  in  bearing,  and  causes  the  young 
fruit  to  wither  and  drop.  I  have  passed  through  potato  fields  along 
the  Iron  Mountain  Railroad  in  May,  and  found  almost  every  stalk 
blighted  and  black  from  the  thrusts  of  its  poisonous  beak,  and  it  is 
not  at  all  surprising  that  this  bug  was  some  years  ago  actually  accused 
of  being  the  cause  of  the  dreaded  potato-rot. 

This  bug  is  a  very  variable  species,  the  males  being  generally 
much  darker  than  the  females.  The  more  common  color  of  the  dried 
cabinet  specimens  is  a  dirty  yellow,  variegated  as  in  the  figure  with 
black  and  dark  brown,  and  one  of  the  most  characteristic  marks,  is  a 
yellow  Y,  sometimes  looking  more  like  a  Y,  or  indicated  by  three 
simple  dots,  on  the  scutel,  (the  little  triangular  piece  on  the  middle 
of  the  back,  behind  the  thorax).  The  color  of  the  living  specimens 
is  much  fresher,  and  frequently  inclines  to  olive-green.  The  thorax, 
which  is  finely  punctured,  is  always  finely  bordered  and  divided  down 
the  middle  with  yellow,  and  each  of  the  divisions  contains  two 
broader  logitudinal  yellow  lines,  very  frequently  obsolete  behind. 
The  thighs  always  have  two  dark  bands  or  rings  near  their  tips. 

As  soon  as  vegetation  starts  in  the  spring,  the  mature  bugs  which 
winter  over  in  all  manner  of  sheltered  places  may  be  seen  collecting 
on  the  various  plants  which  have  been  mentioned.  Early  in  the 
morning  they  may  be  found  buried  between  the  expanding  leaves, 
and  at  this  time  they  are  sluggish  and  may  be  shaken  down  and  de- 
stroyed ;  but  as  the  sun  gets  warmer,  they  become  more  active,  and 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  115 

"when  approached,  dodge  from  one  side  of  the  plant  to  the  otlior,  or 
else  take  wing  and  fly  away.  They  deposit  their  eggs  and  breed  on 
the  plants,  and  tlie  young  and  old  bugs  together  may  be  noticed 
through  most  of  the  summer  months.  The  young  bugs  are  perfectly 
green,  but  in  other  respects  do  not  differ  from  their  parents  except  in 
lacking  wings.  They  hide  between  the  flower-petals,  stems  and  leaves 
of  different  plants,  and  are  not  easily  detected.  Late  in  the  fall,  none 
but  lull  grown  and  winged  bugs  are  to  be  met  with,  but  whether  one 
€r  two  generations  are  produced  during  the  season  I  have  not  fully 
ascertained,  though  in  all  probability  there  are  two. 

Remedies. — In  the  great  majority  of  cases,  we  are  enabled  to 
counteract  the  injurious  Vvork  of  noxious  insects,  the  moment  we 
thoroughly  comprehend  their  habits  and  peculiarities.  Bat  there  are 
a  few  which  almost  defy  our  efforts.  The  Tarnished  Plant-bug  belongs 
to  this  last  class,  for  we  are  almost  powerless  before  it,  from  the 
fact  that  it  breeds  and  abounds  on  such  a  great  variet}'^  of  plants  and 
weeds,  and  that  it  flies  so  readily  from  one  to  the  other.  Its  flight  is 
however  limited,  and  there  can  be  no  better  prophylactic  treatment 
than  clean  culture  ;  for  the  principal  damage  is  occasioned  by  the 
old  bugs  when  they  leave  their  winter  quarters  and  congregate  on 
the  tender  buds  and  leaves  of  young  fruit  stock;  and  the  fewer  weeds 
there  are  to  nourish  them  during  the  summer  and  protect  them  dur- 
ing the  winter,  the  fewer  bugs  there  will  be.  The  small  birds  must 
also  be  encouraged.  Applications  of  air-slacked  lime  and  sulphur, 
have  been  recommended  to  keep  them  off,  but  if  anj  application  of 
this  kind  is  used,  I  incline  to  think  that  to  be  effectual,  it  must  be 
of  a  fluid  nature;  and  should  recommend  strong  tobacco-water, 
quassia- water,  vinegar,  and  cresylic  soap.  Some  persons  who  have 
used  the  last  compound  have  complained  that  it  injures  the  plants, 
and  every  one  using  it  should  bear  in  mind,  what  was  stated  in  the 
preface  to  my  First  Report,  namely,  that  the  pure  acid,  no  matter  how 
much  diluted  with  water,  will  separate  when  sprinkled,  and  burn  holes 
in,  and  discolor  plant  texture ;  while  if  properly  used  as  a  saponaceous 
wash  it  will  have  no  such  injurious  effect.  It  must  likewise  be  borne 
in  mind,  that  the  so  called  "plant-protector"  which  is  a  soap  made  of 
this  same  acid,  will  bear  very  much  diluting,  (say  one  part  of  the  soap 
to  fifty  or  even  one  hundred  parts  of  water)  and  that  it  will  injure 
tender  leaved  plants  if  used  too  strong.  I  have  noticed  that  the  bugs 
are  extremely  fond  of  congregating  upon  the  bright  yellow  flowers 
of  the  Cabbage,  which,  as  every  one  knows,  blooms  very  early  in  the 
season;  and  it  would  be  advisable  for  persons  who  have  been  seri- 
ously troubled  wiih  this  bug,  and  who  live  in  a  sufficiently  southern 
latitude  where  the  plant  will  not  winter-kill,  to  let  a  patch  of  cab- 
bages run  wild  and  go  to  seed  in  some  remote  corner  of  the  farm,  in 
order  that  the  bugs  may  be  a'lracted  thither  and  more  readily  de- 
stroyed, than  when  scattered  over  a  larger  area. 


^^^^.>D    ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 


THE  PHILENOR  SW ALLOW -TAllr-Fapilio  pUlenor,  Drury. 

(Lepidoptera  Papilionidae.) 

There  is  a  genus  of  climbing  plants  (the  Aristolochias),  which  ia 
peculiarly  attractive  on  account  of  its  large,  rich  tropical-looking 
foliage.  The  Aristolochias  are  represented  in  almost  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  some  of  the  tropical  species  bear  beautiful  and  immense 
flowers.  In  this  country  we  have  three  native  species  which  produce 
but  small,  pipe-like  flowers,  but  which  make  very  pretty  ornaments 
for  covering  walls  and  arbors  or  for  ornamenting  trellises  and 
screens.  The  most  common  and  best  known  species  in  this  State  is 
the  GO  called  Dutchman's  Pipe  {AristolocJiia  sipho)^  but  the  two  other 
^^  [Fig;^84  ]  ^  species  {A.  serpentaria  and  A.  tomentoaa)  are  also 
cultivated. 

In  the  beautiful  botanical  grounds  of  Mr. 
Shaw,  at  St.  Louis,  there  are  some  magnificent 
specimens  of  the  Dutchman's  Pipe,  and  about  the 
end  of  last  July,  these  had  all  been  suddenly  defo- 
liated. I  was  invited  to  go  and  examine  the  cause 
and  propose  some  remedy.  I  found  the  vines  lit- 
erally denuded,  for  there  was  not  a  whole  leaf 
upon  them,  those  that  were  not  entirely  eaten  off 
down  to  the  stem,  being  riddled  with  different 
sized  holes.  Upon  a  close  examination,  the  au- 
thors of  the  mischief  were  soon  found,  in  the  shape 
of  the  peculiarly  horned  caterpillar,  represented 
at  Figure  84;  but  as  there  were  few  large  speci- 
mens to  be  found,  it  was  quite  evident  that  the 
great  bulk  of  them  had  acquired  their  growth,  and 
had  already  left  the  vines  for  some  more  sheltered 
situation,  in  which  to  transform  to  the  chrysalis 
state.  There  were,  however,  a  sufficient  number  of  smaller  or  more 
recently  hatched  individuals,  had  they  remained  undiscovered,  to  have 
soon  taken  every  vestige  of  the  few  imperfect  leaves  remaining; 
while  the  beautiful  butterflies  which  produced  these  worms  were 
noticed  flitting  around  the  vines. 

This  insect  is  found  on  no  other  plants  but  the  Aristolochias. 
The  worms  commence  to  hatch  in  this  latitude  by  the  beginning  of 
July,  from  eggs  deposited  on  the  leaf;  and  individuals  may  be  found 
as  late  as  the  last  of  August.  They  live  in  company,  especially  while 
young,  and  cover  the  leaves  with  zigzag  lines  of  silk,  which  enable 
them  the  better  to  crawl  about  and  hold  on  to  the  vines.  The  newly 
hatched  worm  is  dark  brown,  with  no  spots,  and  with  quite  short 
tubercles.  After  the  first  month  they  become  lighter  colored,  with 
the  tubercles  on  the  back  of  segments  6,  7,  8  and  9,  of  an  orange 
color,  and  some  of  the  other  tubercles,  especially  the  two  on  the  first 
segment,   proportionally  longer   than  the  rest.    After    the    second 


THE     STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  117 

moult  the  color  of  the  body  becomes  still  lighter,  some  of  the  tuber- 
cles still  proportionally  longer  and  longer,  and  those  on  the  back  all 
begin  to  appear  orange  ;  while  a  distinct  orange  spot  becomes  visible 
between  the  long  horns  on  the  first  segment,  from  which  spot  the 
soft,  forked  orange  scent-organs  are  thrust.  After  the  third  moult  but 
very  little  change  takes  place,  and  after  the  fourth  moult,  the  worm 
loses  in  a  great  measure  its  shiny  appearance,  becomes  more  velvety 
and  darker,  and  when  full  grown  presents  the  appearance  of  Figure 
84,  and  may  be  described  as  follows  : 

Lenjjth,  two  inches.  Color  velvety  black,  with  a  slight  purplish  or  chesnut-brown  hue.  Cov- 
ered with  long  fleshy  tubercles  of  the  same  color  as  body,  and  shorter  orange  colored  tubercles,  as 
follows  :  Two,  which  are  brown,  long,  tapering  and  feeler-like,  springing  anteriorly  one  from 
each  side  of  joint  1,  the  two  being  movable,  and  alternately  applied  to  the  surface  upon  which 
the  worm  moves.  Joint  2,  with  two  brown  tubercles,  one  springing  from  each  side  with  a  down- 
ward curve,  and  each  about  one-thi^rd  as  long  as  those  on  joint  1 ;  also  vrith  two  small  dorsal, 
wart-like  orange  tubercles.  Joints  3  and  5  exactly  like  joint  2,  but  on  joint  4  the  lateral 
brown  tubercle  is  replaced  by  a  wart-like  orange  one.  Joints  6,  7,  8  and  9,  each  with  two  small 
dorsal  orange  tubercles,  and  each  with  a  lateral,  elongated,  pointed,  brown,  downwardly  curved 
one,  arising  from  the  base  of  prolegs.  Joints  10  and  11  also  with  these  lateral  tubercles,  but  the 
orange  dorsal  ones  replaced  by  longer  pointed  curved  brown  ones,  which  however  often  have  an 
orange  base.  Joint  12  with  two  somewhat  stouter  dorsal  brown  tubercles,  but  none  at  sides. 
Joints  7,  8,  9  and  10,  each  with  a  lateral  orange  spot  just  before  and  above  the  spiracles,  which 
are  sunk  into  the  flesh  and  scarcely  perceptible.  Head,  legs,  venter  and  cervical  shield  the  same 
color  as  body,  the  venter  with  two  tubercles  on  joint  5,  which  much  resemble  prolegs,  the 
cervical  shield,  with  an  orange  transverse  spot  on  anterior  edge,  from  which  is  thrust  the  osma- 
terium. 

When  full   grown  this  tubercled  worm  fastens  itself  by  its  hind 
legs  and  by  a  silken  loop  drawn  between  joints  5  and  6,  and  in  about 
[Fig.  85.]  two  days  changes  to  a  chrysalis,  of 

which  Figure  85,  a,  gives  a  shaded 
back-view,  and  b  a  lateral  outline. 
This  chrysalis  is  at  first  yellowish- 
green,  but  soon  becomes  beauti- 
fully marked  with  gray  and  violet, 
^  and   more  or  less  with  yellow  on 

the  back:  and  it  is  readily  distin- 
guished from  all  other  chrysalides 
^^  of  North  American  butterflies  be- 

longing to  the  same  f[,enus  (Papilio)  by  two  trigonate  prominences 
on  the  head  which  give  it  a  square  appearance  ;  by  a  very  prominent 
trigonate  projection  on  the  top,  and  a  lesser  one  each  side  of  thorax; 
by  the  wing-sheaths  being  much  dilated  and  sharply  edged  above, 
and  by  six  prominent,  rounded,  narrow  edged,  longitudinal  projec- 
tions on  the  top  of  the  three  principal  abdominal  joints. 

The  butterfly  which  issues  from  this  chrysalis  in  about  three 
weeks,  is  such  a  delicate  and  elegant  object,  that  it  is  next  to  impos- 
sible to  give  a  just  illustration  of  it.  The  front  wings  are  black  with 
a  greenish  metallic  reflection  on  the  nerves  and  along  the  front  and 
hinder  borders,  and  a  row  of  white  spots  near  the  hinder  border, 
wrhich  is  very  slightly  undulate,  with  a  narrow  cream-colored  mark  on 


118 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OP 


the  inner  sinuses.  The  hind  wings  are  ot  a  brilliant  steel-blue,  with 
a  greenish  cast,  with  a  carved  row  of  white  lunules  and  with  the 
hinder  border  quite  undulate  and  the  inner  sinuses  cream-colored. 
The  under  surface  of  the  front  wings  is  more  sombre  than  the  upper 
surface,  with  the  spots  near  the  borders  and  tiie  marginal  lunules 
more  distinct.    The  under  surface  of  the  hind  wings,  is  on  the  con- 

[Fi-.  86.] 


trary,  with  the  exception  of  a  large  almost  oval  patch  at  base,  of  a 
very  brilliant  steel  blue,  with  a  curved  row  of  seven  rounded  spots 
of  a  deep  orange,  bordered  with  black,  and  the  four  or  live  upper 
ones  edged  above  with  white  ;  there  is  a  small  yellow  basal  spot, 
about  five  small  whitish  spots  around  the  lower  borders  of  the  large 
sombre  oval  patch,  and  the  marginal  lunules  are  much  more  distinct 
than  on  the  upper  surface.  The  male  which  I  illustrate  (Fig.  86)  dif- 
fers from  the  female  in  the  more  brilliant  hue  of  the  upper  surface* 
and  in  either  entirely  lacking  the  row  of  white  spots  near  the  hinder 
border  of  the  front  wings,  or  in  having  but  the  faintest  trace  of  Ihem. 
As  these  Aristolochia  worms  are  semi-gregarious,  and  as  when 
young,  all  the  individuals  of  a  batch  may  be  found  close  together, 
they  are  easily  destroyed,  and  those  persons  who  cultivate  the  Aris- 
tolochias,  need  never  be  troubled  with  this  insect,  if  they  will  exam- 
ine the  vines  carefully  during  the  first  half  of  July.  The  worms  in- 
variably produce  butterflies  during  the  fall  months,  and  the  insect 
consequently  hybernates  in  the  perfect  or  butterfly  state.  As  the 
worms  feed  only  on  the  Aristolochias,  scarcely  a  plant  of  the  kind 
can  be  grown  without  sooner  or  later  being  attacked,  and  the  gar- 
dener should  always  keep  a  watchful  eye  for  the  worms,  about  the 
time  indicated. 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  Il9 

THE  COTTONWOOD  DAGGER— Acrojnjcta  populi,  N.  Sp. 

(Lepidoptera   Acronyctadas.) 

[Fi^^O  rpj^g  Cotlonwood  tree  {Pop- 

Z'^"'  ~^    -.  ultis  monilifera)^  thougli  not 

"^,  very   generally   cultivated  in 

/  ^  V^         the  more  thickly  settled  parts 

\    ;^     -  -^    of  the  country,is  yet  a  valuable 

.^-'.       ■  -  >tree,  especially  in   the  newly 

/  „.^--     ,  -  ■  ■ :_  \  settled     parts     of   the    West, 

\  .^  _  -         '  where  by  its  rapid  growth  and 

V  !    large  foliage,  it  soon  furnishes 

!  -=>  both  wood  and  shade  on  the 

)  bleak  treeless  prairies.  Be- 
sides several  borers  which  eat 
into  the  trunk  and  root,  it  is 
attacked  in  this  State  by  a  very  curious  lazy  caterpillar,  which  de- 
vours the  foliage,  and  not  unfrequently  strips  the  tree. 

This  caterpillar  (Fig.  S7)  when  full  grown,  rests  curled  round  upon 
the  leaf,  and  is  easily  recognized  by  its  body  being  covered  with  long 
soft  bright  yellow  hairs  which  grow  immediately  from  the  body,  part 
on  the  back,  and  curl  round  on  each  side.  It  has  a  shiny  black  head, 
black  si)ots  on  the  top  of  joints  1  and  2,  and  a  straight  black  brush  on 
top  of  joints  4,  6,  7,  8  and  11.  There  are  two  broods  of  these  worms 
each  year,  the  first  brood  appearing  during  the  month  of  June  and 
producing  moths  by  the  last  of  July,  the  second  brood  appearing  the 
last  of  August  and  throughout  September,  and  passing  the  winter  in 
the  chrysalis  state.  The  chrysalis  is  dark  shiny  brown,  and  ends  in 
an  obtuse  point  which  is  furnished  with  several  hooked  bristles.  It 
is  formed  within  a  pale  yellow  cocoon  of  silk  intermingled  with  the 
hairs  of  the  caterpillar,  and  is  generally  built  in  some  sheltered  place, 
such  as  a  chink  in  the  bark  of  a  tree,  or  under  the  cap  of  some 
fence. 

The   moth   (Fig.   88,   ?)  is   of  a  pale 
_-*gray,  marked  with  black  as  in  the  figure. 
^^:^it  belongs  to  a  night-flying  genus  {Acro- 
nycta)  of  true  Owlet-moths,  very  closely 
«  ,^_,  '"       allied  to  our  common  cut-worm   moths; 

I  ^'.^  \  ^^■*'  and  yet  the  larvcie  belonging  to  this  genus 

'^  have  none  of  them  the  cut-worm  habit  of 

concealing  themselves  under  ground,  and  are  exceedingly  hetero- 
geneous among  themselves.  Some  are  furnished  with  long  soft  hairs 
like  the  species  under  consideration;  some  with  prominent  hairy 
w^arts;  some  have  protuberances  on  certain  segments  ;  some  are  fur- 
nished with  brushes;  others  not,  etc.,  etc.  But  notwithstanding  this 
dissimilarity  among  the  larvae  of  the  genus,  the  moths  bear  very  close 


I'iO  SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT   OP 

resemblances  to  one  another,  and  in  some  cases  it  is  not  easy  to  sep- 
arate them  without  knowing  the  larvae.  Our  Cottonwood  species  has 
never  been  described.  It  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  several 
European  species,  but  as  it  would  only  weary  the  general  reader  to 
give  the  details  wherein  it  differs  from  those  already  described,  which 
closely  resemble  it,  these  details  will  be  found  to  accompany  the 
scientilic  description  below. 

This  insect  would  undoubtedly  become  much  more  numerous 
and  troublesome,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  it  is  pursued  by  three 
distinct  parasites.  Many  of  the  worms  when  full  grown  will  fasten 
themselves  firmly  to  a  leaf  in  the  curled  position,  and  from  the  body 
will  issue  from  thirty  to  forty  little  maggots.  These  maggots  are 
each  of  them  0.17  inch  long,  of  a  dull  green  color,  tapering  each  way, 
with  a  dark  dorsal  mark,  a  lateral  elevated  ridge,  and  a  row  of  shiny 
elevated  spots  of  the  same  color  as  the  body  between  this  ridge  and 
the  back.  Each  one  spins  a  mass  of  white  silk  around  its  body,  and 
creeps  out  of  it  and  commences  spinning  afresh,  until  at  last  a  large 
aggregate  amount  of  flossy  silk  is  spun,  into  which  the  maggots  work 
back  to  transform,  though  some  transform  while  lying  on  the  surface. 
These  maggots  eventually  produce  a  little  black  Ichneumon-fly  be- 
longing to  the  genus  If  lor  og  aster. '^  Another  and  larger  unde- 
terined  Ichneumon-fly  belonging  to  the  genus  Ox>li{on^  also  attacks 
this  Cottonwood  worm,  and  it  is  also  occasionally  infested  with  a 
Tachina-^Y  larva. 

These  worms  are  most  easily  destroyed  when  young,  for  though 
not  strictly  gregarious,  they  do  not  then  scatter  much  from  the 
branch  upon  which  they  were  born. 

AcRONYCTA  POPCLi,  N.  Sp. — Lavva — Length  1.60.  Color  yellowish-green,  covered  with  long  soft 
bright  yellow  hairs  which  spring  immediately  from  the  body,  part  on  the  back,  and  curl  round  on 
each  side.  On  top  of  joints  4,  6,  7,  8  andll,  a  long  straight  double  tuft  of  black  hairs,  those  on  7 
and  8  the  smallest.  Head  polished  black  with  a  few  white  bristles.  Joint  1  with  a  black  spot 
above,  divided  longitudinally  by  a  pale  yellow  line,  giving  it  the  appearance  of  a  pair  of  triangles. 
Joint  2  with  two  less  distinct  black  spots.  Thoracic  legs  black;  prolegs  black  with  brownish  ex- 
tremities. Venter  greenish-brown.  Described  from  many  specimens.  When  young  of  a  much 
lighter  color,  or  almost  white,  with  the  black  tufts  short  but  more  conspicuous,  with  a  distinct 
black  dorsal  line,  two  lateral  purplish-brown  bands,  and  with  hairs  white,  sparse  and  straight. 

Individuals  vary  much  :  some  have  a  black  dorsal  line,  some  have  but  three  distinct  black 
tufts  ;  Some  have  a  6th  tuft  of  black  hairs  on  joint !),  and  others  have  a  few  black  hairs  on  all  but 
the  thoracic  joints.  Just  before  spinning  up,  many  of  the  hairs  are  frequently  lost,  and  the  body 
acquires  a  dull  livid  hue. 

^folll. —  $,  Front  wings,  white,  finely  powdered  with  dark  atoms  which  give  them  a  very  pale 
gray  appearance ;  marked  with  black  spots  as  follows  :  a  complete  series  of  small  spots  on  posterior 
border  extending  on  the  fringes,  one  between  each  nerve;  near  the  anal  angle  between  nerves  1  and 
2  a  large  and  conspicuous  spot  bearing  a  partial  resemblance  to  a  Greek  psi,  placed  sidewise,  and 
from  this  spot  a  somewhat  zigzag  line  running  parallel  with  posterior  border,  but  somewhat  more 
arcuated  towards  costa,  least  distinct  between  nerves  3  and  4,  and  formirg  a  large  distinct  dart- 
like spot  between  nerves  5  and  6  ;  space  between  this  line  and  posterior  border,  slightly  darker 
than  the  rest  of  the  wing-surface  on  account  of  the  dark  atoms  being  more  thickly  sprinkled  over 
it ;  four  costal  marks,  one  subobsolete  in  a  transverse  line  with  the  reniform  spot,  one  conspicuous 
about  the  middle,  and  in  a  line  with  reniform  spot  and  anal  angle,  one  about  the  same  size  as  the 
last  and  looking  like  a  blurred  X  about  one-third  the  length  of  wing  from  base,    and   one  subob- 

*Microgaster  acronyctce  of  my  MS. 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  121 

Bolet,  near  tie  base;  orbicular  spot  flattened  and  well  defined  by  a  black  anniilation : 
reniform  spot  indicated  by  a  blurred  black  mark  running:  on  the  cross-vein  and  some- 
times sonunvhrtt  crescent-formed ;  a  Y-sbaped  spot  pointing  towards  base  lialf-way  be- 
tween costa  and  interior  margin,  in  a  transverse  line  with  the  large  costal  spot  which 
looks  like  a  blurred  X;  a  blurred  mark  in  middle  at  base,  and  lastly  a  narrow  spot  on  the  inferior 
margin,  half-way  between  base  and  anal  angle.  Hind  wings  same  color  as  front  wings  ;  somewhat 
more  glossy,  with  the  lunule,  a  band  on  posterior  border  one-fourth  the  width  of  wing,  and  some- 
times a  narrow  coincident  inner  line,  somewhat  darker  than  the  rest ;  the  posterior  border  also 
with  a  series  of  spots  one  between  each  nerve.  Under  surface  of  front  wings  pearly-white  with 
an  arcuated  brown  band,  most  distinct  towards  costa,  across  the  posterior  one-third,  all  inside  of 
this  band  of  a  faint  yellowish-brown  ;  lunule  and  fringe  spots  distinct,  and  with  a  faint  trace  of 
the  p«i-spot ;  hind  wings  uniform  pearly-white  with  a  distinct  and  well  defined  dark  wavy  line  run- 
ning parallel  with  posterior  margin  across  the  posterior  one-third  of  wing,  and  with  the  lunula 
and  fringe  spots  distinct.  Antennaj  simple  and  bristle-formed,  gray  above,  brown  bt^neath.  Heatl 
thorax  and  body,  both  above  and  below,  silvery-gray.  Legs  with  the  tarsi  alternately  dusky  and 
gray,  ^j^  differs  from  $  by  his  somewhat  stouter  antennae  ;  much  narrower  body,  and  narrower 
wings  and  fringes,  the  front  wings  having  the  apex  more  acuminate,  and  the  hind  wings  scarcely 
allowing  the  darker  hind  border. 

Described  from  2  $,  2  ^j*  all  bred.  In  the  ornamentation  of  the  front  wings  this  species  bears 
some  resemblance  to  the  European  species  <r/dens  and  psi,  but  otherwise  differs  remarkably,  and 
especially  in  its  larval  characters.  It  bears  a  still  closer  i-esemblance  both  in  the  larva  and  imago 
Btate  to  the  pale  variety  of  a  common  species  known  in  England  as  the  "Miller"  {A.  Icpoiina),  but 
judging  from  the  figures  and  description  in  "Newman's  Natural  History  of  British  Moths,"  it  may 
be  easily  distinguished  from  leporina  by  the  well  defined  orbicular  spot,  by  the  greater  proximity 
of  the  two  large  costal  spots,  by  lacking  a  round  spot  behind  the  disk,  and  by  the  more  prolonged 
apex.  It  differs  also  in  the  larva  state  from  leporina  which  feeds  on  the  Birch.  It  likewise  closely 
resembles  inttrrupta,  though  the  larva;  are  remarkably  different ;  and  it  also  resembles  lepunculina, 
the  larva  of  which  is  unknown  ;  but  the  specific  differences  will  be  readily  perceived  upon  compar- 
ing Guenee's  descriptions.  How  near  it  approaches  to  Acronycta  occidentalis,  Grote,*  it  is  impos- 
sible to  tell,  as  the  author's  description  is  exceedingly  brief,  considering  the  number  of  closely 
allied  forms  ;  but  as  that  species  has  a  bright  testaceous  tinge  on  the  reniform  spot,  it  evidently 
differs  from  mine.  Harris's  Apatela  [Acronycta]  Americana,-\-  though  very  different  in  the  imago,  yet 
closely  resembles  po/7j(/i  in  the  larva  state.  I  have  on  two  occasions  found  the  larva  of  Amcicana 
feeding  on  the  Soft  Maple,  and  it  may  be  distinguished  ir om  populi,  by  its  greater  size;  by  the 
paler  color  of  the  body  ;  by  the  hairs  being  paler,  more  numerous,  shorter  and  pointing  in  all  di- 
rections, especially  anteriorly  and  posteriorly  of  each  segment;  by  having  on  each  of  joints  4  and 
6  two  distinct  long  black  pencils,  one  originating  each  side  of  dorsum,  and  on  joints  1 1  one  thicker 
one  originating  from  the  top  of  dorsum;  by  a  substigmatal  row  of  small  black  spots  (three  to 
each  segment,  the  middle  one  lower  than  the  others)  and  by  a  trapezoidal  velvety  black  patch 
starting  from  anterior  portion  of  joint  11  and  widening  to  anus. 


THE  MISSOURI  BEE-KILLER— ^^//ws  Missouricnsis,  N.  Sp. 

(Diptera  Asilida;.) 

On  page  168  of  my  First  Report  an  account  is  given,  with  a  very 
poor  figure,  of  a  large  two-winged  fly  which  was  first  received  by  Dr. 

*Proc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  VI,  p.  16. 

fl  am  surprised  that  Dr.  Morris  (Ha>r.  Inj.  Insects,  p.  436,  Note)  refers  this  species  to  Guenee'g 
aceriroln,  when  the  larva  of  the  latter,  as  described  by  Guenee  himself,  is  so  different  and  teed* 
withal  on  Birch  and  Alder,  and  not  on  either  Maple,  Elm,  Linden  or  Chesnut. 


122 


SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT   OF 


Fitch,  of  New  York,  from  Mr.  R.  O. 
Thompson  of  this  State,  who  found  that 
it  had  the  pernicious  habit  of  catching 
and  sucking  out  the  juices  ot  the  com- 
mon honey-bee.  Dr.  Fitch  referred  this 
'fly  to  the  genus  Trujpanea^  and  called 
it  the  Nebraska  bee-killer,  from  its 
having  first  been  captured  by  Mr.  Thomp- 
son in  Nebraska,  where  he  at  that  time 
resided.  The  great  German  Dipterist, 
H.  Loew,  as  I  am  informed  by  Baron 
Osten  Sacken  of  New  York,  ignores  and 
has  discontinued  the  genus  Trupanea^  substituting  in  its  place  that  of 
Promacli:U8 ;  and  Fitch's  Tnipanea  apivoro.  is  the  very  same  species 
previously  described  by  Loew  as  Promaclius  JBastardii^  and  it  is  one 
of  the  most  common  species,  occurring  very  generally  over  the  United 
States. 

I  find  that  we  have  in  Missouri  a  somewhat  larger  fly  (Fig.  89)/ 
which  has  the  same  pernicious  habit  of  seizing  and  destroying  the 
honey-bee  in  preference  to  all  other  kinds  of  prey.  It  acts  in  exactly 
the  same  manner  as  the  Nebraska  Bee-killer,  being,  if  anything,  more 
inhuman  and  savage.  It  belongs  to  the  typical  genus  Asilus^  and  I 
have  called  it  the  Missouri  ^ee-luWey:  {Asilus  Ifissoui^iensis).  Though 
bearing  a  casual  resemblance  to  the  Nebraska  Bee-killer,  it  may  very 
readily  be  distinguished  from  that  species,  and  especially  by  the  dif- 
ferent venation  of  the  wings, 

[F^s-  90.]  The  three  more  common  genera  of  these  vora- 

cious Asilus  flies,  may  easily  be  distinguished 
from  each  other  by  the  character  of  these  wing- 
nerves.  In  the  typical  genus  Asilus  to  which 
belongs  our  Missouri  Bee-killer,  the  third  longitu- 
dinal vein  is  forked  near  the  terminal  third  of  the 
wing,  and  the  vein  itself  is  connected  about  the 
middle  of  the  wing,  with  the  fourth  longitudinal,  as 
in  Figure  90,  h.  In  the  genus  Promachus^  to  which 
the  Nebraska  Bee-killer  belongs,  it  is  the  second 
(not  the  third)  longitudinal  vein  which  is  forked  near  the  middle  of 
the  wing,  and  the  third  branch  of  this  fork  is  connected  by  a  slender 
cross-vein  to  the  third  longitudinal,  near  the  terminal  third  of  the  wing, 
as  in  Figure  91),  a.  In  the  genus  Ei'cix^  which  generally  comprises 
smaller  species,  the  venation  is  similar  to  that  of  Asilus,  but  the 
upper  branch  of  the  fork,  instead  of  joining  the  third  longitudinal 
vein,  is  abruptly  broken  off"  and  connected  only  near  its  termination 
by  a  transverse  vein,  as  in  Figure  90,  c. 

Asilus  Missouriensis  N.  Sp. — Alar  expanse  1.85;  length  of  body  1.30  inches.  TFing'S  trans- 
parent, with  a  smoky  yellow  tinge,  more  distinct  around  the  veins,  which  are  brown.  Head  pale 
yellow,  sometimes  brownish  ;  moustache  straw-yellow  with  a  few  stiff  black  hairs  below  ;  beard 
pale  straw-yellow  ;  crown  very  deeply  excavated  ;  base  of  the  same  pale  yellow  with  short,  sliff» 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  123 

vellowish  liairs,  and  a  crown  of  black  ones  near  the  border  ;  eyes  large,  prominent,  finely  reticu- 
lated and  almost  black  ;  antennas,  first  joint  black  tipped  with  brown,  cylindrical  and  hairy  ;  sec- 
ond joint  black,  short,  thick  and  rounded  at  tip,  with  a  few  stiff  hairs  ;  third  joint  as  long  as  first, 
tapering  each  way,  smooth,  black  and  terminating  in  a  long,  brown  bristle  ;  proboscis  black  and 
nearly  as  long  as  face  ;  neck  with  pale  and  black  hairs.  Thorax  leaden-black,  slightly  opalescent 
with  reddish  brown  at  sides,  more  or  less  pubescent  with  pale  yellow,  especially  laterally  and  pos- 
teriorly hnd  in  three  narrow  longitudinal  dorsal  lines  which  gradually  approach  towards  raeta- 
thorax ;  bearded  at  sides  and  behind  with  a  few  decurved  black  bristles,  those  behind 
interspersed  with  a  few  smaller  pale  hairs ;  scutel  of  the  same  color,  with  upward-curving,  black 
bristles;  halteres  brown.  Abdomen,  (3* ,  general  color  dull  leaden-yellow,  with  darker  transverse 
bands  at  insections  ;  the  light  color  produced  by  a  yellowish  pubescence  and  numerous  short  close- 
lying  yellow  hairs,  the  dark  bands  produced  hy  the  absence  of  this  covering  at  the  borders  of  each 
segment ;  basal  segment  broad,  bilobed,  and  with  lateral  black  bristles ;  segments  6,  7,  8  and  anal 
valves  with  a  decided  pink  tint,  especially  7;  Shut  one-third  as  long  as  7  above.  $,  broader, 
flatter,  more  polished  and  brassy,  with  no  transverse  darker  bands,  segments  7  and  8  polished 
black,  the  latter  narrow  and  longer  than  any  of  the  others  ;  anus  with  a  few  black  bristles.  Legs, 
dull  purple-brown,  with  black  bristles  ;  thighs  very  stout,  the  hind  pair  rather  darker  than  the 
others,  the  two  front  pair  of  trochanters  with  long,  yellowish  hairs ;  pulvilli,  generally 
fulvous. 

Described  from  two  ^ ,  and  two  $  ,  all  captured  while  sucking  honey-bees.  I  have  not  access 
to  Loew's  descriptions,  and  cannot  therefore  compare  it  with  already  described  species  ;  but  speci- 
mens have  been  sent  to  Dr.  Wm.  LeBaron,  of  Geneva,  Illinois,  and  to  Baron  Osten  Sacken,  of  New 
York,  and  both  these  gentlemen  are  unacquainted  with  it,  and  believe  it  to  be  new.  In  the  well 
marked  ^  specimens,  the  body  bears  a  general  resemblance  to  that  of  Trupanea  \_Vromachus\  ver- 
tebrata,  Say. 

Of  course  the  apiarian  will  care  very  little  to  know  which  of  these 
two  Bee-killers  is  weakening  his  swarms.  They  f  hould  both  be  un- 
mercifully destroyed,  and  though  very  strong  and  rapid  flyers,  they 
may  be  easily  caught  when  they  have  settled  on  anj'-  little  promi- 
nence with  a  bee  in  their  grasp ;  for  they  are  so  greed}'  of  the  bee's 
juices  that  they  are  at  this  time  less  wary,  and  even  when  disturbed, 
will  fly  but  a  fev/  yards  away  before  settling  again.  A  net  such  as 
that  described  in  the  article  on  "Cabbage  worms"  will  be  found  use- 
ful in  catching  these  mischievous  flies. 

The  habits  and  preparatory  stages  of  our  Asilus  flies  are  not  verj' 
well  known.  They  are  all  cannibals  in  the  fly  state,  sucking  out  the 
juices  of  their  victims  with  the  strong  proboscis  with  which  they  are 
furnished,  and  by  which  they  are  capable  of  inflicting  a  sharp  sting 
on  the  human  hand.  The  larvas  are  footless,  and  live  in  the  ground, 
and  such  as  are  known  in  this  state  are  strangely  enough,  vegetable- 
feeders. 

The  only  N.  A.  species  that  has  heretofore 
been  bred  to  the  perfect  state,  is  the  Silky 
Asilus  {Asilus  sericeus^  Say.,  Fig.  91)  belong- 
^^  V^/  ^^jj^^ing  to  the  typical  genus  ^.5^7w5.  Its  larva  feeds 
upon  the  roots  of  the  Rhubarb,  and  was  bred  to 
the  perfect  state  by  Dr.  Harris  {Inj.  Insects,  p. 
605).  I  have  succeeded  in  breeding  to  the  fly 
^   V\   \  state  another  species,  belonging  however  to  the 

M    U    \  genus   Erax,  and   subjoin  a  description  of  the 

larva,  as  it  is  of  considerable  scientific  interests 
The  fly  is  figured  below  (Fig.  93  a). 


124 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OP 


[Fig.  92.]  Erax  Bastardi  {?)— Larva— (See  Fig.  92.)  Length  1.05  inches.  Only  twelve  joints, 
tk  the  three  anterior  and  the  three  posterior  ones  tapering  gradually,  the  rest  of  equal  width  ; 
slightly  depressed  ;  translucent  yellowish-white,  the  chitinous  covering  tolerably  firm  how- 
ever ;  a  swollen  lateral  ridge  ;  two  rufous  dorsal  spiracles  on  joint  1  and  two  similar  ones  on 
joint  11.  Head  dark  brown,  very  retractile,  pointed,  divided  at  tip  into  two  mandibulat* 
points,  and  having  two  unguiform  appendages  ;  anal  segment  with  two  depressed  longitudi- 
nal lines  above,  ridged  on  anterior  edge  and  with  a  central  depressed  line  below.  It  make<< 
use  of  its  head  in  crawling. 

Pupa — (Fig.  93  b).  Stout,  honey-yellow;  the  leg  and  wing-sheaths  soldered  together  though 
separated  from  the  abdomen  ;  eyes  large  and  dark ;  head  with  two  large  brown  spines  in 
front,  and  a  lateral  set  of  three  rather  smaller  ones ;  thorax  with  two  small  thin  rounded 
dorsal  projections  and  a  set  of  two  small  lateral  spines  just  behind  the 
head;  abdomen,  with  each  segment  ridged  in  the  middle  and  furnished 
on  this  ridge  with  a  ring  of  brown  blunt  thorns  sloping  backwards ; 
anal  segment  with  a  few  rather  stouter  spines. 

Two  specimens,  one  found  by  Mr.  G.  C.  Brodhead  of  Pleasant  Hill. 
Mo.,  under  a  peach  tree,  the  other  by  Mr.  G.  Pauls  of  Eureka,  Mo.,  un- 
der a  "creeping  vite"  of  which  he  did  not  know  the  name.  They  were 
found  full  grown  in  May,  and  gave  out  the  flies  the  fore  part  of  July. 
Both  produced  $  $,  on  which  account  the  species  cannot  be  determined 
with  absolute  certainty.  Osten  Sacken  informs  me  that  it  is  allied  to 
tabescens  Loew,  but  is  different.  It  is  marked  lictor  in  my  MS.,  but  from 
Macquart's  description  of  Bastardi,  and  from  (^  and  $  specimens  of  that 
species  kindly  furnished  by  Dr.  Le  Baron,  I  feel  pretty  confident  that  it  is 
^  of  that  species,  which  is  described  as  follows  :  Abdominis  seg7nentis  tribus  apicalibus  niveus  (3*; 
omnibus  sog^nentis  olbido  marginatis  §.  Pcdibus  nigris  :  tibiis  rufis :  alis  Jlavidis.  Long.  7^1- 
He  then  adds  :  "Face  and  front  black  with  grjiy  down ;  moustache  with  the  upper  half  black  and 
lower  half  white;  as  also  the  beard.  The  middle  band  of  thorax  divided.  The  first  four  seg- 
ments of  the  abdomen  with  the  posterior  and  lateral  borders  whitish.  Extremities  of  the  legs 
black.  From  North  America.  From  8  f^,  I  have  seen  one  which  had  the  four  terminal  segments 
of  the  abdomen  white."  My  females  accord  very  well  with  this  description  so  far  as  it  goes, 
though  I  cannot  see  why  Macquart  restricts  the  whitish  borders  to  the  first  four  segments  in  the 
French  description,  when  in  the  Latin  it  is  stated  that  all  the  segments  are  so  bordered,  which  i» 
the  case  with  my  specimens. 


INNOXIOUS  INSECTS 


THE  GOAT- WEED  BUTTERFLY— Pa-^^^A^^  glycerium,  Boubleday, 


[Lepidoptera,  NymphalidaB.) 

[Fig.  94.]  There  is  is  an  interesting 

and  rare  butterfly  known  to 
entomologists  by  the  name  of 
Paphia  gly cerium^  which  oc- 
curs in  Missouri,  Texas  and 
^Illinois,  and  perhaps  in  other 
southwestern  States.  It  is  an 
interesting  species  on  ac- 
count of  the  dissimilarity  of 
the  sexes,  and  of  the  position 
it  holds  among  the  butter- 
, flies;  and  as  its  natural  his- 
tory was  unknown  till  the 
present  year,  I  will  transcribe 
from  the  American  Ento- 
mologist^  the  following  ac- 
count of  it,  which  I  was  ena- 
bled to  prepare  from  speci- 
mens kindly  sent  to  me  last 
September  by  Mr.  J.  U.  Muhleman,  of  Woodburn,  Ills.,  and  from 
further  facts  communicated  by  Mr.  L.  K.  Hayhurst,  of  Sedalia,  Mo. 

Dr.  Morris,  in  his  "  Synopsis  of  the  Lepidoptera  of  North  Amer- 
ica," places  this  butterfly  with  the  Ni/mphalis  family,  of  which  the 
Disippus  Butterfly  {NympKalis  disijypus,  Godt.),  is  representative. 
The  larva,  however,  has  more  the  form  and  habits  of  that  of  the  Ti- 
tyrus  Skipper  (genus  Goniloha),  while  singularly  enough,  the  chrysa- 
lis resembles  that  of  the  Archippus  Butterfly  (genus  Danaits). 

The  larva  feeds  on  an  annual  (  Croton  capitatum)  which  is  toler- 
ably common  in  Missouri,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  and  westward,  where  it 
is  known  by  the  name  of  Goat-weed,  and  as  no  value  whatever  is  at- 


126  SECOND  ANNUAL     REPORT  OP 

tached  to  it,  the  insect  which  attacks  it  cannot  be  classed  among  the 
injurious  species.  The  plant  has  a  peculiar  wooly  or  hairy  whitish- 
green  appearance,  and  in  the  month  of  September  its  leaves  may  fre- 
quently be  found  rolled  up  after  the  fashion  shown  at  the  left  of  Fig- 
[Fig.  95.]  _„^      ^^^'®  ^^1  with  the  larva  inside. 

c"  »  .       .^itKt^s^ 'Th\^  roll  of  tlie  leaf  is  gen- 

\  y    ,  -■/      erally  quite  uniform,  and  is 

\t  '/^  made  in  the  following  man- 

ner :  Extending  itself  on  the 


midvein,  with  its  head  to- 
wards the  base  of  the  leaf, 
the  larva  attaches  a  thread 
to  the  edge,  at  about  one- 
fourth  the  distance  from  the 
W^  base    to   the    point.    By  a 

^'  w'  tension    on   this    thread,  it 

draws  this  edge  partly  toward  the  opposite  one,  and  fastens  it  there, 
being  assisted  in  the  operation  by  the  natural  tendency  of  the  leaf  to 
curl  its  edges  inwards.  Fastening  a  thread  here,  it  repeats  the  ope- 
ration until  the  edges  meet,  and  then  it  proceeds  to  firmly  join  them 
nearly  to  the  apex,  leaving  a  small  aperture  through  which  to  pass 
the  excrement.  During  hot  days  the  larva  remains  concealed  in  the 
leaf,  and  towards  evening  comes  out  to  feed,  though  sometimes  it 
feeds  upon  its  house,  eating  the  leaf  down  half  Avay  from  base  to  point. 
It  then  abandons  it  and  rolls  up  a  new  one.  In  the  breeding  cage, 
when  placed  in  a  cool  shady  room,  the  larva  seldom  rolls  up  the 
leaves,  but  feeds  at  random  over  the  plant,  and  when  at  rest  simply 
remains  extended  on  a  leaf.  From  this  we  may  infer  that  its  object 
in  rolling  the  leaves  is  to  shield  itself  from  the  rays  of  the  hot  August 
and  September  sun;  for  the  plant  invariably  grows  on  high  naked 
prairies. 

The  young  larva  has  a  large  head,  larger  than  the  third  segment, 
which  is  the  largest  in  the  body.  The  head  preserves  its  general  form 
through  the  successive  moults  ;  it  is  light  bluish,  thickly  covered  with 
papillae  of  a  dirty-white  color,  and  there  are  also  a  number  of  light 
orange  papillae  of  a  larger  size  scattered  among  them.  The  skin  of 
the  caterpillar  i?,  green^  but  the  general  hue  is  a  dirtj'-white,  owing  to 
the  entire  surface  being  very  closely  studded  with  white  or  whitish 
papillae  with  dark-brown  ones  interspersed.  These  prominences  are 
hemispherical,  hard,  opaque,  shining,  and  the  larva  feels  rough  and 
harsh  to  the  touch. 

x\.t  each  moult  some  of  these  papilla  disappear,  especially  all  the 
brown  ones,  the  body  increases  in  size  so  that  the  head  is  smaller  than 
the  third  segment,  the  green  color  of  the  skin  becomes  more  appar- 
ent, the  body  is  softer  to  the  touch,  and  the  whole  larva  assumes  a 
neater  appearance. 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


127 


Thus  this  larva  has  very  much  the   same  peculiar  whitish  glau- 
[Fig.  96.]  cous-green  color  as    the 

j)lant  on  which  it  feeds  ; 

and  any  one  who  has  seen 

it  upon  the  plant,  cannot 

V  ^BB^Htf^^^^^^^^^^K        help    concluding    that  it 

furnishes  another  in- 
stance of  that  raimickry 
in  Nature,  where  an  in- 
sect, by  wearing  the  ex- 
act colors  of  the  plant 
upon  which  it  feeds,  is 
enabled  the  better  to  es- 
cape the  sharp  eyes  af  its  natural  enemies.  When  full-grown,  which 
is  in  about  three  weeks  after  hatching,  this  worm  (Fig.  94,  a)  meas- 
ures!^ inches,  and  although,  as  above  described,  the  little  elevations 
frequently  disappear  so  that  it  looks  quite  smooth,  yet  sometimes 
they  remain  until  the  transformation  to  chrysalis  takes  place,  as  was 
the  case  with  two  which  I  bred. 

Paphia  GLYC^RWz-a.— Full-grown  Za?vo— Length  1.60  inches.  Cylindrical.  General  appear- 
ance shagreened,  pale  glaucous-green,  lighter  above  stigmata  than  elsewhere.  Ground-color,  of 
body  clear  green.  Thickly  covered  with  white  papilhe  or  granulations,  which  are  oiten  inter- 
spersed with  mint'-te  black  or  dark-brown  sunken  dots.  Head  quite  large,  (rather  more  than  i  aa 
large  as  the  third  segment),  nutant,  subquadrate,  bilobed,  granulated  like  the  body,  but  with  the 
black  sunken  dots  more  numerous,  and  having  besides,  several  larger  granulations  above,  some 
four  of  which  are  generally  black  and  the  rest  fulvous  ;  a  row  of  three  very  distinct  eye-spots  at 
the  base  of  palpi ;  the  triangular  V-shaped  piece  elongated  and  well  defined  by  a  fine  black  line, 
and  divided  longitudinally  by  a  straight  black  line;  palpi  and  labrum  pale,  the  latter  large  and 
conspicuous  ;  jaws  black.  Neck  narrow,  constricted,  green,  smooth,  and  retractile  within  first  seg- 
ment. Segments  1—3  gradually  larger  and  larger  ;  .3  to  last  gradually  smaller.  Stigmata  fulvous. 
Venter  less  thickly  granulated  than  tergum.  Described  from  five  full-grown  specimens  received 
from  Mr.  Muhleman. 

Preparatory  to  transforming,  it  suspends  itself  by  the  hind  legs 
to  a  little  tuft  of  silk  which  it  had  previously  spun,  and  after  resting 
for  about  twenty-four  hours  with  its  head  curled  up  to  near  the  tail, 
it  works  off  the  larval  skin  and  becomes  a  chrysalis,  which  in  from 
two  to  three  weeks  afterwards  gives  out  the  butterfly.  This  chrysa- 
lis (Fig.  94,  h)  is  short,  thick,  rounded,  and  of  a  light  green ;  some- 
times becoming  light  gray,  and  being  finely  speckled  and  banded 
with  dark  gray.  The  skin  is  so  thin  and  delicate  that  the  colors  of 
the  butterfly  may  be  distinctly  seen  a  few  days  before  it  makes  its 
escape. 

Tlie  male  butterfly  (Fig.  95),  is  of  a  deep  coppery-red  on  the  up- 
per side,  bordered  and  powdered  and  marked  willi  dark  purplish- 
brown,  as  shown  in  the  figure.  The  under  side  is  of  a  feuille  morte 
brown  with  a  greasy  lustre,  the  scales  being  beautifully  shingled 
transversely  so  as  to  remind  one  of  that  article  of  dry-goods  which 
the  ladies  call  rep  ;  whilethe  bands  which  commenced  on  the  front 
wings  above,  may  be  traced  further  across  the  wing,  and  there  is  a 
transverse  band  on  the  hind  wings,  with  an  indistinct  wliite  spot  near 


123 


SECOND  ANNUAL    REPORT  OF 


the  upper  edge.  The  female  (Fig.  96),  is  of  a  lighter  color  than  the 
male,  marked  with  purplish-brown  as  in  the  figure,  the  transverse 
bands  being  quite  distinctly  defined  with  very  dark-brown.  The 
under  side  is  very  much  as  in  the  male. 

A  few  of  the  butterflies,  in  all  probability,  manage  to  live  through 
the  winter,  and  are  thus  enabled  to  perpetuate  the  race,  by  deposit- 
ing their  egg?,  the  following  summer,  on  the  leaves  and  stems  of  the 
Goat-weed,  which  is  the  only  plant  upon  which  the  insect  is  yet 
known  to  subsist. 


THE  BLACK  BREEZE-FLY- Tahanus  atratus,  Fabr. 

(Diptera,  Tabanidae.) 

[Fig-  97.]  There  is  a  family  of  large 

Two-winged  Flies,  com- 
monly called  Breeze-llies  in 
England,  but  more  com- 
monly known  as  Horse- 
flies in  this  country,  the  in- 
sects belonging  to  which 
are,  in  the  perfect  state, 
great  nuisances,  though 
there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  as  larvae  they  are 
beneficial  to  the  husband- 
man, by  devouring  many 
noxious  underground  vege- 
table-feeding larvEe. 
This  family  comprises  some  of  the  very  largest  flies,  and  they  are 
all  noted  for  the  tormenting  powers  which  the  female  has  of  piercing 
the  skin  and  sucking  the  blood  of  diff'erent  quadrupeds  and  even  of 
man.  They  are  widely  distributed,  and  species  occur  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  torturing  alike  the  huge  elephant  and  fierce  lion  of  the 
tropics,  and  the  peaceful  reindeer  of  the  arctic  region.  It  is  during 
the  hottest  summer  months  that  they  "do  most  abound,"  and  they 
frequent  both  our  timbered  and  prairie  regions.  One  of  the  most 
common  species  in  the  West  is  the  so-called  "Green-head  Fly" 
{Tahamis  Uneola,  Fabr.)  and  every  farmer  who  has  to  work  on  the 
prairies,  especially  during  the  hay-making  season,  knows  how  blood- 
thirsty it  is,  and  how  absolutely  necessary  it  is  to  cover  the  horses  at 
this  season  of  the  year,  in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to  work  at  all. 
Two  other  species  of  nearly  the  same  size  (T.  costalis,  Wied.  and  T. 
oinGtue,  Fabr.)  are   common  with   us,  and  I  have  found  the  striped 


THE    STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  129 

Chrysops  {Chrysops  vittatus^  Wied.) — a  smaller  yellow  species  with 
black  stripes,  and  a  broad  smoky  band  across  the  middle  of  each 
wing;  to  be  very  troublesome  in  our  wooded  regions,  confining  its 
attacks  more  especially  to  the  horses'  ears,  from  which  habit  it  is  fre- 
quently called  the  "  Ear-fly." 

It  is  only  the  female  flies,  as  is  the  case  also  with  our  mosquitoes, 
which  thus  torment  our  animals  by  means  of  their  sharp  lances,  the 
males  living  on  the  sweets  of  flowers,  and  their  mouths  being  desti- 
tute of  mandibles.  The  flight  of  these  Breeze-flies  is  very  strong  and 
rapid,  and  is  attended  with  a  buzzing,  tormenting  noise.  The  males 
may  often  be  seen  with  the  wings  vibrating  so  rapidly  that  they  be- 
come invisible,  resting  motionless  in  one  place,  and  then  darting 
rapidly  and  resting  suddenly  again,  generally  turning  the  head  in 
some  other  direction  each  time  they  dart;  and  St,  Fargeau  has  as- 
certained that  this  manoeuvering  is  performed  in  order  to  intercept 
and  seize  the  females. 

Although  these  flies  swarm  so  prodigiously  on  our  prairie  and  es- 
pecially on  our  low  swampy  lands,  yet  hitherto  very  little  has  been 
known  of  their  larval  character  and  habits.  De  Geer  very  many 
years  ago  described  the  larva  of  the  European  Cattle  Breeze-fly  {^Ta- 
hanus  hovinus,  Linn.),  and  up  to  1864  this  was  the  only  larva  of  the 
kind  known.  In  February  of  that  year  Mr.  Walsh  published  the  de- 
scription of  another  Tabanide  larva,  but  without  being  able  to  refer 
it  to  any  particular  species.*  I  had  the  good  fortune  last  summer  to 
breed  to  the  perfect  state  the  very  same  kind  of  larva  which  Mr. 
Walsh  described.  It  proved  to  be  one  of  our  most  common  and 
largest  species,  namely  The  Black  Breeze-^y  (Taha^ius  atratus^  Fabr.) 
This  Fly  (Fig.  97,  c)  is  black,  the  back  of  the  abdomen  being  cov- 
ered with  a  bluish- white  bloom  like  that  on  a  plum ;  the  eyes  are 
large,  and  the  wings  are  smoky  dark  brown  or  black. 

The  larva  (Fig.  97,  a)  is  a  large  12-jointed,  cylindrical  affair,  ta- 
pering at  each  end,  of  a  trailsparent,  highly  polished,  glassy,  yel- 
lowish or  greenish  appearance,  shaded  with  bluish-green  and  fur- 
nished above  and  below,  as  in  the  figure,  with  large  roundish 
sponge-like  tubercles  which  are  retracted  or  exserted  at  the  will 
of  the  insect.  Though  the  external  integument  is  so  transparent, 
that  the  internal  structure  is  readily  visible,  yet  this  integument 
is  firm  and  the  larva  is  most  vigorous  and  active,  burrowing  with 
great  strength  either  backwards  or  forwards  in  the  earth,  and  be- 
tween one's  fingers  while  it  is  being  held.  Placed  in  water  it  will 
swim  vigorously  by  suddenly  curling  round  and  lashing  out  its  tail, 
but  it  is  apparently  not  as  much  at  home  in  this  element  as  in  the  wet 
earth,  for  it  is  restless  and  remains  near  the  surface,  with  the  tip  of 
the  tail  elevated  in  the  air.  When  the  water  is  foul  it  moves 
about  actively  near  the  surface,  but  when  it  is  fresh  it  remains  more 

*Proc.  Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  302-6. 
9 — E  R 


130  SECOND    ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

quiet  at  the  bottom.  The  specimen  which  I  succeeded  in  breeding, 
was  sent  to  me  by  Mr.  Adolph  Engelmann  of  Shiloh,  St.  Clair  Co., 
Ills.  It  was  found  by  Mr.  Wm.  Cooper  of  the  same  county,  about  ten 
feet  from  a  small  but  permanent  stream  of  water.  Mr.  0.  at  first  took 
it  to  be  a  leech,  and  when  he  attempted  to  capture  it,  it  immediately 
commenced  burrowing  in  the  ground. 

Mr.  Walsh's  description  of  this  larva  is  so  full,  and  agrees  so  well 
with  mine,  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  transcribe  it. 

Tabanus  atuatus. — Larva, — Length  2.25  inchps  when  extended,  1.75  inches  when  contracted  ; 
diameter  .25 — .30  inch.  Body  cylindrical,  12-jointed,  the  three  or  four  terminal  joints  much  tapered 
at  each  end  of  the  body,  but  more  so  anteriorly  than  posteriorly,  and  joints  1  and  11,  each  with  a 
retractile  membranous  prolongation  at  tip.  Joints  1  to  10  are  subequal ;  11  is  about  two-thirds 
as  long  as  10  and  12  about  one-fourth  as  long,  and  .05  inch  in  diameter.  [Joints  1  and  12  pear- 
shaped  when  extended].  Color  a  transparent  greenish-white,  paler  beneath  ;  an  irregular  dark- 
green  or  greenish-black  annulus,  paler  beneath,  on  the  anterior  and  posterior  margins  of  joints 
2  to  11,  the  anterior  annulus  laterally  connected  with  the  posterior  by  two  to  four  dark-green 
lines.  On  the  dorsum  of  4  to  9,  and  more  obscurely  on  10,  a  dark-green  basal  triangle,  extend- 
ing half-way  to  the  tip;  joint  1  with  paler  markings,  and  with  no  dark  annulus  behind  ;  joint  12 
entirely  fuscous.  Head  small,  apparently  fleshy,  pale,  truncate-conical,  .03  inch  wide,  and  about 
.04  inch  long  in  repose,  inserted  in  joint  1  without  any  shoulder.  The  trophi  occupy  two-thirds  of 
its  length,  but  it  has  a  long  cylindrical  internal  prolongation,  extending  to  the  middle  of  joint  2, 
which  is  sometimes  partially  exserted,  so  that  the  head  becomes  twice  as  long  as  before.  All  the 
trophi  are  pale  and  apparently  fleshy,  except  the  mandibles,  which  are  dark-colored  and  evidently 
horny,  and  they  have  no  perceptible  motion  in  the  living  insect.  The  lubrum  is  slender,  a  little 
tapered,  and  three  times  as  long  as  wide,  on  each  side  of  and  beneath  which  is  a  slender,  thorn- 
like, decurved,  brown-black  mandible.  The  labium  resembles  the  labrum,  but  is  shorter,  and  on 
each  side  of  it  is  a  slender  palpiform,  but  exarticulate  maxilla,  extending  beyond  the  rest  of  the 
mouth  in  an  oblique  direction.  No  palpi.  On  the  vertex  are  a  pair  of  short,  fleshy,  exarticulate^ 
filiform  antenna,  and  there  are  no  distinct  eyes  or  ocelli.  In  the  cast  larval  integument  the  entire 
head,  .25  inch  long,  is  exserted,  and  is  dark-colored  and  evidently  horny,  all  the  parts  retaining 
their  shape  except  the  antennae,  labrum  and  labium.  The  whole  head  has  here  the  appearance  of 
the  basal  part  of  the  leaf  of  a  grass-plant,  clasping  the  origin  of  the  maxilliB  on  its  posterior 
half,  and  bifurcating  into  the  somewhat  tapered  cylindrical  mandibles  on  its  anterior  half.  Tho 
maxillEe  are  traceable  to  two-thirds  of  the  distance  from  the  tip  to  the  base  of  the  head,  scarcely 
tapering,  bent  obliquely  downwards  at  two-thirds  of  the  way  to  their  tip,  and  obliquely  truncate 
at  tip.  On  the  anterior  margin  of  ventral  segments  4 — 10,  in  the  living  insect,  is  a  row  of  six 
large,  fleshy,  roundish,  tubercular,  retractile  pseudopods,  the  outside  ones  projecting  laterally,  and 
each  at  tip  transversely  striate  and  armed  with  short,  bristly  pubescence  ;  on  the  anterior  half  of 
ventral  joint  11  is  a  very  large,  transversely-oval,  fleshy,  whitish,  retractile  proleg,  with  a  deeply 
impressed,  longitudinal  stria.  On  the  anterior  margin  of  dorsal  joints  4 — 10,  is  a  pair  of  smaller, 
transversely-elongate,  retractile,  fleshy  tubercles,  covering  nearly  their  entire  width,  armed  like 
the  pseudopods,  but  not  so  much  elevated  as  they  are.  No  appearance  of  any  spiracles.  Anua 
terminal,  vertically  slit  with  a  slender,  retractile  thorn  .05  inch  long,  not  visible  in  one  specimen. 
Head,  and  first  segment  or  two,  retractile. 

The  larva  reared  by  De  Geer  was  terrestrial.  This  larva  is  semi- 
acquatic,  for  it  is  quite  at  home  either  in  water  or  moist 
earth.  My  specimen  was  kept  for  over  two  weeks  in  a  large 
earthen  jar  of  moist  earth  well  supplied  with  earth-worms. 
It  manifested  no  desire  to  come  to  the  surface,  but  burrowed  in  every 
direction  below.  I  found  several  pale  dead  worms  in  the  jar,  though 
I  cannot  say  positively  whether  they  had  been  killed  and  sucked  by  this 
larva.  Mr.  Walsh  in  speaking  of  its  haunts  and  of  its  food,  says  :  "  I 
have,  on  many  different  occasions,  found  this  larva  amongst  floating 
rejectamenta.  On  one  occasion  I  found  six  or  seven  specimens  in  the 
interior  of  a  floating  log,  so  soft  and  rotten  that  it  could  be  cut  like 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  .131 

cheese.    Once  I  discovered  a  single  specimen  under  a  flat,  submerged 
stone,  in  a  little  running  brook.     And  finally,  I  once  met  with  one 
alive,  under  a  log,  on  a  piece  of  dry  land  which  had  been  submerged 
two  or  three  weeks  before,  whence  it  appears  that  it  can  exist  a  long 
time  out  of  the  water.    I  had,  on  several  previous  occasions,  failed  to 
breed  this  larva  to  maturity,  and  the  only  imago  I  have,  was  obtained 
in  lh61,  from  larvse,  which,  suspecting  them  to  be  carnivorous  from 
the  very  varied  stations  in  which  they  had  occurred,  I  had  supplied 
with  a  number  of  fresh- water  moUusks,  but  the  habits  of  which,  in  con- 
sequence of  having  been  away  from  home,  I  was  unable  to  watch.     On 
September  2d,  186-3,  I  found  a  nearly  full-grown  larva  amongst  floating 
rejectamenta,  and  between  that  date  and  September  23d,  he  had  de- 
voured the  mollusks  of  eleven  univalves  {Goi.  Planorhis)  from  one- 
half  to  three-lburths  of  an  inch  in  diameter;   and  on  three  separate 
occasions  I  have  seen  him  work  his  way  into  the  mouth  of  the  shell. 
In  this  operation  his  pseudopods  were  energetically  employed,  and  I 
found,  on  cracking  the  shells  after  he  had  withdrawn,  that  a  small 
portion  of  the  tail  end  of  the  animal  was  left  untouched— no  doubt 
in  consequence  of  his  being  unable  to  penetrate  to  the  small  end  of 
the  whorl  of  the  shell — and  also  the  skin  of  the  remaining  x^art,  and 
the  horny-tongued  membrane." 

My  larva  transformed  to  pupa  (Fig.  97,  h)  within  the  ground,  during 
the  lore  part  of  July  ;  it  remained  in  this  state  but  a  few  days,  and 
the  fly  issued  July  13th,  and  soon  made  its  presence  known  by  its  loud 
buzzing  inside  the  jar.  It  was  a  perfect  ?  specimen,  and  the  pupal 
integument  was  sufficiently  firm  and  polished,  that  by  carefully  wash- 
ing off"  the  earth,  an  excellent  cabinet  specimen  was  obtained,  which 
retained  almost  the  exact  form  and  appearance  of  the  living  pupa. 
Before  the  escape  of  the  fly  which  was  eff"ected  through  a  longitudi- 
nal fissure  on  the  back  of  the  head  and  thorax,  reminding  one  of  the 
mode  of  escape  of  our  Harvest-flies  (Cicadce)^  this  pupa  by  means 
of  the  thorns  with  which  it  is  furnished,  had  pushed  itself  up  to  the 
surface  of  the  earth.  My  specimen  being  female,  may  account  for  the 
very  slight  difference  between  the  following  description  and  that  of 
Mr.  Walsh's. 

Pupa,  (described  from  pupal  integument). — Cylindrical,  lying  curved  as  in  the  figure  ;  rounded 
at  the  head,  and  tapering  at  the  last  two  joints;  pale  semi-transparent  yellowish-brown.  Head 
with  two  transverse,  narrow-edged,  somewhat  crescent-shaped  dark-brown  projections  representing 
the  mouth,  two  rounded  tubercles  above,  on  the  front,  of  the  same  color,  and  each  giving  out  a 
stiff  bristle  ;  and  midway  between  these  four,  two  much  smaller,  lighter,  rounded  tubercles,  set 
closer  together ;  on  each  side  in  a  line  with  the  upper  tubercles,  a  wrinkled  antenna,  trigonate  at 
base,  appressed  to  the  surface  and  pointing  outwards;  below  these  antennas,  on  the  eyes,  two  small 
bristled  warts.  Thorax,  pronotum  commencing  behind  antennas,  with  a  pair  of  small  bristled  brown 
tubercles*  on  its  anterior  dorsal  submargin  ;  mesonotum  twice  as  long  as  pronotum,  with  a  pair 
of  large  obliquely-placed,  reniforra,  purple-brown  tubercular  spiracles,  bordered  on  the  outside 
above,  with  a  distinct  fine  white  line  ;  between  these  spiracles  are  four  small  brown  elevations  the 
two  middle  ones  quite  small  and  close  together;  a  short  metanotal  piece,  about  one-seventh  as  long 

^Evidently  not  spiracles  as  Mr.  Walsh  supposed.  The  mesonotal  spiracles  are  well  defined,  with 
the  white  Ijorder  above  mentioned,  and  the  abdominal  spiracles  are  each  marked  behind  by  a  dis- 
tinct white  line  ;  but  these  tubercles  have  no  such  annulus  and  are  illy  defined. 


132 


SECOND    ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 


as  pronotum  and  without  spiracles.  Abdomen,  with  8  suhequal  segments,  with  two  well  defined 
lateral  impressed  lines,  and  all  but  the  last  bearing  between  these  lines,  a  rounded  brown  tubercu- 
lar spiracle,  the  posterior  upper  borders  lined  with  white.  The  first  segment  is  simple  and  extends 
to  the  tips  of  the  wing-sheaths ;  the  others  are  all  furnished,  on  the  posterior  one-third,  with  an  an- 
nulus  of  fine,  yellowish  bristles,  depressed  and  directed  backwards.  Anal  thorn  robust,  yellow, 
truncated,  and  furnished  with  six  stout  brown  thorns,  hexagonally  arranged.  Length  1.20  inches  ; 
greatest  diameter  0.30  inch.     One  $  specimen. 

This  large  Black  Breeze-fly  does  not  attack  horses  to  any  consid- 
erable extent  that  I  am  aware  of,  but  is  said  to  bite  cattle.  The 
smaller  species  of  real  Horse-flies  mentioned  above,  and  which  oc- 
cur in  prodigious  numbers  on  our  Western  prairies,  away  from  any 
large  streams  of  water,  must  evidently  be  terrestrial  in  the  larva 
state,  and  not  aquatic,  and  must  just  as  surely  live  on  other  food  than 
snails,  which  are  quite  rare  on  the  prairies.  They  are  certainly  car- 
nivorous however,  and  it  is  but  natural  to  suppose  that  they  feed  on 
underground  vegetable-feeding  larvas,  such  as  the  diff"erent  kinds  of 
white  grubs,  the  larvse  of  Crane-flies  ( Tipulidce),  etc.  Thus,  in  all  prob- 
ability, they  perform  a  most  important  part  in  the  economy  of  Na- 
ture, by  checking  the  increase  of  those  underground  larvae  which  are 
the  most  unmanageable  of  the  farmer's  foes.  They  therefore  partly 
atone  for  the  savage  and  blood-thirsty  character  of  the  perfect  females, 
and  I  prefer  consequently  to  place  them  with  the  other  Innoxious  In- 
sects. 


GALLS  MADE  BY  MOTHS. 

As  a  sequence  to  the  article  on  the  Solidago  Gall  Moth  (  GelecJiia 
gallcBSolidaginis^  Riley)  published  in  my  former  Report,  I  will  here 
describe  two  other  gall-making  moths,  with  which  I  was  not  then  ac- 
quainted, the  first  of  which,  as  I  have  since  ascertained,  occurs  in  this 
State.    The  other  I  have  never  yet  met  with. 

THE  FALSE  INDIGO  GALL-MOTH— TTaZsfiio  amorphella,  Clemens. 
(Lepidoptera,  Tineidae.) 

On  the  leafless  stems  of  the  False  Indigo  {Amorpha  fruticosa) 
may  often  be  seen,  during  the  fall,  winter  and  spring  months,  an  elon- 
[Fig.  98.]  gated  swelling  such  as  that 

shown  at  Figure  98,  c,  two 
of  them  often  occurring 
one  above  the  other.  This 
swelling  is  a  simple  enlarge- 
ment of  the  stem  to  five  or 
six  times  its  natural  diam- 
eter, and  measures  from 
three-quarters  of  an  inch  to 
an  inch  in  length.  If  cut 
open  during  any  of  the  win- 
ter months,  the  interior  will 
present  a  tough  woody  ap- 
pearance,    with     an    irregular     brown     channel,     almost     always 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  133 

at  one  side  of  the  gall,  and  communicating  above  with  a  small 
closed-up  tubercle  (See  Fig.  98,  <?,).  At  the  bottom  of  this  channel 
the  larva  (Fig.  98,  J,  enlarged),  which  is  whitish  with  a  conspicuous 
black  head  and  black  collar,  may  always  be  found,  and  it  does  not 
transform  to  the  chrysalis  state  till  a  few  weeks  before  appearing  as  a 
moth.  The  tubercle  near  the  top  of  the  gall  is  evidently  caused  by 
the  young  larva  penetrating  the  stem  when  it  first  hatches  out;  and 
this  larva  must,  after  it  has  burrowed  the  proper  length  down  the 
stem,  turn  round  and  widen  the  burrow  right  up  to  the  point  of  en- 
trance; for  it  is  from  this  point  that  the  moth  escapes  in  the  spring. 
The  moth,  of  which  Figure  98,  a,  represents  an  enlarged  female,  is 
easily  distinguished  from  most  other  small  moths  belonging  to  the 
same  family  ( TineidcB)  by  its  beautifully  tufted  front  wings,  which 
are  not  easily  represented  in  a  wood-cut.  It  is  of  a  yellowish-brown 
color,  marked  with  darker  brown,  and  the  males  are  generally  a  little 
darker  than  the  females.  This  little  moth  was  first  described  by  Clem- 
ens (Proc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  Vol.  II,  p.  419),  who  named  the  genus  in 
honor  of  Mr.  Walsh,  its  first  discoverer,  and  so  far  as  I  am  aware  it  is 
the  only  representative  of  the  genus. 

The  twigs  invariably  wither  and  dry  up  above  this  gall,  but  as  the 
shrub  has  no  particular  value,  the  little  gall-maker  may  be  placed 
among  the  harmless  insects. 

Walshia  amorphella — Larva — Length  0.35 — 0.40  inch.  Cylindrical,  tapering  each  way,  but 
more  especially  towards  anus.  Yellowish-white,  each  segment  with  about  two  distinct  transverse 
folds.  Two  dorsal  rows  of  pale  but  polished  piliferous  spots,  two  to  each  segment;  stigmata 
round,  jet  black  with  a  white  centre,  with  a  pale  piliferous  spot  above,  and  two  contiguous  ones  on 
a  lateral  fold,  below  each  ;  on  joints  1  and  2  the  folds  are  more  numerous  and  the  piliferous  spots 
are  larger  and  arranged  in  a  transverse  row.  Head  either  black  or  dark  brown,  the  tropbi  except 
the  maxillae  white,  and  the  eyelets,  arranged  in  a  crescent,  also  pale.  Cervical  shield  same  color  as 
bead,  divided  in  the  middle  by  a  distinct  pale  line.  Both  have  a  few  white  hairs,  arising  from  pale 
points.  Anal  shield  small  and  brown.  Thoracic  legs  pale  but  slightly  horny,  transparent,  fur- 
nished with  hairs,  and  with  two  basal  semi-circular  brown  lines  behind,  the  largest  terminating  on 
the  inside,  in  a  black  thorn.  Prolegs  very  small  and  scarcely  distinguishable  except  by  a  faint 
brown  circular  rim  at  extremities,  and  a  still  fainter  one  at  their  base.  Described  from  numerous 
specimens,  all  very  uniform. 

Pupa — Unknown. 

Moth — Front  wings  yellowish-fuscous,  with  a  rather  large  blackish  brown  patch  at  the  base  of 
the  wing,  somewhat  varied  with  spots  of  the  general  hue,  and  a  blackish-brown  tuft,  having  the 
scales  directed  toward  the  tip  of  the  wing,  on  the  basal  third  of  the  fold,  and  a  smaller  one  above 
it  near  the  costa.  Near  the  end  of  the  fold  is  another  small  tuft  of  the  general  hue,  having  the 
ends  of  the  scales  tipped  with  dark  brown,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  wing  nearly  adjoining  the  lat- 
ter is  a  large  tuft  of  the  general  hue.  Above  the  end  of  the  fold  is  a  small  blackish-brown  tuft, 
the  scales  of  which  are  not  so  much  erected  as  in  the  other  tufts  ;  between  this  and  the  central  tufts 
is  a  blackish-brown  patch  which  sends  a  streak  of  the  same  hue  into  the  fold.  The  apical  portion 
of  the  wing  is  somewhat  discolored  with  brown,  and  along  the  inner  margin,  at  the  base  of  the  cilia, 
are  five  or  six  black  dots.  Cilia  dull  testaceous.  [Hind  wings  shiny  yellowish-brown,  long,  nar- 
row, lanceolate,  with  very  long  cilia]  Antennae  fuscous  [the  basal  joint  long,  smooth  and  clavate]. 
Head  and  thorax  blackish-brown  ;  labial  palpi  yellowish-fuscous.  [Abdomen  above  dark  brown,  the 
joints  bordered  behind  with  gray,  the  terminal  joint  with  a  yellow  tuft.  Legs  short,  the  tarsi  only 
of  hind  pair  reaching  beyond  abdomen  ;  marked  with  gray  and  brown.  Under  surface  uniform 
grayish-brown,  the  hind  wings  somewhat  paler,  and  all  the  wings  bordered  with  a  paler  line. 
Length  0.20  ;  alar  expanse  0.53  inch.]    (After  Clemens). 


134 


SECOND    ANNUAL   REPORT    OP 


[Fig.  99.] 


THE    MISNAMED  GALL-MOTE-Euryptychia,  saligneana,  Clemens. 
(Lepidoptera,  Tortricidae.) 

The  only  other  gall-producing  moth  known  in  this  country  is  the 
species  illustrated  herewith  (Fig.  99,  «),  and  there  are  some  doubts  in 

my  mind  as  to  whether  it  is  a  real 
gall-maker  or  an  "inquiline"  or  in- 
truder on  my  true  Solidago  Gall- 
[■•^7-,(ira¥^aker  {Gelechia  ga.llcesoUdaffin- 
''is.)  But  two  specimens  of  the  moth 
have  ever  been  found,  one  of  which 
is  in  the  cabinet  of  the  late  Brack- 
enridge  Clemens,  at  Philadelphia, 
and  the  other  in  my  possession. 
They  were  both  bred  by  Mr. 
Walsh  from  golden  rod  galls  re- 
sembling those  of  my  Solidago 
gall  in  being  elongated  and  hol- 
low; and  from  specimens  kindly  furnished  to  me  before  his  death,  I 
am  enabled  to  give  the  above  sketch  of  the  dried  gall,  with  the  pupa- 
skin  attached,  and  likewise  that  of  the  moth.  The  only  description 
which  exists  of  the  larva  is  of  a  dead  and  somewhat  shrunken  speci- 
men, in  the  following  brief  note  taken  from  Mr.  Walsh's  journal: 
"Larva  16-footed,  yellowish;  spiracles  (fuscous)  on  all  but  i2d,  3d 
and  anal  segments.  Head  and  2d  [1st]  segment  horny  and  rufous. 
Length  0.40." 

The  moth  is  the  only  representative  of  its  genus  {Euryptycliia) 
50  far  known.  It  was  described  in  1865  by  Dr.  Clemens  *  as  E.  sa- 
ligneana^  under  the  false  impression  that  it  was  reared  from  a  willow 
gall.  But  the  scientific  name  of  the  insect  must  stand,  however  inap- 
propriate. 

EaRYPTYcuiA  SALiGNEANA—il/o//i— Front  wings  white,  tinted  with  yellowish.  The  basal 
patch  is  dark  brown.  The  wing  beyondTlie  basal  patch  is  nearly  white,  varied  with  leaden-colored 
speckles  and  striped  over  the  nervules  with  dull,  leadcn-gray,  transverse  stripes,  two  of  which 
near  the  anal  angle  form  a  white  ocelloid  patch.  Immediately  interior  to  the  ocelloid  patch  is  a 
small  black  spot,  having  a  line  of  black  atoms  running  into  it,  from  above  and  beneath.  Below 
the  ape.\,  on  the  hind  margin,  is  a  triangular  brown  patch,  which  is  varied  with  grayish  and 
dotted  with  black  in  the  middle  and  along  the  inner  edge.  The  costa  is  geminat>?d  with  white, 
and  striped  with  brown.     Hind  wings  dark  fuscous.     (After  Clemens.) 

Generic  character— Jlini  wings  broader  than  front  wings.  Costal  and  subcostal  veins  with  a 
common  origin;  branches  of  subcostal  connivent.  Median  vein  4-branched,  three  of  which  are  ag- 
gregated, the  two  central  ones  from  a  common  base.  Front  wings  with  a  broad  fold,  extending  to 
the  middle  of  the  costa,  closely  appressed  ;  atleast  three  times  longer  than  broad  ;  costa  straight, 
tip  moderately  acute,  apical  margin  rounded.  The  nervules  given  off  from  the  posterior  end  of 
the  cell  are  bent  toward  each  other  or  are  somewhat  aggregated. 

Head  smooth,  with  ocelli  at  base  of  antenna3.  Antennte  filiform,  simple.  Labiiil  palpi,  do 
not  exceed  the  face,  are  curved,  smooth,  rather  slender,  expanded  toward  the  tip,  the  apical  joint 
scarcely  perceptible,  except   in  front.     (Clemens.) 

My  reasons  for  thinking  this  insect  an  intruder  on  the  rightful 
gall-maker,  are  :  1st,  because  if  it  were  a  true  gall-maker  we  should 

*  Proc.  Ent.  See,  Phil.,  V.,  p.  141. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  136 

naturally  expect  to  find  its  gall  more  common  ;  2d,  because  on  sev- 
eral occasions  I  have  found  within  the  Gelechia  gall,  a  pale  worm 
very  different  irom  the  true  gray  gall-making  larva.  But  until  more 
decided  proof  can  be  obtained,  and  until  the  fact  is  settled  by  further 
experience  and  experiment,  we  must,  from  such  evidence  as  we  have, 
consider  the  Misnamed  Gall-moth,  a  true  gall-maker. 

Thus  we  have  three  different  and  distinct  gall-moths  in  this 
country,  belonging  to  two  distinct  families  and  three  distinct  genera  ; 
while  a  fourth  ( CocJiylis  Mlarana)  belonging  to  still  another  genus  is 
known  to  form  a  gall  on  the  stems  of  Artemisiain  Europe.  It  is  very 
manifest  that  all  of  these  galls  are  formed  by  the  irritating  gnawings 
of  the  larva  after  it  is  hatched,  and  not  induced  by  any  poisonous  fluid 
injected  with  the  egg  by  the  ovipositor  of  the  parent,  as  is  demon- 
strably the  case  with  those  galls  which  are  produced  by  gallflies 
{Cynips  family),  and  with  such  as  are  produced  by  some  gall-making 
Saw-flies.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable,  however,  that  these  moth  larvae 
do  in  reality  secrete  from  the  mouth  some  peculiar  fluid  which  tends 
to  produce  the  gall ;  for  we  know  that  very  many  other  moth  larvae 
burrow  in  the  stems  of  different  plants  without  producing  any 
abnormal  swelling. 


ERRATA. 


Page  13,  line  25,  for  "cupable"  read  "culpable." 

Page  16,  line  13,  for  "lava"  read  "larva" 

Page  23,  line  6  from  bottom,  for  "hole"  read  "holes." 

Page  32,  line  17,  for  "insect"  read  "insects." 

Page  50,  line  4  from  bottom,  for  "leucaia"  read  "leucaniez. 


INDEX. 


Abbot  Sphinx 78 

Achemon  Sphinx , 74 

Acoloithus  falsarius 86 

Acronycta  populi 119 

"          tridens 121 

"  psi 121 

"          leporina 121 

"          occidentalis...., 121 

"          lepusculina 121 

"          interrvpta 121 

"          Americana 121 

Agrotis  inermis 50 

Alypia  octomaculata SO 

American  Procris 85 

Amount  of  damage  done  by  the  Chinch  Bug 28 

Anacharis  canadensis  > 11 

Anisopieryx  vernata 94 

"        pometaria 97 

Anomis  xylina 37 

Anthocoris  insidiosus 27^  32 

Anthomyia  ceparum 9 

Apatela  Americana 121 

Aphis  brassicce 10 

"    ribis • 10 

"    avence 5,    6,  10 

"    mali 6,  10 

Apple-worm 6 

"    -tree  Plant-louse 6 

Arma  spinosa 32 

Army  Worm 37 

"        "      —Past  history  of 41 

"        "      — Its  sudden  appearance  and  disappearance 46 

'•        "      —Natural  History  of 47 

"        "      —Parasites  of 60 

"        "      Ichneumon  Fly 63 

Ash-gray  Leaf -bug 32 

Asilus  Missouriensis 1^1 

"      sericeus ' 123 

Aspidiotits  conchiformia .....9>  1" 

"          Harrisi , ^ 


INDEX. 


B 

Beautiful  Wood  Nymph 88 

Black  Breeze-fly 128 

Black-legged  Tortoise-beetle , 63 

Blatta  orientalis .' 10 

Blepharida  rfiois 68 

Blue  Catterpillars  of  the  Vine 79 

Bogus  Chinch  Bugs 31 

Bordered  Soldier-bug 34 

Broad-necked  Prionus 87 

Bruchus  pisi 11 

"      granarius 11 


Cabbage  Worms 104 

"  "    —Southern  Cabbage  Butterfly 104 

"  "    —Potherb  Butterfly 105 

"  "    —Rape  Butterfly * 107 

"  "    — Remedies  for , 109 

t'  a    —Zebra  Caterpillar 112 

Calosoma  scrutator 103 

"        calidum 103 

Cannibal  foes  of  the  Chinch  Bug 25 

Oanker-worm 94 

"  "     —Origin  of 96 

"  "    — Remedy  against 98 

"  "    —Destroyed  by  plowing 100 

"  "    —Enemies  of 102 

Carpocapsa  pomonella 10 

Capsus  oblineatus 113 

Cassida  guttata 60,    63 

"     bivitatta , 61 

"      aurichalcea 62 

"      pallida 62 

"       nigripes 63 

"      cruciata 63 

"       signifer C3 

"       trabeata 63 

Gecidomyia  destructor , 10,    19 

Chinch  Bug 6,    15 

"       "  —Past  History  of IT 

"       "  —Natural  History  of 18 

"       "  — Destructive  powers  of , 22 

"       "  — Heavy  rains  destructive  to 24 

"       "  — Cannibal  foes  of 25 

"       "  — Amount  of  damage  done  by 28 

"       "  — Remedies  against 28 

"       "  —Bogus 31 

"      "  — Recapitulation 36 

Charocnmpa  pnmpinatrix 71 

Chrysopa  plorabunda 26 

"        Illinoiensis 26 

Chrysops  viftatus 129 

Chalets  albifrons 52 

Chelymorpha  cribronia 58 

Cicada  tredecim 19 

"      teptemdecim 19 


INDEX.  3 

Clisiocampa  America7ia 7 

"            sylvalica 7,  37 

Vlostcra   Americana 19 

Coccinella  munda 25 

CochyHx  hilar  ana 135 

Corimelcena  jiulicaria 33 

lateralis 35 

"          unicolor 35 

Cottonwood  Dagger 119 

Cotton-Worms 37 

Crioceris  mcrdigera 58 

"         csparagi 10,  19 

Cucumber-beetle 65 

D 

Dcloyala  ilavata 57 

Destructive  powers  of  the  Chinch  Bug 22 

Diabrotica  vittata 64 

"        \2-punciata 66 

Diminished  Pesomachus 52 

Diplosis    tritici 10 

E 

Ectobia  gcrmanica 10 

Eight-spotted  Forester 80 

Erax  Baslardi 124 

Erigeron  tanadense H 

Eudryas  grata °3 

"       utiio °" 

Eumenes  fralerna 103 

Euryptychia  saligneana 1^4 

Exorista  leucanicB 50 

"       militaiis ~ 50 

"       Osten   Sacke7iii 51 

"      Jluvicauda 51 

F 

False  Indigo  Gall-moth 132 

Fiery  Ground-beetle 103 

Flea-like  Xeg^o-bug 33 

Fraternal  Potter-wasp 103 

G 

Gallerea  cereana 10 

Gall-moth — False  Indigo 132 

"       "  —Misnamed 134 

Galls  made  by  Moths 132 

Gelechia  gaUcesolidaginis 20,  132,  134 

Glassy  Mesochorus 52 

Glyphe  viridascens 53 

Goat-weed  Butterfly 125 

Golden  Tortoise- beetle 62 

Grape-vine — Insects  injurious  to 71 

"         "  — Hog-calerpillar  of ^1 

t<        it  — Achemon  Sphinx ^^ 

"        "  —Satellite  Sphinx ^6 


INDEX. 

ape-vine  —Abbot  Sphinx 7g 

"  — Blue  Caterpillars  of J9 

"  — Eight-spotted  Forester 80 

"  — Beautiful  Wood-Nymph 83 

"  — Pearl  Wood  Nymph 83 

"      American  Procris 85 

"  — New  Grape-root  Borer 87 

"  — Broad-necked  Prionus 87 

"  — Tile-horned  Prionus 89 

H 


HalHca  cucumeris ^ 57 

Heavy  rains  destructive  to  the  Chinch  Bug 24 

Hippodamia  maculata 25 

Hockeria  perpulcra 53 

Hypogymna  dispar 10 


Ichneumon  leucania 53 

Innoxious  insects 125 

Insects — Imported  and  Native  American 8 

"       infesting  the  Sweet-potato 66 

"      injurious  to  the  Grape-vine 71 

Insidious  Flower  Bug 27,  32 

Isosoma  vitis 92 


Lachnosterna  quercina 19 

Laphrygma  frugiperda 41 

Lema    trilineata , 53 

Leucania  unipuncta 5,  11,  37 

M 

Mamestra  picta 112 

Mesochorus  vitreus 52 

Micropus  leucopterus 15 

Microgaster  militaris 52 

"           acronyctce 120 

Militajry  Microgaster 52 

Misnamed  Gall-moth 134 

Missouri  Bee-killer 121 

Mottled  Tortoise-beetle 63 

My  gale  Hentsii 106 

Myrmica  molesta 11 

N 

Natural  history  of  the  Chinch  Bug 18 

"            "           "        Army-worm 47 

'Nothrus  ovivoruf 102 

Nymphalis  disippus 125 

Nebraska  Bee-killer 122 


INDEX. 


O  V 

Ophion  purgatus , 53 

Or  talis  arcuata 9 

Oyater-sLell  Bark-louse & 

P 

Pale-thighed  Tortoise-beetle 62 

Past  history  of  the  Army-worm 41 

"        "  "  Chinch  Bug 17 

Papilio  philenor 116 

Parasites  of  the  Army-worm , 60 

Pearl  wood  iNymph 83 

Pempelia  grossularicB 9 

Pepsis  formosa 106 

Pesomachus  minimus 52 

Phacellura  nitidalis 7,     64 

Philampelus  achemon. 74 

"  satellitia 76 

Philenor  Swallow-tail 116 

Phytocoris  linearis 113 

Phylloxera  vitifolics 27 

Phylloptera   oblongifolia »•     57 

Physonota  quinquepunctata 59 

Pickle  Worm 7,     64 

Pieris  protodice 104 

"     oleracea .j« 105 

"     rapm 10,  107 

Piesma  cinerea 32 

Piophila  casei ^^ 

Plutella  cruciferarum 10 

Plum  Curculio 6 

Plusia  brassicce HO 

"        precationis 112 

Poplar  Dagger 119 

Potherb  Butterfly 105 

Prio7ius  laticollis °» 

"      imbricornis 89 

Procris  Americana °5 

"      vitis 86 

Promachus  Bastardii 122 

"  vertebrata 123 

Psylla  pyri 10>     33 

Purged  Ophion 5o 

R 

Rape  Butterfly , 107 

Red-tailed  Tachina  Fly 50 

Remedies  against  the  Chinch  Bug 28 

Report  of  Committee  on  Entomology,  read  before  the  State  Horticultural  Society 5 

Rhizopertha  pusilla 1* 

Rummaging  Ground-beetle 103 


Saperda  bivittata 1" 

Satellite  Sphinx 7* 


t>  ■  INDEX. 

Selandria  rosee 19 

"         coraai IS 

Silky  Asilus 123 

Southern  Cabbage  Butterfly 104 

Sphinx  myron 71 

"      crantor , 74 

"      hjcaon 76 

Spined  Soldier  Bug 32 

Spotted  Ladybird 25 

Striped  Cucumber-beetle 65 

Sudden  appearance  and  disappearance  of  the  Army-worm  ..^ 45 

Sweet-polato — Insects  injurious  to 61 

T 

Tabanus  bovinus 129 

"         atratus 128,  130 

"         costalis 128 

"         H'.eola 128 

Tarnished  Plant  Bug 113 

Tenebrio  molitor 9 

"         obscurus 9,     11 

Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Apple 7 

"  "  of  the  Forest 7,     3" 

Termes^  front  alls 11 

Thyreus  Abbotii 78 

Tile-horned  Prionua 89 

Tinea  tnpelzella 10 

"      vestianella , 10 

"      pellionella HI 

Tingis  pyi 33 

Tortoise-beetles 66 

<'      beetle— the  Golden 62 

"  "    — the  Pale-thighed 62 

"  "    —the  Mottled 63 

"  "    —the  Black-legged 63 

Trim  Ladybird 25 

Trupanea  opivora 122 

Two-striped  Potato-beetle 61 

w 

Walshia  amorphella 132 

Weeping  Lacewing 26 

Y 

Yellow-tailed  Tachina  Fly , 61 

z 

Zebra  Caterpillar 112 


THIRD  ANNUAL    REPORT 


ON    THE 


NOXIOUS, 


BENEFICIAL   A.lSri>    OTHER 


INSECTS, 


OF    THE 


STA.TE    OF    MISSOUHI, 


MADE  TO  TIIE  STITE  BOARD   OF   AGRICULTURE,   PURSUANT   TO- 

AX  APPROPRIATION  FOR  THIS  PURPOSE  FROM  THE 

LEGISLATURE    OF   THE    STATE. 


BY  CHARLES  V.  RILEY, 

State  Entomologist. 


JEFFERSON  CITY,  MO.: 

HORACE  WILCOX,  PUBLIC  PRUTTER. 
1871. 


Entered   according  to  act  -of  Oongress,  in  the  year   1871,  by  Charles  Y.  Eiley,  in  the 
office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


To  the  Memha-s  of  the  MissotcH  Slate  Beard  of  Agriculture  : 

Gentlemen:  I  herewith  submit  for  publication,  mv  Third  Annual 

Report  on  the  Noxious,  Beneficial  and  other  Insects' of  the  S^ateo 
Missouri.  •oiciLt;  ui 

No  particular  action  seems  to  have  followed  the  su-'.-estions 
thrown  out  ,n  n,y  last  year's  preface,  as  to  the  procuring  o?°a  I  ett"  . 
quahty  o  paper  and  ink  for  these  Reports.  The  impressions  of  the 
cuts  whjch  Illustrate  the  text,  are  consequently  quite  inferior  in  v 
second  lieport,  and  fail  to  do  justice  to  the  engraWn..s  ^ 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  following  pages,  many  hnportant  discov- 
eries m  Economic  Entomology  have  been  made  during  the  vear  a^  d 
some  few  insects  have  been  very  abundant.    On  the  whole  however 
we  have  enjoyed  more  than  the  usual  immunity  from  insect  denred   ' 
tions  throughout  the  State,    Complaints  have^,een  nun  lou/atd 
arucles  giving  extravagant  accounts  of  the  increase  of  noxious  in 
sects    are   continually  appearing  in  our  agricultural   papers      B^t 
while  some  insects  are  on  the  increase,  others   are  on  the  decrease 
and  the  cause  for  alarm  is  in  a  great  measure  imaginary.    More  is  now 
said  and  written  about  insects  in  the  industrial  lourifals  of  the  StatI 
than  formerly,  because,  through  the  agency  of  these  Kepo.  ts  the  ,  el 
pie  have  had  tlieir  eyes  opened  to  the  importance  of  the  sub  ect    ami 
the  impression  that  insects  generally  are  on  the  increase  muTt  be  in 
a  great  measure,  attributed  to  this  fact  rather  than  to  anv  relt 
crease  that  has  occurred.  ^"-  '^'"''  '"- 

The  America,i  EiHomologUt,  in  the  columns  of  which  some  of 
the  observations  contained  in  this  Report  havealready  appeared  was 
contoued  during  the  year,  and  a  botanical  depart  iienredlfedb, 
Di.  George  Vasey,  of  Normal,  Illinois,  was  added  to  it.  The  chai4 
of  such  a  journal,  together  with  my  State  duties  kept  me  1  ,  , 
confined,  and  for  these  and  other  rea  ons  given,  the  ina  ^az  ne  los  ' 
suspended  during  the  coming  year,  1871  '""gazme  has  been 

This  suspension  will  enable  me  to  spend  more  time  in  the  field 
and  as  these  annual  Reports  have  but  a  limited  circula  ion  '  ,^  aj 
very  many  cultivators  of  the  soil  must  in  consequence,  fail  to' gef tile 


4  PREFACE. 

information  contained  in  them,  I  have  concluded  to  devote  more 
time  the  coming  year  to  lecturing;  and  have  already  prepared  for 
that  purpose  a  number  of  large,  colored  illustrations. 

I  am  satisfied  that  by  this  means  I  can  materially  add  to  the  good 
effected  by  these  Reports,  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  fill  any  engage- 
ments which  the  officers  of  our  county  agricultural  and  horticultural 
societies  may  desire  to  make,  providing  they  give  me  notification  a 
sufficient  time  beforehand. 

In  the  following  pages  the  same  rules  are  complied  with  as  were 
laid  down  in  my  first  Report.  When  the  insects  treated  of  are  new, 
or  the  existing  descriptions  of  them  are  imperfect,  or  in  a  foreign 
language,  I  have  added  a  full  description,  which  is,  however,  always 
printed  in  smaller  type,  so  that  it  can  be  skipped  by  the  non-inter- 
ested reader.  The  popular  name  of  each  insect  is  accompanied  by 
the  scientific  name,  and  the  latter  is  always  printed  in  italics  and 
mostly  in  parenthesis,  so  that  it  may  be  skipped  bj^  the  practical 
man  without  interfering  with  the  text.  The  Order  and  Family  to 
which  each  insect  belongs,  is  also  given  under  each  heading.  The 
dimensions  are  expressed  in  inches  and  the  fractional  parts  of  an  inch, 
and  the  sign  (?  wherever  used,  is  an  abbreviation  for  the  word  "male,'' 
the  sign?  for  "female,"  and  the  the  sign  ?  for  neuter.  It  must  also 
be  recollected  that  many  of  the  figures  are  magnified,  and  that  the 
hair  line  at  the  side  of  such  gives  the  natural  size. 

The  scientific  reader  will  notice  that  some  of  the  insects  are 
referred  to  the  old  instead  of  the  more  modem  genera,  and  this  course 
has  been  pursued  because  the  generic  nomenclature  is  constantly 
changing,  and  because  the  old  name  has  often  become  thoroughly 
associated  with  the  insect  in  the  mind  of  the  practical  man,  who 
would  be  confused  by,  and  is  not  interested  in,  the  nice  changes 
taking  place  in  classification. 

All  the  illustrations  in  this,  as  in  the  previous  Reports,  have  been 
drawn  from  life  by  myself,  or  under  my  direct  care,  unless  otherwise 
stated. 

1  have  secured  a  pleasant  office,  connected  with  that  of  your 
iSecretary,  at  Room  29,  Insurance  Building,  Southeast  corner  of  Fifth 
and  Olive  streets,  St.  Louis,  and  all  letters  sent  to  me  should  be  thus 
addressed. 

My  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  Superintendents  of  the  fol- 
lowing railroads,  for  free  passes  over  their  respective  routes:  The 
Pacific  Railroad  of  Missouri,  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  St.  Louis  and  Iron 
Mountain,  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph,  North  Missouri,  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis,  Illinois  Central,  and  the  Rockford,  Rock  Island  and  St. 
Louis. 

All  which  is  respectfully  submitted  by 

CHARLES  V.  RILEY, 

State  EntomMlogi^t' 

St.  Louis,  Mo,,  December  2,  1870. 


NOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


SNOUT-BEETLES, 

(Coleoptera  Curcalionidso). 

AN   ACCOUNT   OF   SOME   OF  THOSE   SPECIES   WHICH   ARE   INJURIOUS  TO  FRUITS 

AND   VEGETABLES. 

In  my  First  Annual  Report  1  gave  an  account  of  the  common 
rium  Ourcuho,  which  was  as  complete  as  our  knowleda:e  of  the  insect 
would  then  permit.  Since  the  publication  of  that  Report  many  new 
and  most  important  facts,  relating  to  this  insect,  have  been  brought 
to  light,  and  I  deem  it  wise  in  this  review  of  some  of  our  more  iniu- 
rious  snout-beetles,  to  lay  these  facts  before  the  reader.  Many  of 
them  were  embodied  in  an  essay  read  by  myself  at  the  Fifteenlh  An- 
nual Meeting  of  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural  Society,  recently 
held  at  Galesburg,  in  that  State,  and  therefore,  with  some  impo;. 
tant  additions,  I  reproduce  that  essay,  which  embraces  the  first  five 
insects  here  treated  of. 

Insects,  like  other  animals,  derive  their  nourishment  from  the 
vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms;  but  a  glance  is  sufficient  to  show 
that  they  possess  a  far  greater  field  of  operations  than  all  the  other 
animals   combined.     Indeed,  the  food  of  insects  is  a  theme  so  large 
that  1  might  occupy  page  after  page  by  dwelling  upon  it  alone.    The 
o  her  animals  use  as  food  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  inexhausti- 
ble treasures  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  the  remainder  is  unpala- 
table or  even  poisonous  to  them.    Not  so  with  insects,  for,  from  the 
gi^^niic  Banyan  which  covers  acres  with  its  shade,  or  the  majestic 
Oak  to  the  invisible  fungus,  the  vegetable  creation  is  one  vast  ban- 
quet, to  which  they  sit  down  as  guests.     The  larger  plant-feeding  ani- 
mals are  also  generally  confined,  in  their  diet,  to  the  leaves,  seeds  or 
stalks  being  either foliaceous  or  farinaceous;  butinsects  make  every 
possible  part  of  a  plant  yield  them  valuable  provender.     We  have  an 
excellent  illustration  of  this  omnipresent  character  of  insects  in  those 
species   which  are   well   known  to  attack  the   common  apple   tree 
ihus,  beginning  at  the  root,  we  find  it  rendered  knotty  and  unhealthy 
on  the  outside  by  the  common   Root-louse  {EHosnnia  pyri,  Fitch) 
while  the  heart  is  often  entirely  destroyed  by  one  or  the  other  of  two 


6'  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

gigantic  Root-borers  {Prionus  iwlricor^iis.,  Linn,  and  P.  Jaiieollis- 
Drury),  The  trunk  is  riddled  by  the  larvae  of  several  Long-horn 
beetles,  and  pre  eminently  by  the  Two-striped  Saperda  {Saperda 
hivittata^  Say),  as  well  as  by  other  smaller  beetles;  the  liber  and 
alburnum  are  destroyed  by  the  Flat-headed  borer  {C/irysohothris 
femorata^  Fabr.),  the  outer  bark  eaten  by  bark  beetles  {>:eolytu» 
family)  and  sucked  by  Bark-lice  peculiar  to  it.  The  branches  and 
twigs  are  bored  along  the  axis  and  pruned  by  the  larvae  of  the  com- 
mon Pruner  (Klaphidion  mllosu7n,  Fabr.),  and  by  that  of  the  Paral- 
lel Pruner  (p".  parallelum^  Lee),  girdled  by  the  Twig-girdler  (  Onci- 
deres  cinyulatus^  Say*),  sawed  and  rasped  by  the  Periodical  Cicadas 
{Cicada  septemdecim^  Linn,  and  C.  tredecim^  Riley),  otherwise 
known  as  Seventeen-year  Locusts,  by  tree-hoppers  and  a  dozen  other 
Homopterous  insects;  bored  into  from  the  side  by  the  Twig-borer 
{Bostrichus  hicatidaius^  Say),  wounded  by  the  bites  of  such  beetles 
as  the  New  York  Weevil  {Ithycerus  novcehoracensis^  Forster),  or 
pierced  as  by  a  red-hotwire  by  small  boring  beetles  {Soolytidce). 

The  buds  before  they  expand  are  infested  with  the  larvae  of  the 
Apple  Bud-moth  (  Grapholitha  oculoAia^  Harr.),  or  entirely  devoured 
by  voracious  cut- worms  (Ay rolls  scandens^  Riley,  etc.).  The  blos- 
som has  no  sooner  unfolded  its  delicate  and  beautiful  petals  than  it 
is  devoured  entirely  either  by  the  Brazen  Blister  Beetle  (Pytta  mnea^ 
Say),  the  Striped  Cucumber  Beetle  {Diahrotica  vitiaia^  Fabr.),  the 
Rose  bug,  or  by  a  great  many  other  insects  that  might  be  mentioned, 
some,  as  the  different  bees,  confining  themselves  to  the  pollen  or  honey 
from  the  nectaries,  while  others  again  prefer  other  parts.  The  young 
truit  is  either  eaten  partly  or  entirely  by  Snapping  beetles  {Melano- 
tics communis  and  M.  incertus\  or  punctured  by  either  the  Plum  or 
Apple  Curculios,  and  afterwards  bored  through  and  through  by  their 
larvae,  or  by  that  ubiquitous  Apple  Worm  {Carpocapsa  pomonella); 
as  it  matures  it  is  eaten  into  by  the  larvae  of  the  Plum  Moth  f  {Sema- 
sia  prunivora^  Walsh),  rendered  putrid  by  the  Apple  Maggot  (  Try- 
peta  p>omoneUa^  Walsli),  and  by  the  Apple  Midge  { Molohrus  mali^ 
Fitch);  as  itripensit  is  gouged  by  the  Flower  Beetles  {PuryoTniaindd 
and  E.  vielancJwlica),  and  disfigured  by  a  variety  of  other  insects, 
while  the  skin  is  often  gnawed  off  and  corroded  by  the  larvae  of  the 
Rose  Leaf-roller  {Loxotmnia  rosaceana,  Harr.);  and  even  the  seed, 
if  it  should  be  preserved,  will  be  attacked  by  the  Grain  Sylvanus 
{Silvanus  surinam.ensis^lAnn.),i\\Q  DwarfTrogosita  (  2\  nana.,  Melsh.) 
and  the  larvae  of  one  or  two  small  moths.  And  as  to  the  leaves,  they 
are  not  only  sapped  and  curled  by  the  Apple  Plant-louse  {Aphismalii 
Fabr.),  and  by  leaf  hoppers  ;  rolled  by  several  leaf-rollers;  folded  at 
the  edges  by  a  small  pale,  undescribed  worm  which  I  shall  soon  de- 
scribe;    blistered    by    the    Rosa    Hispa  {TJroplata   rwsa.,    Weber); 

*r  have  bred  specimens  of  this  insect  from  apple  twigs. 
"(■Inappropriately  so  called  by  Mr.  Walsh,  as  I  shall  presently  show. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGEST.  7 

crumpled  by  the  Leaf  Crurapler  {Phycita  nehulo,  Walsh),  mined  by 
the  Apple  Micropteryx  (3liGropierj/x  pomivorella,  Pack.};  skeleton- 
ized and  tied  together  by  another  undescribed  worm,  which  I  shall 
some  day  name  Aorohasis  Ilammondii;  but  they  are  greedily  de- 
voured by  a  whole  horde  of"  caterpillars,  from  the  tiny  Microptery,r 
to  the  immense  Oecropia  worm,  some  of  which  conline  themselves 
to  the  parenchyma,  some  to  the  epidermis,  some  to  the  tender  parts, 
without  touching  the  veins,  while  others  bodily  devour  the  whole 
leaf.  The  sap  forms  the  sole  food  of  some  insects,  and  even  when  the 
poor  apple  tree  dies,  a  host  of  different  insects  revel  in  its  dead  and 
decaying  parts,  and  hasten  its  dissolution,  so  that  it  may  the  more 
quickly  be  resolved  into  the  mold  from  which  it  had,  while  living,  de- 
rived most  of  its  support,  and  through  which  it  is  to  give  nourishment 
for  the  young  trees  which  are  to  take  its  place. 

Thus  we  perceive  that  there  is  not  a  single  part  of  the  apple  tree 
which  is  not  made  to  cradle,  or  to  give  nourishment  to  some  particu- 
lar insect,  and  the  same  might  be  said  of  almost  every  plant  that 
grows  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  even  those  which  produce  resinous 
or  gummy  substances,  or  which  are  pithy  in  the  center,  having  spe- 
cial insects  which  feed  upon  these  parts  and  on  nothing  else.  There  are 
insects —  the  gall  makers,  for  instance — which,  not  satisfied  with  any 
existing  part  of  the  plants,  as  such,  cause  abnormal  growths,  in  which 
their  young  are  reared. 

Nor  are  insects  confined  to  vegetables  in  their  recent  state.  The 
block  of  hickory  wood,  fifty  years  after  it  is  made  up  into  wagon 
wheels,  is  as  palatable  to  the  Banded  Borer  {Cerasi)horus  cinctttfis 
Drury),  which  causes  "powder-post,"  as  it  was  to  the  Painted  Borer 
{Clytus  pictus,  Drury)  while  green  and  growing;  and  a  beam  of 
oak,  when  it  has  supported  the  roof  of  a  building  for  centuries,  is  as 
much  to  the  taste  of  an  Aiiohlum  as  the  same  tree  was  while  grow- 
ing, to  the  American  Timber  Beetle  {Hyleoechis  Ainerlccuiits^  Harr. ) 
Some,  to  use  the  words  of  Spence,  "would  sooner  feast  on  the  herba- 
rium of  Brunfelsius,  than  on  the  greenest  herbs  that  grow,"  and 
others, "  to  whom 

' a  river  and  a  sea 

Are  a  dish  of  tea, 

And  a  kingdom  bread  and  butter,' 

would  prefer  the  geographical  treasures  of  Saxton  or  Speed,  in  spite 
of  their  ink  and  alum,  to  the  freshest  rind  of  the  flax  plant." 

Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to  mention  a  substance,  whether  ani- 
mal or  vegetable,  on  which  insects  do  not  subsist.  They  revel  and 
grow  fat  on  such  innutritions  substances  as  cork,  hair,  wool  and 
feathers;  and  "with  powers  of  stomach  which  the  dyspeptic  sufferer 
may  envy,  will  live  luxuriously  on  horn;"  they  insinuate  themselves 
into  the  dead  carcasses  of  their  own  class  ;  they  are  at  home  in  the 
hottest  and  strongest  spices,  in  the  foulest  filth,  in  the  most  putrid 
carrion  ;  they  can  live  and  thrive  upon,  or  within  the  living  bodies  of 
the  larger  animals,  or  of  those  of  their  own  class  ;  they  are  at  home  in 


8  TUTUD   ANNUAL   KEPORT   OF 

the  intestial  heat  of  many  large  animals,  reveling  in  the  horse's 
stomach,  in  a  bath  of  chyme  of  102°  Fahr.,  or  in  the  bowels  of  man, 
in  an  equally  high  temperature.  Some  have  even  been  supposed  to 
feed  on  minerals,  and,  not  to  dwell  upon  Barchewitz's  tale  of  East 
India  ants,  which  eat  iron,  certain  it  is  that  the  larvae  of  our  May  flies 
(Ephemerae)  do  eat  earth,  and  I  have  known  the  larvae  of  the  common 
May  Beetle  to  feed  for  three  months  upon  nothing  but  pure  soil ;  but 
in  both  these  cases  the  insects  undoubtedly  derive  nourishment  from 
the  vegetable  raat*:er  which  is  extracted  from  the  earth  by  the  action 
of  the  stomach. 

These  facts  will  serve  to  show  that,  seek  where  we  may, 
we  cannot  find  a  place  or  a  substance  in  which  or  on  which, 
some  insect  does  not  feed.  They  people  the  atmosphere  around  us, 
swim  at  ease  in  the  water,  and  penetrate  the  solid  earth  beneath  our 
feet;  while  some  of  them  inhabit  indifferently  all  three  of  these  ele- 
ments at  different  epochs  of  their  lives. 

Now  when  we  reflect  that  there  are  at  least  half  a  million — if  not 
a  full  million — distinct  species  of  insects  in  this  sublunary  world  of 
ours,  and  that  their  habits  and  habitations  are  so  diversified,  it  would 
really  seem  as  though  entomology  was  a  subject  too  vast  for  any  one 
man  to  shoulder;  and  indeed  it  is  in  all  conscience  extensive  enough. 
The  science  of  entomology  is,  however,  so  perfect  in  itself,  and  its 
classification  so  beautiful  and  simple  that  a  particular  species  is  re- 
ferred to  its  Order,  its  Family,  its  Genus,  and  finally  separated  from 
the  other  species  of  that  genus,  with  the  greatest  ease,  and  with  a 
feeling  of  true  satisfaction  and  triumph,  by  those  who  have  mastered 
the  rudiments  of  the  science.  And,  very  fortunately,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  the  practical  fruit-grower  to  enter  into  the  minuti£B  of  species 
or  even  of  genera  in  order  to  learn  the  habits  of  the  insects  which  in- 
terest him  in  one  way  or  another.  These  minutiae  must  be  left  to  the 
professed  entomologist. 

There  is  not  an  insect  on  the  face  of  the  globe  which  cannot  be 
placed  in  one  or  the  other  of  seven,  or  more  properly  speaking,  eight 
great  Orders;  so  that,  unlike  the  botanist,  the  entomologist  is  not 
bewildered  by  an  innumerable  array  of  these  Orders,  though  he  has 
five  times  as  many  species  to  deal  with.  These  Orders  comprise 
about  two  hundred  families,  many  of  which  may,  for  practical  pur- 
poses, be  grouped  into  one  family — as,  for  instance,  the  seven  families 
of  Digger-wasps  and  the  five  large  families  which  have  all  the  same 
habits  as  the  true  or  genuine  Ichneumon-flies.  Many  more  may  be 
neglected  as  small,  rare,  or  unimportant;  so  that  practically 
there  will  remain  about  a  hundred  family  types  to  be  learned.  Each 
family,  as  Agassiz,  has  well  remarked,  may,  with  a  little  practice,  be 
distinguished  at  a  glance  by  its  general  appearance,  just  as  every  child 
with  a  little  practice,  learns  to  distinguish  the  family  of  A's  from  the 
family  of  B's,  and  these  from  the  family  of  C's  in  the  alphabet. 
There  is  the  old  English  A,  the  German  text  A,  and  a  host  of  orna- 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  y 

mental  A's,  both  in  the  capital  letter  and  the  small  or  "  lower-case  " 
letter,  as  the  printers  call  it;  bnt  the  family  likeness  runs  through  all, 
and  it  is  astonishing  how  quick  a  child  learns  to  distinguish  each 
family  type.  It  is  true  there  are  a  few  abnormal  or  eccentric  insects 
— there  were  some  which  deceived  even  Linnaeus — which  put  on  the 
habit  of  strange  families,  just  as  an  eel,  which  is  a  true  fish  with  fins, 
puts  on  the  habit  of  a  snake — a  reptile  without  fins.  But  these  are 
the  exceptions  and  not  the  rule. 

Now  it  is  wisely  ordained  that  every  family^  as  a  general  rule,  has 
not  only  a  distinctive  family  appearance,  but  also  distinct  family 
manners.  For  example,  nobody  ever  saw  an  Ichneumon-fly  construct 
a  nest  and  provision  it  with  insects,  as  does  a  Digger-wasp ;  and  nobody 
ever  saw  a  Digger-wasp  deposit  its  eggs  in  the  body  of  a  living  in- 
sect at  large  in  the  woods  as  an  Ichneumon-fly  does.  But  each  fam- 
ily maintains  its  peculiar  family  habits,  and  cannot  be  induced  to  de- 
viate from  them. 

So  universally  is  this  the  case,  that  if  an  insect  is  brought  me 
which  I  never  saw  in  my  life,  I  will  tell  half  its  history  at  a  glance. 
It  is  this  ''Unity  of  Habits,"  this  beautiful  provision  of  nature — defi- 
nite family  likeness,  accompanied  by  definite  family  habits — which  so 
simplifies  the  task  of  the  practical  man  ;  for,  instead  of  having  to 
study  the  diversified  habits  of  half  a  million  species,  he  has  but  to 
acquaint  himself  with  the  appearance  and  characteristics  of  one  hun- 
dred families;  and  if  the  rudiments  of  Entomologj^  had  been  taught 
in  the  schools  of  this  country,  so  that  the  farmer  had  become  familiar 
with  these  hundred  family  types,  he  would  now  be  much  better  able 
to  cope  with  his  insect  enemies.  When  I  think  that  it  would  take  a 
child  no  longer  to  learn  these  one  hundred  family  types  than  it  does 
to  learn  the  one  hundred  diff"erent  types  which  compose  the  four  al- 
phabets— the  Roman  capital  and  small  alphabet  and  the  writing  cap- 
ital and  small  alphabet — I  fully  expect,  and  sincerely  hope,  that  in  the 
public  schools  of  this  country  we  shall  soon  have  text-books  intro- 
duced which  will  cover  the  ground  as  well,  and  occupy  the  same  I 
place  as  do  those  useful  works  of  Leunis,  and  Troschel  and  Ruthe,  in 
the  j)ublic  schools  of  Germany. 

With  these  few  remarks,  which  are  intended  to  show  that  the 
practical  man  may  easily  obtain  a  general  knowledge  of  his  insect 
friends  and  enemies,  notwithstanding  the  wide  field  of  their  opera- 
tions and  the  immense  number  of  species  which  exist,  we  will  now 
dwell  for  a  while  on  one  of  these  families,  which  deeply  interest  us 
as  fruit-growers,  namely: 

THE   CURCULIONIDxE    OR   SNOUT-BEETLES. 

This  is  one  of  the  very  largest  and  most  conspicuous  families  in 
the  Order  of  Beetles  (Ooleoptera),  comprising,  as  it  does,  over  10,000 
distinct  and  described  species.    It  is  at  once  distinguished  from  all  the 


10  THIRD  ANKUAL   REPORT 

other  families  of  beetles  by  the  front  of  the  head  being  produced  into 
a  more  or  less  elongated  snout  or  rostrum,  at  the  extremity  of  which 
the  mouth  is  situated.  This  snout  is  sometimes  very  long  and  as  fine 
as  a  hair  (genus  Balaninus)^  and  sometimes  as  broad  as  the  head 
{gen\^^  BrtJithus);  but  it  always  forms  part  and  parcel  of  the  head, 
and  does  not  articulate  on  it  as  does  the  snout  or  proboscis  of  the  true 
Bugs  {Ilemiptera)^  or  the  tongue  of  Molhs  and  Butterflies,  The  other 
chief  characteristics  of  the  family  are  an  apparently  four  jointed 
tarsus  or  foot  (though  in  reality  there  are  more  generally  five  joints), 
an  ovoid  form  narrowing  in  front,  the  sides  pressed  by  the  convex  ely- 
tra or  wing-covers,  the  antennae  or  feelers  attached  to  the  snout,  and 
either  elbowed  or  straight,  and  composed  of  nine,  ten,  eleven  or  twelve 
joints — the  first  of  which  is  always  long,  and  the  terminal  three  gen- 
erally united  in  a  club  or  knob;  and  finally  stout  legs  with  swollen 
thighs,  sometimes  bearing  spines. 

The  larvai  of  these  snout-beetles  are  whitish  or  yellowish  and 
fleshy  grubs,  usually  without  legs  or  having  only  in  the  place  of  them 
fleshy  tubercles,  which  in  a  measure  perform  the  functions  of  legs;* 
the  body  is  oblong,  with  the  back  generally  arched  but  sometimes 
straight.  With  these  characteristics  in  mind,  the  farmer  cannot  fail  to 
recognize  a  snout-beetle  when  he  sees  one.  Now  there  is  hardly  one 
of  the  one  hundred  families  that  I  have  referred  to  from  which  so 
many  injurious  species  can  be  enumerated,  for  with  the  exception  of 
an  European  species  {Anthribus  varius)  whose  larva  was  found  by 
Ratzeburg  to  destroy  bark-lice,  they  are  all  vegetarians,  the  larvas 
inhabiting  either  the  roots,  stems,  leaves  or  fruits  of  plants  ;  and  the 
beetles  feeding  on  the  same.  So  whenever  you  find  an  insect  with 
the  characters  just  given,  you  may  rest  morally  certain  that  it  is  in- 
jurious, and  should  be  destroyed  without  mercy.  This  family  is  not 
only  one  of  the  most  injurious,  but,  on  account  of  the  secretive  habits 
of  the  larvas,  the  insects  comprising  it  are  the  most  difficult  to  con- 
trol. When  a  worm  is  openly  and  above  board  denuding  our  trees, 
we  at  least  readily  become  aware  of  the  fact,  and  can,  if  we  choose, 
Q-Pply  the  remedy;  but  when  it  surreptitiously,  and  always  under 
cover,  gnaws  away  at  the  heart  of  our  grains  and  fruits,  we  become 
in  a  measure  helpless  to  defend  ourselves.  But  even  here  where  the 
enemy  is  so  well  ambushed  and  hidden,  the  proper  tactics,  based  on 
thorough  knowledge,  will  frequently  enable  us  to  penetrate  the  de- 
fenses and  conquer  the  foe. 

Before  leaving  this  subject  of  families,  let  me  impress  upon  the 
mind  another  important  fact,  namely,  that  the  family  is  not  peculiar 
to  any  one  country,  and  that  while  species  vary,  the  family  has  the 
same  habits  and  characteristics  all  over  the  world.     Thus  in  Europe 

*It  is  generaUy  unqualifiedly  stated  by  authors  that  Curculionid  larv»  are  apodous  ;  but  there 
are  exceptions  to  the  rule,  and  I  may  cite  as  an  example  the  larva  of  Cratoparis  lunalus,  Fabr., 
which  I  have  found  in  fungi,  and  have  bred  to  the  perfect  state,  and  which  has  six  conspicuous 
thoracic  legs. 


OF    TUE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


11 


we  find  the  snout-beetles  as  iajurious,  and  as  difficult  to  manage — if 
not  more  so — than  they  are  in  this  country.  One  species  {RJiyncJiites 
co/iicus,  llerbst.,)  deposits  ei2;i>s  in  the  twigs  of  Pear,  Plum,  Cherry 
and  Apricot,  and  girdles  the  twig  to  make  it  fall;  another,  {Rhyn- 
chltes  hacGlms,  Schoen.)  infests  the  fruit,  and  still  another  {AntJiooio- 
?/?w5  jy?/;'^,  Schoen.)  the  tlower  bud  of  the  Pear.  One,  {Rhynchites 
hetuleti^  F.,)  rolls  up  grape  leaves  and  partly  cuts  the  stems,  so  that 
they  perish,  while  another,  [Anthonoimis  pomoriinu  Schoon.,)  infests 
the  blossom  bud  of  the  Apple,  and  renders  it  unfertile.  Still  another 
inhabits  the  blossom  bud  of  the  Cherry.  Balaninus  nucum  is  found 
in  their  common  Hazel  nut,  and  B.  cerasorutn  in  Cherry  pits ;  Apion 
a^yricans  devours  the  seed  of  Clover ;  Otiorhynclins  sulcaius, Schcen.f 
infests  the  crown  of  strawberries  and  two  different  species  (Boris 
Ghlorizans^  Schoen.,  and  CeutorJiynchiis  napi^  Schoen.,)  infest  the 
stems  of  cabbages  and  turnips. 

But  after  all,  a  single  species — the  "little  Turk,"  for  instance — 
sometimes  causes  more  loss  of  fruit  in  this  country'  than  all  the  above 
enumerated  species  do  to  the  European  cultivator,  and  though  much 
of  this  comparative  incapacity  for  harm,  on  the  part  of  their  insects, 
may  be  in  a  measure  due  to  the  better  knowledge  of  his  foes  which 
the  transatlantic  cultivator  possesses  ;  to  the  more  carelul  culture 
which  he  pursues,  and  the  usually  limited  extent  of  his  orchard,  com- 
pared with  ours;  yet  it  greatly  depends  on  other  causes,  which  it 
is  not  necessary  now  to  dwell  upon.  So  I  will  at  once  proceed  to 
say  a  few  words  about  those  of  our  own  Snout-beetles,  which  more 
particularly  interest  us. 


THE    COMMON    PLUM     CV'RC^JlAO—CoTiotrachehts     oiemiphar, 

Herbst. 


IT  IS  SINGLE  BROODED,    AND  HIBERNATES  AS  A  BEETLE. 

I  shall  not  here  repeat  what  has  already  been  published  about 
[Fig.  1.]  this  insect ;  but  shall  confine  m}^   remarks 

principally  to  the   unsettled   and  mooted 


?^' points  in  its  natural  history,  and  to  the  new 
discoveries  that  have  been  made  since  the 
appearance  of  my  first  Report.  I  am  glad 
to  be  able  to  say  that  I  have  forever  set- 
tled the  principal  question,  namely,  as  to 
its  being  single  or  double  brooded.  Authors 
have,  from  the  beginning,  held  different 
views  on  this  subject,  and  this  fact  should 
not  surprise  us,  when  we  bear  in  mind  that 


12  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

they  reasoned  simply  from  conjecture  ;  nor  will  it  surprise  us  when  we 
understand  the  facts  in  the  case.  The  facts  that  fresh  and  softCurcu- 
lios  are  found  in  this  latitude  as  early  as  ihe  last  of  June,  and 
that  they  still  come  out  of  the  ground  in  August,  or  as  late  as  Sep- 
tember, and  even  October  in  more  northerly  latitudes,  are  well  cal- 
culated to  mislead;  while  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  an  insect  living 
ten  months  before  ovipositing,  without  dwindling  away  through  the 
action  of  its  enemies.  But  in  the  beetle  state,  the  Curculio  has  few, 
if  any  enemies,  and  in  my  former  writings  on  this  subject,  I  have 
shown  that  the  other  facts  do  not  in  the  least  prove  the  insect  to  be 
double-brooded.  Among  those  whose  opinions  commanded  respect, 
from  their  profound  entomological  knowledge  and  general  accuracy, 
was  Mr.  Walsh,  who,  during  his  last  years,  strenuously  contended  that 
this  insect  was  double- brooded.  For  several  years  I  have  entertained 
a  different  opinion,  believing  that  it  was  single  brooded,  as  a  rule,  and 
only  exceptionally  double-brooded;  and  the  facts  so  fully  bear  me 
out  in  this  opinion,  that  were  my  late  associate  living  to-day,  I  should ' 
bring  forth  the  testimony  with  a  feeling  of  triumph,  for  he  was  not 
often  in  the  wrong!  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that  Mr. 
Walsh's  first  impression,  as  given  by  him  in  the  year  1867*,  was  that 
this  insect  is  single  brooded;  his  first  opinion  thus  coinciding  with 
what  I  have  now  proved  to  be  the  facts  in  the  case.  In  my  first  Re- 
port I  have  reviewed  the  experiments  which  led  him  to  change  his 
opinion,  and  have  shown  that  they  did  not  warrant  his  final  conclu- 
sion. 

The  many  words  that  have  been  penned  in  the  discussion  of  this 
question  would  fill  a  volume;  but  one  stern  fact,  one  thorough  exper- 
iment, is  worth  more  than  all  the  theories  that  were  ever  conceived, 
or  the  phrases  that  were  ever  written  on  the  subject.  At  first  it  seems 
to  be  a  very  simple  question  to  settle,  but  the  fact  that  it  remained 
unsettled  so  long  would  indicate  the  reverse.  Judge  A.  M.  Brown  of 
Villa  Ridge,  at  my  suggestion,  endeavored  in  the  summer  of  1869  to 
solve  the  problem  by  imprisoning  the  first  bred  beetles  and  furnish- 
ing them  with  plucked  fruit.  Dr.  Hull  partially  performed  a  like  ex- 
periment, and  I  did  the  same  myself;  but  we  w^ere  met  by  the  advo- 
cates of  the  two-brooded  theory  with  the  objection  that  such  a  test 
was  of  no  value,  as  the  Curculio  would  not  deposit  on  plucked  fruit  or 
in  confinement ;  and  to  add  weight  to  their  argument  they  could  cite 
us  to  numerous  instances  among  butterflies  to  prove  that  many  insects 
really  will  not  deposit  in  confinement.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  they 
placed  too  much  confidence  in  the  instinct  of  Mrs.  Turk  when,  from 
such  premises,  they  made  these  deductions  apply  to  her. 

As  I  proved  over  and  over  again,  the  question  could  not  be  solved 
with  any  more  certainty,  by  confining  beetles  to  living  boughs  con- 
taining fruit,  as  the  boughs  could  not  well  be  covered  with  any  sub- 

*  Practical  Entomologist,  Vol.  II.,  No.  7. 


THE  STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  13 

stance  through  which  the  beetles  would  not  gnaw  their  way  out.  So 
I  determined  last  spring  to  build  a  frame  over  a  large  tree  and  entire- 
ly enclose  it  in  stout  gauze,  that  would  neither  let  a  flea  in  or  out^ 
much  lers  a  Curculio.  Having  accomplished  this  before  the  blossoms 
had  fallen  oif  the  tree,  I  awaited  with  pleasurable  interest  the  result 
from  day  to  day,  from  week  to  week,  and  from  month  to  month  ;  en- 
gaging a  competent  person  to  watch,  when,  from  necessity,  I  was 
obliged  to  be  awa3^  It  were  worse  than  waste  of  time  to  detail  here 
the  many  interesting  observations  made  on  this  tree  which  I  had  un- 
der control,  or  to  enumerate  the  many  other  experiments  which  I 
conducted  in  other  woys,  or  the  innumerable  facts  obtained;  and 
it  will  suffice  to  give  in  a  summary  manner  the  results — premising 
only  that  every  precaution  was  taken,  and  no  expense  spared,  to  pre- 
vent failure;  that  the  experiments  were  satisfactory  beyond  my  ex- 
pectations, the  results  conclusive  beyond  all  peradventure,  and  that 
I  can  prove  every  statement  I  make.  To  sum  up  then  : — The  Plum 
Curculio  is  single-hrooded^  and  1  have  a  number  now  alive  wliicli  were 
bred  during  the  latter  part  of  June  from  the  first  stung  peaches.  (At 
the  time  the  printer  is  ready  for  this  Report  the  beetles  are  still  alive 
and  flourishing — February  24th,  1871.)  But,  as  there  seem  to  be  ex- 
ceptions to  all  rules,  so  there  are  to  this ;  yet  the  exceptions  are  only 
)ust  about  sufficient  to  prove  the  rule,  for  as  far  south  as  St.  Louis  not 
more  than  one  per  cent,  of  the  beetles  lay  any  eggs  at  all,  until  they 
have  lived  through  one  winter;  or  in  other  words,  where  one  female 
will  pair  and  deposit  a  few  eggs  the  same  summer  she  was  bred, 
ninety-nine  will  live  on  for  nearly  ten  months  and  not  deposit  till  the 
lollowing  spring.  In  more  northern  latitudes  I  doubt  if  any  excep- 
tions to  the  rule  will  be  found. 

As  to  the  other  mooted  point,  namely,  whether  this  insect  ever 
hibernates  under  ground  in  the  larva  state,  I  am  perfectly  satisfied 
I  hat  it  never  does,  but  that  it  passes  the  winter  invariably  as  a  beetle, 
J.nder  all  sorts  of  shelter  in  the  woods ;  generally,  however,  near  the  sur- 
lace  of  the  ground.  Indeed,  it  often  makes  for  itself  a  hole  in  the  ground, 
seldom  however  deep  enough  to  more  than  barely  cover  its  own  body, 
in  short,  there  is  very  little  to  alter  or  modify  in  the  established  facts 
]i\its  natural  history,  which  I  have  already  published.  The  egg,  instead 
ot"  being"  oval,"  as  there  stated,  would  be  better  described  as  "ob- 
long-oval," measuring  exactly  0.03  inch  in  length,  and  being  nearly 
I l.ree  times  as  long  as  wide.  It  should  also  be  remarked  here,  that 
V.  hen  depositing  the  eggs  in  apples,  the  female  often  neglects  the 
'i-;ual  symbol  of  Mohammedanism,  which  she  so  invariably  inscribes 
oon  stone  fruit;  and  that  where  this  mark  is  made  on  apples,  it  more 
eAsily  becomes  obliterated. 

During  their  beetle  life,  these  insects  feed  continually,  just  as 
long  as  the  weather  is  mild  enough  to  make  them  active.  While  fruit 
iasts,  they  gouge  holes  in  it,  and  after  peaches  have  gone,  apples  are 


14  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

badl}''  attacked.  They  also  gnaw  large  holes  in  the  leaves,  and  when 
nothing  else  presents,  will  feed  on  the  bark  of  the  tender  twigs. 

The  beetles  often  make  a  peculiar  creaking  noise  (a  fact  not 
mentioned  before  of  this  species)  b,y  rubbing  the  tip  of  the  abdomen 
up  and  down  against  the  wing-covers.* 

Let  us  be  thankful,  therefore,  that  there  can  no  longer  reasonably 
be  difference  of  opinion,  or  discussion  on  these  questions,  v/hich, 
though  of  no  very  great  practical  imi)ortance,  were  yet  of  great 
interest  to  us  all. 

IT   IS   NOCTUNRAL   RATHER    THAN   DIURNAL. 

Before  leaving  this  little  Turk,  however,  I  have  some  other  facts 
to  mention  which  were  first  brought  to  light  the  present  year,  and 
which  have  a  most  important  practical  bearing.  The  people  of  the 
West  have  been  repeatedly  told,  and  with  so  much  assurance  that 
they  no  doubt  have  all  come  to  believe  it  as  gospel,  that  Ourculios 
fly  only  during  the  heat  of  the  day,  and  that  it  is  useless  to  endeavor 
to  catch  them  after  say  10  o'clock  in  the  morning.  What  I  am  about 
to  utter  will  no  doubt  astonish  many,  but  I  know  whereof  I  speak. 
TJie  Curculio  is  a  nocturnal  rather  than  a  diurnal  insect ;  is  far 
more  active  at  night  than  at  clay,  and  Hies  readily  at  night  into  the 
'bargain.  If  any  one  doubts  this  assertion,  let  him  go  into  his  peach 
or  pJum  orchard  at  midnight  with  a  lantern  and  sheet,  and  he  will 
catch  more  than  he  could  daring  the  day,  and  will  also  find,  to  his 
sorrow,  that  they  are  then  much   more  nimble    and   much    bolder — 


*A  great  many  different  beetles  belonging  to  widely  different  families  have  the  power  of  mak- 
ing a  stridulating  creaking  noise,  and  though  the  instrument  is  found  upon  different  parts  of  the 
body  in  different  species,  yet  it  is  always  made  after  one  plan,  namely,  a  file-like  rasp  and  a 
scraper.  In  Darwin's  new  book  (Descent  of  Man,  pp.  3G6-73)  an  interesting  account  of  the  dif- 
ferent methods  employed  will  be  found.  Every  entomologist  knows  how  commonly  this  creaking 
noise  occurs  in  the  Long-horn  beetles,  and  that  the  rasp  is  situated  on  the  mesothorax  and  i^' 
rubbed  against  the  prothorax.  In  the  Burying  beetles  (Necropiioridj:)  these  rasps  are  situated  on 
the  fifth  abdominal  joint,  and  are  scraped  by  the  posterior  margin  of  the  elytra.  In  the  Dung- 
beetles  again  it  is  variously  situated  upon  different  portions  of  the  body.  Dr.  Fitch  (lOth  Ann. 
Rep.  p.  12)  has  noticed  the  creaking  noise  made  by  the  Three-lined  Leaf-beetle  {Lema  trilineala) 
which  is  produced  by  the  same  motions  as  those  witnessed  in  our  Curculio ;  but  in  this  instance,  as 
in  all  other  stridulating  Chrysomelidre,  the  rasp  is  situated  on  the  dorsal  apex  of  the  abdomen 
known  as  the  pygidium,  and  is  scraped  by  the  wing-covers  ;  while  in  the  closely  allied  Curculionidae 
which  have  this  power  the  parts  are  completely  reversed  in  position.  Anyone  who  will  take  the 
trouble  to  carefuUj'  examine  the  wing-covers  of  our  Plum  Curculio  will  find  on  the  lower  apical 
edge  of  each,  a  horny,  slightly  raised  plate,  about  a  third  as  long  as  the  whole  wing-cover,  and 
transversely  and  obliquely  ribbed  by  numerous  parallel  ridges.  There  is  also  a  longer  cord  or  carina 
near  the  sutural  edge  which  may  help  to  intensify  the  noise.  The  dorsal  apex  of  ths  abdomen  or 
pygidium  forms  a  yellowish  and  roughened  plate,  with  the  sides  horny  and  emarginate,  so  that 
when  the  abdomen  plays  up  and  down,  these  horny  edges  grate  or  scrape  at  right  angles  against 
the  rasp. 

In  some  instances  the  stridulation  is  possessed  principally  by  one  sex  and  serves  no  doubt  as 
a  sexual  call ;  but  with  our  Curculio  as  with  most  otber  stridulating  beetles,  both  sexes  seem  to 
share  alike  in  the  power,  and  it  then  no  doubt  serves  as  a  mutual  call,  or  is  used  under  the  in- 
fluence of  distress,  fear,  or  even  pleasure;  for  I  have  always  more  particularly  noticed  the  noise 
of  an  evening  when  the  Curculios  were  moat  active  and  preparing  for  their  active  night  work. 


THE   STATE   EJSTOMOLOGIST.  15 

scarcely  feigning  death  at  all.  Indeed,  Avith  the  exception  of  such 
females  as  are  busily  occupied  in  depositing  eggs,  most  of  the  Cur- 
culios  rest  during  the  day,  sheltered  either  by  the  foliage  or  branches 
of  the  tree,  or  by  any  extraneous  substance  on  the  ground  near  by. 
They  are  also  more  active  in  the  evening  than  in  the  morning,  and 
these  facts  lead  us  to  the  important  question,  whether  the  morning 
or  the  evening  is  tlie  best  time  to  jar  the  trees.  My  experiments  so 
far  are  not  conclusive,  for  I  have  some  days  caught  more  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  at  others  more  in  the  evening.  All  other  things  being  equal, 
the  evening  will  prove  preferable  to  the  morning,  from  there  being 
less  dew  at  that  time;  and  I  particularly  draw  attention  to  this  mat- 
ter now,  that  the  proper  experiments  may  be  instituted  during  ihe 
coming  year  by  more  than  one  individual. 

THE   RANSOM   CHIP-TRAP  PROCESS. 

Another  grand  and  successful  mode  of  fighting  the  little  Turk 
was  also  brouglit  to  light  again,  and  to  a  great  extent  practiced  the 
past  summer.  I  allude  to  the  Ransom  chip  process  for  entrapping 
tliis  insect.  About  the  middle  of  May  the  Horticultural  world  was 
startled  by  a  somewhat  sensational  article,  which  was  the  burden  of 
an  extra  to  the  St.  Joseph  (Michigan)  Herald^  headed  : — "Great  Dis- 
covery— Curculio  Extermination  Possible,"  The  process  consists  in 
laying  close  around  the  butt  of  the  tree  pieces  of  chips  or  bark,  under 
which,  according  to  their  instinct,  a  great  many  of  the  Curculios  se- 
crete themselves  during  the  day,  and  may  thus  be  easily  destroyed. 
Now  that  we  better  understand  this  insect's  habits,  we  also  better 
comprehend  the  philosophy  of  this  process.  Being  noctural  in  their 
habits,  the  beetles  naturally  seek  shelter  during  the  day,  and  espe- 
cially is  this  the  case  early  in  the  season,  when  the  days  are  chilly, 
and  before  the  females  are  too  much  engaged  in  %^'2,  depositing.  Nu- 
merous opinions  were  expressed  as  to  the  value  and  efficiency  of  this 
method;  but  I  will  here  repeat  my  own,  as  given  to  the  readers  of 
the  American  Entomologist  and  Botanist;  first,  because  I  endeavored 
to  be  candid  and  truthful,  and  secondly,  because  the  opinions  ex- 
pressed have  been  so  far  fully  corroborated  by  subsequent  experience. 
Letitbe  distinct]}'  understood  that  in  recording  what  I  believe  to  be 
the  facts  in  the  case,  1  jhave  no  wish  to  detract  one  particle  from  the 
credit  due  Mr.  Ransom,  for  bringing  this  method  prominently  before 
the  people,  and  demonstrating  its  practical  applicability;  for  to  him 
imdoubtedly  belongs  the  honor  of  the  re-discovery  and  of  the  proper 
application  of  the  method  : 

'^We  are  really  sorry  to  damp  the  ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  any 
person  or  persons,  when  enlisted  in  such  a  good  cause,  but  truth  ob- 
liges us  to  do  so,  nevertheless.  Of  course  Curculio  extermination  is 
possible  !  but  notby  the  above  method  alone,  as  our  Michigan  friends 
will  find  to  their  sorrow.  For  a  short  time,  early  in  the  season,  when 
the  days  are    sometimes   warm  and  the  nights  cold,  and  before  the 


16  THIRD    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

peach  blossoms  have  withered  away,  we  have  succeeded  in  capturing 
(Jurculios  under  chips  of  wood  and  in  other  such  sheltered  situations  ; 
but  we  have  never  been  able  to  do  so  after  the  fruit  was  as  large  as  a 
hazlenut,  and  the  little  Turk  had  got  fairly  to  work.  Our  Michigan 
friends  will,  we  fear,  lind  this  to  be  too  truly  the  case. 

'"Tiiis  process,  furthermore,  cannot  we  11  be  called  a  new  discovery, 
because  it  was  discovered  several  years  ago,  as  the  following  item 
from  Moore's  Rural  New  Yorker  of  January  2Sth,  1865,  will  show  : 

"How  TO  CATCH  CuRCULio. — In  May  last  vre  had  occasion  to  use  some  lumber.  It  was  laid 
down  in  the  vicinity  of  the  plum  yard,  and  on  taking  up  a  piece  of  it  one  cold  morning,  we  dis- 
covered a  number  of  curculios  huddled  togetiier  on  the  under  side.  On  examining  other  boards 
we  found  more,  so  we  spread  it  out  to  see  if  we  could  catch  more,  and  we  continued  to  find  more 
or  less  every  day,  for  two  weeks.  We  caught  in  all  one  hundred  and  si.xty-one.  So  I  think  if 
people  would  take  a  little  pains  they  might  destroy  a  great  many  such  pests.  These  were  caught 
before  the  plum  trees  were  in  flower.  W  hat  is  most  singular  is,  that  we  never  found  a  curculio  on 
a  piece  of  old  lumber,  although  we  put  several  pieces  down  to  try  them.  They  seemed  to  come 
out  of  the  ground,  as  we  could  find  them  several  times  a  day   by  turning  over  the  boards. 

Johnsonville,  New  York.  Mrs.  H.   Wieu. 

"But  though  Mr.  Ransom  cannot  properly  claim  to  have  made  a 
new  discovery,  and  although  this  mode  of  fighting  will  not  prove 
sufficient  to  exterminate  the  Curculio,  yet  we  greatly  admire  the 
earnestness  and  perseverance  which  he  has  exhibited.  In  demon- 
strating that  so  great  a  number  of  the  little  pests  can  be  entrapped  in 
the  manner  described,  Mr.  li.  has  laid  the  fruit  growers  of  the  country 
under  lasting  obligations  to  him.  It  is  a  grand  movement  towards 
the  deleat  of  the  Ibe,  and  one  which,  ironi  its  simplicity,  should  be 
universally  adopted  early  in  the  season.  But  we  must  not  relinquish 
the  other  methods  of  jarring  during  the  summer,  and  of  destroying  the 
Jallen  fruit;  for  we  repeat  that  the  Plum  Curculio  will  breed  in  the 
forest." 

I  subsequently  visited  St.  Joseph,  for  the  express  purpose  of  ex- 
amining more  closely  into  Mr.  Ransom's  Curculio  remedy.  I  found 
that  so  few  Curculios  had  been  caught  under  the  chips  after  the  first 
week  in  June,  that  nearly  everybody,  except  Mr,  Ransom,  had  for 
some  time  abandoned  the  method,  and  were  jarring  their  trees  by  one 
process  or  another.  Mr.  Ransom  himself,  by  dint  of  unusual  persever- 
ance and  great  care  in  setting  his  traps,  had  much  better  success 
than  I  had  expected  he  would.  On  the  15th  June  he  caught  78;  on 
the  16th,  97;  and  on  the  17th;  71.  For  about  a  week  after  this  he 
scarcely  caught  any,  but  from  the  24th  to  the  27th  inclusive,  he  caught 
about  SCO.  On  the  6th  of  July  I  accompanied  him  around  the  outside 
rows  of  his  orchard  and  caught  five  under  the  traps.  We  had  no  op- 
portunity to  use  the  sheet,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  more  could  have 
been  jarred  down.  Mr.  R.  had  a  very  fair  crop  of  peaches,  and — for- 
getting that  crops  have  often  been  grown  before  with  very  little  care, 
and  that  others  around  him  who  did  not  bug  so  persistently  had 
fruit  also  this  year — is  very  sanguine  of  his  new  method,  and  too 
much  inclined,  perhaps,  to  attribute  his  crop  solely  to  this  remedy. 
Nevertheless,  contrary  to  the  impression  made  by  his  published  views, 
he  was  candid  enough  to  admit  that  it  might  be  found  necessary  to 
resort  to  the  jarring  process,  after  a  certain  season  of  the  year;  and 
indeed  the  number  of  stung  peaches  on  the  ground  showed  too  plain- 
ly that  there  is  no  hope  oi  exterminatio7i  by  the  chip  plan  alone.  The 
soil  around  St.  Joseph  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  light  sandy  loam,  never 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  17 

packing,  and  very  easily  Ivept  in  good  cultivation.  To  this  character 
of  the  soil  must  be  attributed  much  of  the  success  with  the  Hansom 
method  ;  for  I  am  satisfied,  after  full  experiment,  that  in  the  warmer 
climate  and  heavier  soil  of  St.  Louis,  it  is  otuo  practical  use  after  the 
middle  of  May,  or  at  the  farthest,  ^ffer  the  first  of  June.  fTie  few 
specimens  that  I  have  captured  H|^  t^.  method  at  St.  Louis  were 
found  under  small  pieces  of  new  snTngle;  and  Mr.  W,  T.  Durry,  who 
has  2,300  trees  in  his  orchard  at  St.  Joseph,  also  found  this  the  best 
kind  of  trap.  Mr.  Ransom,  however,  prefers  small  pieces  of  oak  bark, 
which  he  places  close  around  the  tree,  with  the  inner  or  concave  side 
pressed  to  the  ground.  Stones  do  not  answer  well,  and  corn  cobs  are 
objectionable  because  it  requires  so  much  time  to  discover  and  de- 
stroy the  Curculios,  which  hide  in  their  deep  cavities. 

The  best  time  of  day  to  take  the  Curculios  from  under  the  chips  is 
undoubtedly  in  the  afternoon  ;  but  it  must  not  be  left  too  long,  as  they 
begin  to  leave  and  scatter  over  the  trees  as  soon  as  the  sun  approaches 
the  horizon.  The  chips  should  be  laid  around  the  trees  as  soon  as  the 
frost  is  out  of  the  ground,  or  at  least  by  the  time  the  blossoms  begin  to 
expand;  for  more  beetles  will  be  caught  under  them  during  a  few 
Weeks  thus  early  in  the  season  than  throughout  the  rest  of  the  year. 

Before  concluding  this  branch  of  the  subject,  I  earnestly  urge 
upon  fruit-growers  throughout  the  State  to  give  this  process  a  good 
trial  during  the  coming  season,  and  to  report  the  results  to  me.  The 
observations  of  a  hundred  persons  in  as  many  different  parts  of  the 
State  must  necessarily  be  of  more  value  than  those  of  a  single  indi- 
vidual in  any  one  locality;  and  as  the  process  was  not  prominently 
brought  before  the  public  last  year,  until  it  was  too  late  to  make 
thorough  experiments,  it  is  very  desirable  to  have  the  true  value  of 
the  method  in  Missouri  definitel}"  a&certained  in  1871.  To  arrive  at 
such  definite  knowledge  of  its  value,  I  need  the  co-operation  of  intel- 
ligent fruit-growers,  and  for  this  reason  I  hope  that  notes  and  experi- 
ments will  be  made  and  sent  to  me  at  my  office,  any  time  during  the 
summer.  The  number  of  trees  experimented  on,  number  of  beetles 
captured,  time  of  year,  hour  of  day,  character  of  soil,  and  all  other 
facts  connected  with  the  experiments  should  be  noted  ;  as  they  all 
help  us  to  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  true  value  of  the  process 

KEEPING   IT   IN   CHECK   BY   THE    OFFER   OF   PREMIUMS. 

After  visiting  St.  Joseph  and  vicinity,  I  passed  into  Ontario,  \vhere 
I  found  the  trees  overloaded  with  fine  unblemished  fruit.  I  found  mj'- 
friend,  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders,  of  London,  also  much  occupied  with,  and 
interested  in,  the  Curculio  question.  He  was,  in  fact,  carefully  count- 
ing different  lots  of  this  insect  which  had  been  received  from  different 
parts  of  the  Dominion;  for  be  it  known,  that  the  enterprising  Fruit 
Growers'  Association  of  Ontario,  in  its  praiseworthy  efforts  to  check 
the  increase  of.  the  Curculio,  offered  a  cent  per  head  for  every  one 

S  E— 2 


IS  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

which  should  be  sent  to  our  friend,  who  happens  to  be  secretary  of 
that  body.  What  would  our  own  people  think  if  the  Legislature  or 
the  State  Horticultural  Society  should  offer  an  equally  liberal  -pre- 
mium pe)' capita  for  ever  j  little  Turk  captured?  Wouldn't  they  set 
about  capturing  them  in  earnest,  though  !  The  Legislature  might 
stand  it,  and  I  am  not  sure  but  that  some  such  inducement,  held  out 
by  the  State  to  its  fruit-growing  citizens,  would  pay,  and  prove  the 
most  effective  way  of  subduing  the  enemy.  But  the  Horticultural 
Society  that  should  undertake  it,  would  have  to  be  pretty  liberally 
endowed.  Just  think  of  it;  ye  who  catch  from  three  to  five  thousand 
per  day.  The  bugs  would  pay  a  good  deal  better  than  the  peaches. 
However,  very  fortunately  for  the  (Ontario  Fruit-Growers'  Associa- 
tion, their  good  offer  did  not  get  noised  abroad  as  much  as  it  might 
have  been,  and  the  little  Turk  occurs  there  in  such  comparatively  small 
numbers,  that  up  to  the  time  I  left  only  10,731  had  been  received. 

PARIS   GREEN   AS   A   REMEDY. 

Mr.  G.  M.  Smith,  of  Berlin,  Wisconsin,  in  an  article  written  last 
fall  to  the  St.  Joseph  (Mich.)  Horticultural  Society,  recommends  Paris 
Green  for  the  Plum  Curculio.  Even  if  the  uniform  application  of 
such  a  poisonous  drug  on  large  trees  were  practicable,  it  would  never 
succeed  in  killing  one  Curculio  in  a  hundred.  Paris  Green  kills  the 
leaf-eating  beetles  by  being  taken  internally  with  the  leaves  ;  but 
the  Curculio,  with  its  snout,  prefers  to  gouge  under  the  skin  of  the 
fruit;  and  only  exceptionally  devours  the  leaves.  Yet,  notwithstand- 
ing the  palpable  absurdity  of  the  remedy,  it  has  very  generally  passed 
from  one  journal  to  another  without  comment. 

JARRING  BY  MACHINERY. 

Of  course  there  is  no  more  expeditious  way  of  jarring  down  the 
Curculio  than  by  the  Hull  Curculio-catcher  (Fig.  2.)  Yet  I  confess 
that  after  extensive  observations  in  many  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  this  machine  does  not  give  the 
satisfaction  one  could  wish.  I  have  already  shown  that  where  it  was 
constantly  used  the  trees  suffered  serious  injury  from  bruising,  and  it 
is  a  rather  significant  fact  that  in  most  orchards  where  it  has  been  in- 
troduced, some  modification  has  soon  followed,  or  else  it  has  been 
entirely  abandoned ;  while  in  the  East  they  still  adhere  to  the  im- 
proved stretchers  and  mallet.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  machine,  as  made 
by  Dr.  Hull,  two  years  ago,  was  not  only  too  heavy  and  unwieldy,  but 
incapable  of  giving  the  i-equisite  sharp  jafring  rap  to  the  branches  of 
a  large  tree  without  causing  too  much  injury  to  the  trunk ;  and  that  if 
a  modification  of  it  could  be  made  to  satisfy  the  peach-grower,  there 
would  soon  be  a  greater  demand  for  such  a  machine. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


li) 


20 


THIBD-  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


As  a  step  in  the  right  direction  I  will  briefly  describe  a  machine- 
which  I  have  herewith  illustrated,  (Fig.  3^  back  view;  Fig.  4,  front 
view),  and  which  I  found  in  quite  general  use  around  St.  Joseph  and 
Benton  Harbor,  Michigan.  It  was  gotten  up  by  IVIr.  L.  M,  Ward  of  the 
latter  place,  and  proves,  in  the  orchard,  to  have  decided  advantages- 
over  the  Hull  machine,  of  which  it  is  a  modification.  It  is  a  much 
lighter  machine,  and,  as  the  diagrams  indicate,  instead  of  running  on 
a  single  wheel  it  is  carried  and  balanced  by  two,  (Fig.  3,  c  c)  and  sup- 
f^^^-  ^-^  ported  with  legs  on  the  han- 

dles, (Fig.  3,  I  I),  when  not 
running.    The  Ourculios   and 
stung      fruit      are      brushed 
through  a  hole  in  the  centre 
(Fig,  3,  rf),  and  as  the  oper- 
ator passes  from  one  tree  to 
^another  he  closes  this  hole,  to 
[prevent  the   beetles  from  es- 
|caping,  by  means  of  a  slide, 
(Fig.  3, «),  which  he  has  under 
control.    Bags  previously  pre- 
pared, by  being  fastened  on  a 
square  piece  of  wood  with  a 
hole  in  the  centre  correspond- 
ing to  a  hole  in  the  side  of  the 
bag,  are  snu-gly  buttoned  be- 
low (Fig.  3,  e  and  /'},  so  as  to 
secure    everything  that  falls 
e  through  from  above,  and  when 

one  bag  is  full  it  is  easily  replaced  by  another,  and  its  contents  de- 
stroyed by  scalding,  or  otherwise,  and  emptied  out.  In  most  of  the 
orchards  where  this  machine  was  being  used,  the  jarring  was  per- 
formed by  a  separate  mallet,  which  is  easily  hung,  as  is  also  the  brush, - 
on  the  shafts  when  the  machine  is  being  operated  by  one  person,  or, 
-which  I  think  a  better  way,  where  help  is  not  scarce,  it  can,  with  the 
brush,  be  carried  by  a  second  person  (an  intelligent  boy  will  answer,) 
who  performs  the  jarring  and  brushing  while  the  first  person  wheels 
I  the  machine. 

The  machine  is  simple  in  construction,  and  anyone  with  ordinary 
■mechanical  ability  can  build  it — modifying,  of  course,  the  diameter 
of  the  wheels  and  the  inclination  of  the  sheet  to  suit  the  character  of 
his  trees  or  of  his  ground.  Mr.  Ward  has  taken  no  patent  out  for  it, 
and  the  machine  is,  therefore,  public  property.  The  platform  may  be 
made  narrower  than  shown  in  the  illustration,  for  the  nearer  the 
wheels  approach  and  the  lighter  the  machine,  the  better.  It  has  been 
argued  in  favor  of  the  onerwheel.machirLe,  that  it  can  be  more  easily 


TH'E   SfCATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


21 


run  on  rough  ground  and  more 
readily  turned,  which,  in  a 
great  measure,  is  true;  but 
the  Ward  machine  might  be 
so  made  that  it  could  easily 
be  tilted  on  one  wheel  in 
turning,  and  our  Benton  Har- 
bor friends  have  so  far  found 
no  difficulty  in  operating  it. 
The  two  wheels  have  the  ad- 
ditional advantage  that  the 
machine  is  not  rendered  un- 
wieldy by  strong  wind.  It 
also  stands  firm  when  left  by 
the  operator,  who  is  thereby 
better  enabled  to  use  a  mallet 
if  he  prefers  it,  the  mallet 
being  hung  to  the  shafts,  and 
taken  down  after  the  machine 
is  wheeled  into  position.  Either  machine  can  be  used  with  a  bumper, 
or  with  a  mallet,  and  there  are  certain  rules  Avhich  should  be  adopted 
in  jarring  for  the  Ourculio,  no  matter  whether  a  one-wheel  or  a  two- 
wheel  machine  is  used.  These  rules  are:  First.  In  jarring  with  a 
mallet,  it  is  best  to  prepare  each  tree  by  squarely  sawing  off"  some 
particular  limb,  or  else  the  mallet  must  be  well  protected  with  rubber 
to  prevent  bruising  of  the  tender  bark.  The  former  custom  is  by  far 
the  best,  as  we  are  enabled  to  give  the  tree  a  sharp,  vibrating  rap 
with  the  bare,  hard  wood.  Secondly.  If  the  mallet  is  dispensed  with, 
and  the  tree  is  bumped  with  the  machine — a  method  which  certainly 
has  the  advantage  of  expedition — it  will  be  found  altogether  more 
profitable  to  drive  a  shouldered  spike  or  to  insert  a  shouldered  screw 
in  the  trunk  at  the  right  distance  from  the  ground,  and  the  jarring 
can  then  always  be  done  on  this  spike  without  injury  to  the  tree. 

If  the  trees  are  headed  high  enough  to  admit  of  a  sufficient  in- 
clination of  the  canvas,  the  beetles  will  naturally  roll  to  the  centre 
and  fall  into  whatever  receptacle  there  may  be  for  them  below  ;  but 
such  an  inclination  is  not  often  practicable,  and  the  brush  or  broom 
is  almost  always  needed. 

The  orchardist  must  also  be  guided  in  his  choice  of  machines  by 
the  character  of  his  land,  for  the  two-wheel  machine  doubtless  owes 
much  of  its  success  around  St.  Joseph,  Michigan,  to  the  smoothness 
of  their  land.     No  machine  will  work  well  on  rough,  cloddy  soil. 

There  are  various  improvements  that  might  be  made  in  the  above 
machine  by  any  ingenious  person,  and  at  my  suggestion  Mr.  J.  E. 
Porter  of  the  Eagle  Agricultural  Works,  Ottawa,  Illinois,  has  com- 
menced building  these  two- wheel  machines  with  adjustable  arms. 
The  canvas  also  is  to  be  so  made  that  it  can  be  fastened  on  and  taken 


22 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


off  again  so  that  the  whole  may  be  more  compactly  packed  for  ship- 
ping, and  for  storing  away  out  of  the  wet.  Exclusive  of  the  canvas, 
the  whole  can  be  made  ready  for  shipment  for  from  $16,00  to  $18,00, 
and  the  machine  will  no  doubt  be  advertised  the  coming  season. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  also  that  the  inventive  genius  of  some  of 
oar  Western  men  is  being  applied  to  the  improvement  of  this  imple- 
ment. Thus  Messrs.  Olaxton  &  Stevens  of  the  Insane  Asylum,  St. 
Louis  county,  have  just  applied  for  a  patent  on  a  one-wheel  machine, 
the  principle  feature  of  which  is  a  bumper  which  works  with  a  spring. 
[Fig.  5.]  I  have  seen  the  model,  but  am  not  favorably  impressed 
with  the  machine  as  one  having  any  great  practical 
value.  The  spring  bumper  is  an  expensive  and  unneces- 
sary addition,  and  in  other  respects  the  machine  is  in- 
ferior in  utility  to  that  I  have  just  described.  One  good 
feature,  however,  is  an  arrangement  for  closing  up  the 
tree-way  where  the  bumper  touches  the  tree.  It  con- 
sists simply  of  two  long  strips  of  sheeting  fastened  to  a 
light  frame,  each  one  of  which  is  so  attached  to  the 
sides  of  the  tree-way  that  when  dropped  they  form  a 
roof  as  at  Figure  5.  The  tree  easily  separates  these  two 
pieces  when  the  machine  is  worked.  The  frame  of  this 
J  I  machine  is  quite  flat  with  an  upturned  rim,  but  each 
[j  ,4  I  half-circle  is  so  arranged  that  it  can  be  raised  on 
hinges. 

Dr.  M.  M.  Hooten,  of  Centralia,  Illinois,  patented  last 
summer  a  machine  made  very  much  alter  Dr.  Hull's  plan,  but  he 
has  since  made  several  improvements  and  changes  and  has  made  appli- 
cation for  another  patent  for  the  improved  machine  which  I  herewith 
illustrate  from  a  model  with  which  he  has  kindly  furnished  me. 

He  first  constructs  a  long  narrow  wheel-barrow  with  a  level  and 
smooth  platform  (Fig.  6,  a,)  made  of  ^  inch  pine  or  other  light  mate- 
rial, firmly  nailed  down  to  two  arms  (J,  5,}  and  covering  them  from 
the  front  end  to  within  twenty  inches  of  the  rear  end.  These  rear  ends 
serve  for  handles  (c,  c).  The  anterior  ends,  at  a  point  one  foot  from 
the  extremity,  rest  upon  the  axles  of  the  wheel,  which  is  two  feet  in 
diameter.  He  then  attaches  a  half  circle  (d.,  d)  to  each  outer  side  of 
the  forward  ends  of  the  arms  of  the  platform.  These  half  circles 
are  ten  inches  in  diameter,  and  are  so  placed  as  to  be  about  two- 
thirds  of  their  width  in  advance  of  the  platform,  which  at  the  for- 
ward end  is  from  ten  to  twelve  inches  wide.  Thus  enough  room  is 
left  for  the  tree  to  be  admitted  between  the  flat  sides  of  the  half 
circles. 

There  are  now  to  be  five  or  six  movable  arms  {e^  e)  placed  on 
each  side  of  these  iron  half  circles,  and  a  single  half-inch  bolt  (f) 
passed  through  a  hole  in  the  inner  ends  of  them,  and  through  the 
straight  bar  next  to  the  tree-way.  The  arms  are  now  permitted  to 
rest  on  the  half  circles,  and  are  held  down  to  the  circle  by  a  hook 


THK   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


23 


which  is  attached,  to  the 
lower  side  of  the  arm 
and  curves  over  the  out- 
side of,  and  under,  the 
circle  {g,(j). 

These  movable  arms 
are  now  arranged  at 
equal  distances  on  the 
circles,  and  fastened  with 
twine,  while  the  canvas 
is  being  tacked  on,  be- 
ginning first  by  tacking 
it  to  the  sides  of  the  plat- 
form of  the  barrow  and. 
then  to  the  arms.  At  the 
inner  end  of  each  of 
these  movable  arms  is 
a  raised  finger  (A,  70, 
which  holds  the  canvas 
lip  so  as  to  keep  any  in- 
sects from  being  thrown 
over  into  the  tree-way. 
A  semi-circular  cog- 
wheel (^,  *),  which  works 
by  its  centre,  is  now 
placed  on  the  lower  end 
of  the  same  bolt  that 
passes  through  the  inner 
ends  of  the  movable  arms.  The  forward  arm  on  each  side  is  firm 
ly  attached  to  this  cog-wheel,  which  works  under  the  canvas. 
When  made  to  revolve  backwards  or  forwards  on  the  bolt,  this  cog- 
wheel carries  the  outside  arm  around  on  the  iron  half  circle,  and  the 
sheet-covered  frame  is  thus  easily  stretched  and  opened,  as  at  J,  J,  or 
closed  as  at  /j,  h. 

This  motion  is  quickly  accomplished  hj  means  of  a  lever  (/), 
which  works  on  a  hinge  at  the  rear  of  the  platform,  and  which  moves 
a  rod  armed  on  one  side  at  the  forward  end  with  cogs  (w,  w),  which 
tread  in  the  cogs  of  the  semi-circular  cog-wheel  before  described,  to 
which  it  is  held  by  a  keeper  (n).  The  handle  of  the  lever  lies  on  the 
platform  when  the  machine  is  folded,  and  stands  upright  when  it  is 
extended;  so  that  by  a  single  motion  of  one  hand  of  the  operator,  the 
machine  may  be  folded  into  a  very  small  compass,  or  as  quickly  ex- 
tended. The  hinder  part  of  the  machine  is  supported  by  two  swing- 
ing legs  (o,  o).  These  may  swing  back  to  the  handles,  but  cannot  go 
forward  beyond  a  right  angle.  The  machine  is  very  light,  and  works 
so  easily  that,  according  to  the  inventor,  a  boy  of  fourteen  years  can 


24  THIED  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

easily  run  one  of  them.  The  whole  machine  does  not  weigh  over 
forty  pounds. 

The  above  figure  represents  a  back  view  of  the  machine,  with 
one  side  open  and  the  other  closed.  The  principle  advantage  of  the 
machine  lies  in  this  folding  apparatus,  which  enables  the  operator  to 
defy  the  wind  which  on  some  days  renders  the  original  Hull  machine 
almost  useless  as  it  plays  powerfully  against  the  stretched  canvas. 
This  feature  also  enables  the  owner  to  store  the  machine  away  with 
less  trouble.  I  have  my  doubts,  however,  whether  the  advantage 
gained  sufficiently  compensates  for  the  extra  machinery.  Another 
advantage  which  Mr.  Hooton  claims  for  the  machine  is  that  it  is  so 
low  that  it  will  swing  its  broad  folds  under  low-headed  trees.  That 
portion  of  the  wheel  which  rises  above  the  platform  is  protected  by 
a  circular  box,  and  it  is  found  that  every  time  the  canvass  is  ex- 
panded, there  is  a  slight  jerk,  which  casts  everything  that  has  fallen 
upon  it  to  the  centre,  where  the  bugs  and  fruit  consequently  remain 
until  removed.  The  raised  fingers  to  which  the  canvas  is  attached 
at  the  centre,  and  similarly  raised  pieces  along  each  side  of  the  tree- 
way,  prevent  the  insects  and  fallen  fruit  from  escaping ;  and  there  is 
no  receptacle  below  into  which  they  can  be  brushed.  The  machine 
is  therefore  built  with  the  idea  that  it  is  as  easy  to  pick  up  and  re- 
move the  fallen  beetles  and  fruit  as  it  is  to  brush  them  into  a  recep- 
tacle below. 

In  operating  the  machine  it  is  wheeled  up  to  the  tree  while 
closed,  then  expanded  and  drawn  back  a  little  so  as  to  give  the  tree 
a  jar,  and  then  closed  and  wheeled  away  to  the  next  tree.  Mr.  Hoo- 
ton has  had  a  full  sized  machine  in  operation,  and  it  seems  to  give 
very  good  satisfaction.  As  there  is  considerable  casting  needed,  the 
ordinary  fruit-grower  will  not  be  able  to  manufacture  it  as  easily  as 
he  can  the  Ward  machine;  but  as  all  these  machines  will  doubtless 
be  put  upon  the  market  the  coming  season,  the  reader  must  choose 
for  himself  which  he  prefers. 

I  have  been  urged  to  take  an  interest  in  two  of  these  machines, 
and  even  to  take  out  a  patent  for  certain  improvements  suggested  ; 
but  as  a  public  officer  I  have  refused  to  do  either.  My  object  is  to 
give  a  disinterested  and  candid  account  of  what  I  conceive  to  be  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  any  machine  that  may  appear,  in  the  hope  that 
ere  long  we  shall  have  something  in  the  market,  so  cheap  and  effi- 
cient that  no  peach-grower  will  have  any  excuse  for  not  jarring  his 
trees. 

TWO  TRUE  PARASITES  OF  THE  PLUM  CUKCULIO. 

THE    SIGALPHUS    CtJRCBLIO   PARASITE. 

Just  10  years  ago,  in  his  "Address  on  the  Curculio,"  delivered  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Agricultural  Societ}",  Dr.  Fitch 
gave  an  account,  accompanied  with  a  figure,  of  a  small  Ichneumon- 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


25 


fly  which  he  named  Sigalphus  curouUonis,  and  which  he  believed  was 
[Fig-'']  parasitic  on  the  Curculio.    Be- 
fore that  time  no  parasite  had 
I        XX       xy-  ever  been    known   to   attack 
^^y^         \\£l  ^^^is    pestilent    little    weevil, 
-""■"''^^^^       \  «^'       ....*-->.  g^j^^  even   up  to  the    present 
time  it  is  currently  believed 

>^PF|!   ?  ^^      ^^""^^^1^^^""^^ ^  that  no  such   parasite  exists; 
^  l>^=^  l~/r/ll\ft  for  unfortunately  the  evidence 

given  by  Dr.  Fitch  was  not  suf-^ 
ficient  to  satisfy  some  of  our 
most  eminent  entomologists.  These  parasites  were  in  fact  received 
by  him  from  Mr.  D.  W.  Beadle  of  St.  Catherines,  (J.  W.,  who  had  bred 
them  from  Black-knot,  from  which  he  bred  at  the  same  time  a  certain 
number  of  Curculios ;  but  as  other  worms  besides  those  of  the  Cur- 
culio are  likewise  found  in  Black-knot,  we  had  no  absolute  proof  that 
this  fly  was  parasitic  on  the  insect  in  question.  Consequently  we  find 
that  Mr.  Walsh,  in  his  Report  as  Acting  State  Entomologist  of  Illi- 
nois, rather  ridicules  the  idea  of  its  being  a  Curculio  parasite  and  en- 
deavors to  prove  that  it  is  parasitic  instead  on  the  larva  of  his  Flum 
1\Q>Wi{Sema8ia  iJrunivora).  But  I  have  this  year  not  only  proved 
that  poor  Walsh  was  himself  wrong  in  this  particular  inference,  but 
that  he  was  equally  wrong  in  supposing  his  little  Plum-moth,  so 
called,  to  be  confined  to  plums;  for  I  have  bred  it  from  Galls  (  Quer- 
Gus  frondosa^  Bassett) ;  from  haws,  from  crab  apples  and  abundantly 
from  tame  apples. 

To  be  brief.  Dr.  Fitch's  Sigalvliiis  is  a  true  parasite  on  the  Plum 
Curculio  and  I  have  bred  hundreds  of  the  flies  from  Curculio  larvee. 
The  first  bred  specimens  gave  me  much  pleasure,  for  as  soon  as  I  saw 
they  belonged  to  the  same  genus  as  Dr.  Fitch's  fly,  I  felt  assured  that 
another  disputed  question  was  settled.  But  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure,  I  repeatedly  half  filled  large  jars  with  pure  earth,  finely 
sifted  so  that  no  living  animal  remained  in  it.  Into  these  jars  I  placed 
Curculio  larvce  from  day  to  day  as  they  issued  from  peaches  that 
were  thrown  into  another  vessel,  and  in  due  time  the  parasitic  flies 
began  to  issue  from  the  ground  along  with  the  perfect  Curculios.  Nay 
more  than  this,  I  soon  learned  to  distinguish  such  Curculio  larvae  as 
were  parasitised,  and  after  they  had  worried  themselves  under  the 
ground — seldom  more  than  half  an  inch — I  would  uncover  them,  and 
on  several  occasions  had  the  satisfaction  of  watching  the  gnawing- 
worm  within  reduce  its  victim  until  finely  nothing  was  left  of  him. 

As  soon  as  the  Curculio  larva  is  de- 
stroyed by  the  parasite,  the  latter 
(Fig.  8,  a)  encloses  itself  in  a  tough  lit- 
tle yellowish  cocoon  of  silk  (Fig.  8,  S}, 
then  gradually  assumes  the  pupa  state 
^(Fig.  8,  g)  and  at  the  end  of  about  the 
<^  same  length  of  time  that  the  CurcuUa 


[Fig.  8.] 


26  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

requires  to  undergo  its  transformations  and  issue  as  a  beetle,  this,  its 
deadly  foe,  gnaws  a  hole  through  its  cocoon  and  issues  to  the  light  of 
day  as  a  black  four- winged  fly  (Fig.  7,  a  male  ;  I  female).  In  the 
vicinity  of  St.  Louis,  this  fly  was  so  common  the  past  season  that  af- 
ter verj'  careful  estimates,  I  am  satisfied  three-fourths  of  all  the  more 
early  developed  Curculio  larvas  were  destroyed  by  it.  On  the  17th 
and  18th  of  April,  in  that  locality  a  severe  frost  killed  the  peach  buds 
on  all  but  a  few  of  the  young  and  most  vigorous  trees  of  Hale's  Early 
and  Crawford,  so  that  instead  of  a  large  and  abundant  crop  of  peaches 
to  depredate  on,  the  little  Turk  had  to  concentrate  its  attacks  on  the 
few  peaches  that  were  left:  and  no  one  expected  that  any  fruit  would 
be  saved.  Yet  the  work  of  this  little  parasite  was  so  effectual  that, 
wherever  fruit  set,  a  fair  crop  was  gathered  even  by  those  who  made 
no  effort  at  all  to  protect  their  trees  ! 

"While  visiting  Dr.  Fitch  last  August,  at  his  house  in  Salem,  N.  Y., 
I  compared  my  bred  specimens  with  his  species,  and  found  them 
identically  the  same;  but  a  full  description  of  it  will  be  found  below, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  at  present  to  dwell  upon  its  characters. 

As  Mr.  Walsh  bred  this  same  parasite  from  the  larvae  of  his  little 
Plum  Moth,  it  doubtless  attacks  other  soft-bodied  larvae  and  does  not 
confine  itself  to  the  Plum  Curculio.  This  is  the  more  likely  as  it  would 
scarcely  pass  the  winter  in  the  fly  state.  The  female,  with  that  won- 
derful instinct  which  is  exhibited  in  such  a  surpassing  degree  in  the 
insect  world,  knows  as  well  as  we  great  Lords  of  Creation  what  the 
little  crescent  mark  upon  a  peach  or  plum  indicates  ;  and  can  doubt- 
less tell  with  more  surity,  though  she  never  received  a  lesson  from 
her  parents,  whether  or  not  a  Curculo  larva  is  drilling  its  way  through 
the  iruit.  When  she  has  once  ascertained  the  presence  of  such  a 
larva  by  aid  of  her  antennae — which  she  deftly  applies  to  different 
parts  of  the  fruit,  and  which  doubtless  possess  some  occult  and  deli- 
cate sense  of  perception,  which,  with  our  comparatively  dull  senses, 
we  are  unable  to  comprehend — then  she  i3ierces  the  fruit,  and  with 
unerring  precision,  deposits  a  single  egg  in  her  victim,  by  means  of 
her  ovipositor. 

Now  there  is,  as  I  shall  show  in  the  description,  a  variety  (ruAis) 
of  this  parasite,  with  the  ovipositor  nearly  one-fifth  of  an  inch  long, 
but  in  the  normal  form  the  ovipositor  is  only  twelve-hundredths  of 
an  inch  long,  and  the  Curculio  larva  must  therefore  be  reached  soon 
after  it  hatches,  or  while  yet  very  young.  Consequently  we  find  that 
the  earliest  Curculio  larvae,  or  those  which  hatch  while  the  fruit  is 
yet  small,  are  the  most  subject  to  be  parasitised,  and  while  from  larva 
obtained  early  in  the  season,  I  bred  more  parasites  than  Curculios, 
this  order  of  things  was  reversed  a  little  later  in  the  year.  Some 
persons  will  no  doubt  wonder  how  such  a  large  fly  can  be  developed 
from  a  Curculio  larva  which  is  stung  while  so  young;  but  we  do  not 
know  how  long  the  parasitic  egg  remains  unhatched,  and  it  must  be  re- 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  27 

membered  that  it  is  a  rule,  wisely  ordained  and  long  known  to  exist 
in  insect  life,  that  the  parasitic  larva  does  not  at  first  kill  outright, 
but  subsists,  without  retarding  growth,  upon  the  fatty  portions  of  its 
victim,  until  its  own  growth  is  attained.  Thus  the  first  worm  derives 
its  nourishment  from  the  juicy  fruit,  and  grows  on  regardless  of  the 
parasite  which  is  consuming  its  adipose  substance,  until  the  latter  is 
sufficiently  developed,  and  the  appointed  time  arrives  for  it  to  de- 
stroy its  prey  by  attacking  those  parts  more  vital. 

This  parasite,  which  I  will  now  proceed  to  describe,  belongs  to 
the  second  sub-family  (Braconides)  of  the  Ichneumon-flies  (Ichneii- 
monidce),  and  the  venation  of  its  wings,  and  3-jointed  abdomen,  place 
it  in  the  genus  Sigalphus.  Westwood  (Synopsis,  p.  G3)  gives  three 
cubital  panes  or  areolets  in  the  front  wings  as  characteristic  of  the 
genus ;  but  Brulle  (p.  510)  and,  as  Mr.  Cresson  informs  me,  Westmael 
in  his  Braoonides  de  Belgique^  give  only  two,  which  is  the  number  in 
our  insect. 

Sigalphus  curculionis,  Fitch — Imago — (Fig.  7,  a  male  ;  6  female).  Hcod  black,  sub-polished 
and  sparsely  covered  on  the  face  with  short  whitish  hairs  ;  ocelli  touching  each  other  ;  labrum 
and  jaws  brown  ;  palpi  pale  yellow  ;  antennte  (Fig.  7,  c)  27-jointed,  filiform,  reaching,  when  turned 
back,  to  middle  joint  of  abdomen  or  beyond,  the  bulbus  and  small  second  joint  rufous  and  gla- 
brous, the  rest  black  or  dark  brown,  though  3-10  in  many  specimens  are  more  or  less  tinged  with 
rufous  ;  3-14  very  gradually  diminishing  in  size  ;  14-27  sub-equal.  Thorax  black,  polished,  the 
metathorax  distinctly  and  broadly  punctate,  and  the  rest  more  or  less  distinctly  punctate  or 
rugose,  with  the  sides  sparsely  pubescent.  Abdomen  pitchy-black,  flattened,  the  dorsum  convex, 
the  venter  concave,  and  the  sides  narrow-edged  and  slightly  carinated  ;  the  three  joints  distinctly 
separated  and  of  about  equal  length  ;  the  first  joint  having  two  dorsal  longitudinal  carinee  down 
the  middle;  all  densely  marked  with  very  fine  longitudinally  impressed  lines,  and  sparsely  pubescent; 
(Dr.  Fitch  in  his  description  published  in  the  Country  Gentleman,  under  date  of  September,  1859, 
states  that  these  lines  leave  "  a  smooth  stripe  along  the  middle  of  its  second  segment  and  a  large 
smooth  space  on  the  base  of  the  third  ;"  which  is  true  of  a  few  specimens,  but  not  of  the  majority, 
in  which  the  impressed  lines  generally  cover  the  whole  abdomen.)  Ovipositor  longer  than  abdo- 
men, but  when  stretched  in  a  line  with  it,  projecting  backwards  about  the  same  length  beyond  ; 
rufous,  with  the  sheaths  black.  Legs  pale  rufous,  with  the  upper  part  of  hind  tibias  aud  tarsi,  and 
sometimes  the  hind  femora,  dusky.  Wings  subhyaline  and  iridescent,  the  veins  pale  rufous,  and 
the  stigma  black.  Length  2j  0.15-0.16  inch,  expanse  0.30;  (^  differs  only  in  his  some- 
what smaller  size  and  in  lacking  the  ovipositor.  In  many  specimens  the  mesothorax  and  the  eyes 
are  more  or  less  distinctly  rufous. 

Described  from 50  $$,  10  c3^(j',  bred  June  23d-July  29th,  1870,  from  larvas  of  Conotrachelus 
nenuphar,  and  2  $  §  obtained  from  Dr.  Fitch. 

Larva  (Fig.  8,  a) — White,  with  translucent  yellowish  mottlings. 

Pupa  (Fig.  8,  c  $)— 0.17,  inch  long;  whitish,  the  members  all  distinct,  the  an tennte  touch- 
ing hind  tarsi,  the  ovipositor  curved  round  behind,  reaching  and  touching  with  its  tip  the 
third  abdominal  joint,  which  afterwards  forms  the  apical  joint  of  imago;  five  ventral  joints, 
which  in  the  imago  become  much  absorbed  and  hidden,  being  strongly  developed. 

Cocoon  (Fig.  c,  b) — Composed  of  one  layer  of  closely  woven  yellowish  silk. 

Variety  RUFos — Head,  thorax  and  most  of  first  abdominal  joint  entirely  rufous,  with  the 
middle  and  hind  tibiaj  dusky,  and  the  ovipositor  three  times  as  long  as  abdomen  and  projecting 
more  than  twice  the  length  of  the  same  beyond  its  tip. 

Described  from  three  $  5  bred  promiscuously  with  the  others.  This  variety  is  slightly 
larger  and  diB"ers  so  remarkably  from  the  normal  form  that,  were  it  not  for  the  absolute  corres- 
pondence in  all  the  sculpturing  of  the  thorax  and  body,  and  in  the  venation  of  the  wings,  it  might 
be  considered  distinct.  The  greater  length  of  the  ovipositor  is  very  characteristic,  and  accompa- 
nies the  other  variation  in  all  three  of  the  specimens. 


28  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

THE    PORIZON  CURCUI/IO   PARASITE. 

The  other  parsite   works  in  very  much   the  same  manner,  but 

instead  of  issuing  the  same  summer  as  a 
fly,  it  remains  in  its  somewhat  tougher 
and  more  yellowish  cocoon  all  through 
the  fall  and  winter,  and  does  not  issue 
,  in  the  winged  state  till  the  following 
^spring.  This  parasite  was  first  discov- 
ered by  Dr.  Trimble,  who  sent  me  the 
cocoons  from  which  I  subsequently 
bred  the  perfect  fly.  It  belongs  to  the 
first  sub-family  {Tchneuinonides)  of 
the  Ichneumon-flies,  and  apparently  to  the  genus  Porizon*  of  which 
it  forms  a  new  species.  It  is  only  necessary  here  to  state  that  it 
diff'ers  from  the  other  species  in  its  reddish-brown  abdomen,  as  well  as 
in  form,  as  may  be  readily  seen  by  referring  to  the  figures  (Fig.  9,  a 
female;  5  male;  c  antenna). 

PoRizoN  CONOTRACHEU,  N.  Sp.— Hfflfi  pitchy-black,  opaquGj  the  ocelli  triangularly  placed  and 
close  together ;  ej'es  oval,  polished,  and  black  ;  face  covered  with  a  silvery-white  pubescence  ; 
iabrum  rufous,  with  yellowish  hairs  ;  mandibles  and  palpi,  pale  yellowish^brown  ;  antennas  in- 
serted in  depressions  between  the  eyes,  reaching  to  metathorax  when  turned  back,  filiform, 
24-jointed;  black  with  basal  joints  6-1  becoming  more  and  more  rufous,  the  bulbus  always  dis- 
tinctly rufous  ;  bulbus  rather  longer  and  twice  as  thick  as  joint  3  ;  joint  2  about  one-third  as  long. 
Thorax  pitchy-black,  opaque,  the  sides  slightly  pubescent  with  whitish  hairs,  the  mesothorax 
rounded  and  bulging  anteriorly,  the  scutellum  slightly  excavated  and  sharply  defined  by  a  carina 
each  side  ;  metathorax  with  the  elevated  lines  well  defined  and  running  parallel  and  close  together 
from  scutellum  to  about  one-fourth  their  length,  then  suddenly  diverging  and  each  forking  about 
the  middle.  Abdomen  glabrous,  polished,  very  slender  at  base,  gradually  broader  and  much  com- 
pressed from  the  sides  at  the  apex  which  is  truncated;  peduncle  uniform  in  diameter  and  as  long 
as  joints  2  and  3  together  ;  joints  2-6  subequal  in  length  ;  color  rufous  with  the  peduncle  wholly, 
dorsum  of  joint  2,  a  lateral  shade  on  joint  3,  and  more  or  less  of  the  two  apical  joints  superiorly, 
especially  at  their  anterior  edges,  black;  venter  more  yellowish:  ovipositor  about  as  long  as  ab- 
domen, porrect  when  in  use,  curved  upwards  when  at  rest,  rufous,  with  the  sheaths  longer  and 
black.  Legs,  including  trochanters  and  cosa3  uniformly  pale  yellowish-brown  with  the  tips  of 
tarsi  dusky.  Wings  subhyaline  and  iridescent,  with  veins  and  stigma  dark  brown,  the  stigma 
quite  large,  and  the  two  discoidal  cells  subequal  and,  as  usual  in  this  genua,  joining  end  to  end, 
but  with  the  upper  veins  which  separate  them  from  the  radial  cell,  slightly  elbowed  instead  of 
being  straight,  thus  giving  the  radial  cell  a  quadrangular  rather  than  a  triangular  appearance, 
(3' diS"ers  from  $  only  in  his  somewhat  smaller  size  and  unarmed  abdomen.  Expanse  J  0-32 
inch,  length  of  body,  exclusive  of  ovipositor  0.22;  expanse  (j*  0.28,  length  0.18. 

Described  from  3  J  $j  1  cT  bred  May  26th-28th,  1870,  from  cocoons  received  from  Dr.  I.  P. 
Trimble,  of  New  Jersey,  and  1  $  subsequently  received  from  the  same  gentleman — all  ob^ 
taiijed  fronj  larvBB  of  Conotrachelus  nenuphar, 

"But  of  what  use  are  these  parasites?"  say  you  !  Well,  they  can 
not,  it  is  true,  be  turned  to  very  practical  account,  because  they  are 
not  sufliciently  under  our  control;  but  it  is  a  source  of  great  satisfac- 
tion to  those  who  have  been  looking  for  many  years  for  some  natural 
aid  to  help  them  in  the  artificial  warfare  waged  against  the  Curculio, 

*  As  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  E.  T.  Cresson,  of  Philadelphia,  who  pays  especial  attention  to  the 
classification  of  the  lchneumonid<c,  it  might  more  properly  be  referred  to  IJolmgre'i's  genus  Ther- 
silochus,  which  differs  from  Porizon  in  the  greater  distance  between  the  ^ntenoje  at  base,  jind  in 
the  vejiatjon  of  the  iving, 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGISl'.  29* 

to  know  that  besides  its  several  cannibal  foes,  there  are  at  last  two 
true  parasites  which  attack  it.  Indeed,  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
Cnrculio  enemies  figured  and  described  two  years  ago  in  the  Ameri- 
can Entomologist^  and  of  the  egg-destroying  Thrips  which  I  men- 
tioned last  year  in  a  paper  published  in  the  Illinois  State  Horticul- 
tural Transactions  for  1869  (p.  90),  and  these  tAVO  parasites,  the  grower 
of  our  luscious  stone-fruits  may  with  good  reason  begin  to  hope  for 
better  days,  for  the  prospect  brightens.  There  is  no  philosophy  in 
the  statement  of  Mr.  W.  B.  Ransom,*  that  we  can  never  hope  for 
assistance  from  parasites,  because,  as  he  confidently  expresses  it,. 
"there  are  none  at  present  but  what  have  always  existed!"  Such  ar- 
gument will  do  for  the  believers  in  the  old-school  doctrine,  that  every 
thing  was  created  just  as  we  find  it;  but  not  for  those  who  rightly 
comprehend  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  of  development,  and  who 
believe  that  life  is  slowly  undergoing  change  and  modification  to-day 
just  as  it  ever  has  since  it  had  an  existence  on  this  Earth.  For  my 
own  part,  nothing  has  ever  appeared  more  absurd  than  the  direct 
creation  of  something  out  of  nothing,  and  I  would  as  soon  believe 
that  we  all  dropped  full  grown  from  the  clouds — instead  of  being 
brought  into  the  world  by  natural  means  and  gradually  developing 
into  manhood  and  womanhood — or  that  we  have  the  same  habits  as 
our  barbarous  ancestors  had;  as  to  believe  that  the  animal  life  about 
US  is  now  as  it  was  in  the  beginning!  Therefore,  though  these  Curcu- 
lio  parasites  may  have  existed  in  this  country  long  ere  the  white  man 
first  beheld  its  shores,  yet  they  may  only  have  acquired  the  habit  of 
preying  upon  the  Curculio  within  the  last  comparatively  iew  years. 
Moreover,  much  benefit  may  be  derived  from  their  artificial  propaga- 
tion and  dissemination,  and — Utopian  as  the  scheme  may  appear 
—I  intend  next  year,  Deo  votente,  to  breed  enough  of  the  first 
mentioned  species  to  send  at  least  a  dozen  to  every  county  seat  in  the 
State,  and  have  them  liberated  into  some  one's  peach  orchard. 


THE  APPLE  CVRO\] LlO.—AntJwnomus  quadrigihhus.  Say. 

"Prove  all  things  ;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good !" 
This  injunction  of  St.  Paul  applies  with  just  as  much  force  to  us 
to-day,  as  it  did  in  centuries  past  to  the  Thessalonians.  In  v/hat  has 
been  said  above  about  the  Plum  Curculio,  we  have  had  abundant  op- 
portunity of  testing  the  soundness  of  the  old  proverb,  and  in  ascer- 
taining the  history  of  the  Apple  Curculio,  which  I  am  about  to  give, 
it  was  very  necessary  to  bear  the  advice  in  mind.  It  often  takes  years 
to  undo  the  assertions  of  men  who  are  in  the  habit  of  talking  glibly  of 

*  Prairie  Farmer i  June  4th,  1870. 


30 


THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


that  which  they  really  know  nothing  about,  and  I  ought  to  comment 
severely  on  what  has  been  said  about  this  insect;  but  I  refrain  from 
doing  so,  in  this  case,  lest  it  be  said  that  ray  words  are  prompted  from 
personal  considerations.*  I  shall  therefore  content  myself  with  a 
plain  narrative  of  this  insect's  habits. 

First  then,  let  us  explain  the  differences  between  the  perfect 
states  of  this  insect  and  the  Plum  Curculio,  that  any  one  may  distin- 
guish between  them. 

The  snout  of  the  Flum  Curculio  hangs  down  like  the  trunk  of 
an  elephant;  it  is  short,  stout,  and  does  not  admit  of  being  stretched 
out  horizontally  forwards  ;  and  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  the 
figure  (Fig.  1,  c)  is  scarcely  as  long  as  the  head  and  thorax  together, 
and  can  be  folded  back  between  the  legs,  where  there  is  a  groove  to 
receive  it.  The  Plum  Curculio  is  broadest  across  the  shoulders  and 
narrows  behind,  and  moreover,  the  black  sealing-wax-like,  knife-edged 
elevations  on  the  back,  with  the  pale  band  behind  them,  characterize 
it  at  once  from  all  our  other  fruit  boring  snout-beetles. 

The  Apple,  or  Four-humped  Curculio 
(Fig.  10,  (2,  natural  size;  h,  side  view;  c, 
back  view,)  is  a  smaller  insect  with  a  snout 
which  sticks  out  more  or  less  horizontally 
and  can  not  be  folded  under,  and  which  in 
the  male  is  about  half  as  long,  and  in  the 
female  is  fully  as  long  as  the  whole  body. 
This  insect  has  narrow  shoulders  and  broad- 
ens behind,  where  it  is  furnished  with  four 
very  conspicuous  humps,  from  which  it  takes  its  name.  It  has  nei- 
ther the  polished  black  elevations  nor  the  pale  band  of  the  Plum  Cur- 
culio.    In  short,  it  differs  generically,  and  never  attacks  stone  fruit. 

The  size  varies  from  l-20th  to  nearly  l-12th  of  an  inch,  but  the  col- 
ors are  quite  uniform,  the  body  being  ferruginous  or  rusty-brown 
often  with  the  thorax  and  anterior  third  of  the  wing-covers  ash-gray 
—the  thorax  having  three  more  or  less  distinct  pale  lines. 


ITS   NATURAL   HISTORY. 

This  beetle  like  the  Plum-weevil  is  a  native  American  insect,  and 
has  from  time  immemorial  fed  on,  and  bred  in,  our  wild  crabs.  It  is 
also  commonly  met  with  on  the  Thorn,  and  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders,  of 
London,  C.W.,  tells  me  that  though  abundant  on  the  last  named  tree,  i  t 
has  not  yet  learned  to  attack  the  apple  in  his  locality.  It  eventually 
learned  to  like  our  cultivated  apples  and  pears,  and  is  also  found  on 
quinces.  At  present  it  does  considerable  damage  to  the  crop  in  some 
localities,  though  it  yet  prefers  the  wild  to  the  cultivated  fruit.    Like 

«My  views  on  this  subject,  with  comments  on  whiit  has  been  said  about  this  insect,  may  be 
found  in  a  controversy,  in  articles  published  in  the  American  Entomologist  and  Botanist,  Vol.  11, 
pp.  '225-7  and  268-7J  ;  the  Prairie  Farmer,  Ju]y  16th,  2:id  and  Aug.  27th,  1870;  and  the  Journal  of 
Agriculture,  Oct.  13th,  and  Nov.  10th  and  17th,  1870. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


31 


the  Plum-weevil  also,  it  is  single-brooded,  and  winters  over  in  the 
beetle  state,  though  I  was  led  to  believe  differently  a  year  ago.  With 
its  long  thin  snout  it  drills  holes  into  the  fruit,  much  resembling  the 
puncture  of  a  hot  needle,  the  hole  being  round,  with  a  more  or  less 
intense  black  annulation.  and  an  ash-gray  centre.  Those  holes  made 
for  food  are  about  one-tenth  of  an  inch  deep  and  generally  scooped 
out  broadly  at  the  bottom  in  the  shape  of  a  gourd.  Those  which  the 
female  makes  for  her  eggs  are  scooped  out  still  more  broadly  and  the 
eg^  at  the  bottom  is  often  found  larger  than  the  puncture  at  the  orifice 
— thus  indicating  that  it  swells  from  absorption,  by  a  sort  of  endos- 
mosis,  of  nutritive  fluid  from  the  surrounding  fruit,  just  as  the  eggs  of 
many  saw-flies  and  of  some  other  snout-beetles  are  known  to  do. 

The  egg  is  fully  0.04  of  an  inch  long,  nearly  oval,  not  quite  three 
times  as  long  as  wide,  and  of  a  yellowish  color,  with  one  end  dark 
and  empty  when  the  embryo  larva  is  well  formed.  The  egg-shell  is 
so  very  fine  that  the  larva  seems  to  gradually  develop  from  it 
instead  of  crawling  out  of  it ;  and  by  taking  a  matured  egg  and  gently 
rolling  it  between  the  thumb  and  finger,  the  young  larva  presents 
itself,  and  at  this  early  age  its  two  little  light  brown  mandibles  show 
distinctly  on  the  head.  As  soon  as  this  larva  hatches  it  generally 
goes  right  to  the  heart  of  the  fruit  and  it  feeds  there  around  the  core, 
producing  much  rust-red  excrement,  and  acquiring  a  tint  of  the  same 
color.  It  feeds  for  nearly  a  month,  and  when  full  grown  presents  the 
appearance  of  Figure  11,  h. 

It  differs  so  remarkably  from  that  of 
the  Plum  Curculio  that  the  two  insects 
can  be  distinguished  at  a  glance  even  in 
this  masked  form.  It  is  softer,  the  chi- 
tinous  covering  being  thinner  and  much 
whiter.  It  cannot  stretch  straight  and 
travel  fast  as  can  that  of  the  Plum  Cur- 
culio, but  curls  round  with  an  arched 
back,  joints  4-7  being  larger  than  the  preceding.  It  is  more  crink- 
led, each  joint  being  divided  into  three  principal  folds  much  as  in  the 
common  White  Grub.  The  space  between  the  folds  is  frequently  blu- 
ish-black, and  there  is  a  very  distinct,  continuous,  vascular,  dorsal 
line  of  a  bluish  color.  It  has  no  bristles  like  nenuphar  except  a  few 
weak  ones  on  the  first  joint,  arising  from  some  ventral  tubercles 
which  remind  one  of  feet.  The  head  is  yellowish-brown  with  the 
jaws  somewhat  darker,  and  the  breathing  pores,  except  that  in  the  fold 
of  the  first  joint,  are  not  easily  seen. 


[Fi 


IT  TRANSFORMS  IN  THE  FRUIT. 


The  fruit  of  the  wild  crab  containing  this  larva  never  falls,  and 
the  fruit  of  our  cultivated  apples  seldom ;  and  in  this  respect  the 
efi"ect  of  its  work  differs  remarkably  from  that  of  the  Plum  Curculio, 


53  xaiRD   ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

or  even  of  the  Codling  Moth.  Why  such  is  the  case  it  would  be  diffl- 
cult  to  explain  !  It  is  one  of  those  incomprehensible  facts  which  at 
every  turn  confront  the  student  of  Nature's  works.  We  might  with 
-equal  reason  ask  why  it  is  that  of  the  two  stone  fruits,  the  plum  and 
the  cherry,  the  larger  falls  and  perishes  and  the  smaller  hangs  on  and 
lives,  when  infested  with  the  Plum  Curculio;  and  of  the  two  poma- 
ceous  fruits,  the  apple  and  the  haw,  the  larger  likewise  falls  and 
perishes  and  the  smaller  hangs  on  and  lives,  when  infested  with  sim- 
ilar larvte?  Most  persons  would  naturally  infer  that  the  larger  in- 
stead of  the  smaller  fruits  would  best  resist  the  injurious  gnawings  of 
the  worm  within  ;  and  though  we  may  explain  away  the  paradox  by 
supposing  that  the  longer  stem  of  the  smaller  fruits  prevents  the  in- 
jury from  reaching  its  juncture  with  the  branch,  so  readily  as  it  does 
through  the  shorter  stem  of  the  larger  fruits;  or  that  the  greater 
weight  of  the  larger  fruit  causes  it  to  fall  so  readily  ;  yet  this  is  only 
assuming,  and  I  doubt  whether  the  vegetable  pathologist  will  ever  be 
■able  to  show  the  peculiarities  of  the  fruits  which  cause  the  different 
effects. 

The  larva  of  the  Apple  Curculio  has  no  legs  and  is  so  hump^ 
backed  that  it  cannot  stretch  out,  and  would  cut  a  very  sorry  figure 
in  attempting  to  descend  the  tree.  Therefore,  as  the  fruit  containing 
it  mostly  hangs  on  the  tree,  the  insect  is  effectually  imprisoned.  But 
Nature's  ways  are  always  ways  of  wisdom  and  her  resources  are  inex- 
haustible !  Consequently  we  find  that  instead  of  having  to  go  under 
ground  to  transform,  as  does  the  Plum  Curculio,  the  normal  habit  of 
our  Apple  Curculio  is  to  transform  within  the  fruit.  The  larva,  after 
becoming  full  fed,  settles  down  in  a  neat  cavity,  and  soon  throws  off 
its  skin  and  assumes  the  papa  state,  when  it  appears  as  at  Figure  11, 
a.  After  remaining  in  this  state  from  two  to  three  weeks  it  under- 
goes another  moult  and  the  perfect  beetle  state  is  assumed.  We  thus 
see  that  the  Apple  Curculio  is  cradled  in  the  fruit  in  which  it  was 
born  till  it  is  a  perfect  beetle,  fully  fledged,  and  ready  to  carry  out 
the  different  functions  and  objects  of  its  life.  In  other  words,  itnever 
leaves  the  fruit,  after  hatching,  till  it  has  become  a  perfect  beetle. 
This  fact  I  have  fully  tested  by  breeding  a  number  myself  both  from 
infested  crabs  which  I  collected,  and  from  cultivated  apples,  also  in- 
fested, that  were  kindly  forwarded  to  me  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Miller,  of  Anna, 
Illinois.  I  learn  also  from  Mr.  George  Parmelee  of  Old  Mission, 
Michigan,  that  he  has  satisfied  himself  of  the  same  trait  in  the  natural 
history  of  this  insect,  and  I  fully  convinced  myself  that  such  was  the 
normal  habit,  by  repeatedly  removing  the  full  grown  larva  from  the 
fruit  and  placing  it  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  when,  in  every  in- 
stance, it  would  make  no  attempt  to  bury  itself,  but  would  always 
transform  on  the  surface. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  33 

TUE  AMOUNT  OF  DAMAGE  IT  DOES. 

Tlie  observations  that  I  have  been  able  to  make  on  this  insect's 
work  in  our  cultivated  orchards  are  limited,  but  I  think  that  it  attaclvs 
vrith  equal  relish  both  summer  and  winter  apples.  Whenever  a  beetle 
has  ijerfected  in  the  fruit,  it  cuts  quite  a  large  hole  for  its  escape,  and 
these  holes  are  sufficiently  characteristic  to  enable  one  who  has  paid 
attention  to  the  matter  to  tell  with  tolerable  certainty  whether  an 
apple  has  been  infested  with  Apple-worm,  Plum  Curculio,  or  Apple 
Curculio — even  after  the  depredator  has  left. 

In  the  southern  portion  of  Illinois  and  in  some  parts  of  Missouri 
this  insect  is  very  abundant  and  does  much  damage  to  the  apple  crop ; 
it  occurs  in  greater  or  less  numbers  in  most  States  of  the  Union,  but 
in  other  localities  again  its  work  is  scarcely  ever  seen,  and  I  am  satis- 
fied that  the  damage  it  does  has  been  much  overrated.  We  can  only 
judge  of  the  future  by  the  past,  and  though  we  may  expect  this  insect 
to  increase  somewhat  with  the  increase  of  our  orchards,  it  is  folly  to 
suppose  that  it  can  go  on  increasing  in  geometrical  ratio ;  and  the  pretty 
mathematical  calculations  which  are  intended  to  alarm  the  cultivator 
at  the  gloomy  prospects  of  the  future,  are  never  made  by  those  who 
understand  the  complicated  net- work  in  which  every  animal  organism 
is  entangled,  or  who  rightly  understand  the  numerous  influences  at 
work  to  keep  each  species  within  due  bounds.  Such  figures  look  well 
on  paper,  but,  like  air-castles,  there  is  nothing  real  about  them. 

Our  apples  suffer  much  more,  in  many  localities,  from  the  goug- 
ings  of  the  perfect  beetle  and  the  burrowings  of  the  larva  of  the  Plum 
Curculio,  than  they  do  from  the  work  of  this  Apple  Curculio  ;  and 
this  was  so  much  the  case  in  my  own  locality  the  past  summer,  that 
I  found  a  dozen  larvae  of  the  former  in  apples,  where  I  found  one  of 
the  latter. 

At  the  late  meeting  of  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural  Society, 
Mr.  K  Daggy,  of  Tuscola,  Illinois,  had  on  exhibition  some  pears  that 
were  very  much  deformed  and  gnarled.  This  injury  had  been  caused 
by  the  Apple  Curculio,  which  Mr.  Daggy  recognized  from  figures  and 
specimens  which  I  had  with  me.  Upon  examining  the  pears  I  found 
a  little  dark  circular  spot  which  indicated  distinctly  where  the  snout 
of  the  beetle  had  been  inserted.  This  spot  was  the  center  of  a  hard 
and  irregular  but  generally  rounded  knot  or  swelling,  which  was  sunk 
in  a  depression  of  the  softer  parts  of  the  pear,  thus  indicating  that 
the  growth,  by  some  property  of  the  puncture,  was  checked  and 
hardened,  while  the  other  parts  went  on  growing  and  swelling.  Some 
of  the  fruit  was  so  badly  disfigured  that  it  could  no  longer  be  recog- 
nized, and  Mr.  Daggy  informed  me  that  his  Vicar  of  Winkfield,  Berga- 
mott  and  "Sugar"  pears  were  most  affected  in  this  way,  and  that  his 
Duchesse  pears  were  unblemished. 

While  the  fruit  is  growing  these  punctures,  in  almost  every  in 
stance,  cause  just  such  calloused  spots  and  deformities  as  those  des 
s  E— 3 


34  THraD'  ANKUAL  REPORT  OF 

crifced  above,  "bnt  when  ike  fruit  is  ripe  they  have  a  far  more  perni- 
cious effect,  for  they  generally  cause  the  fruit  to  rot.  It  is  now  a  well 
established  fact  that  the  common  Plum  Ourculio  causes  the  dreaded 
rot  in  peaches,  plums,  etc.,  to  spread  at  a  fearful  rate  by  the  punctures 
and  gougings  which  it  makes  on  the  ripening  fruit;  and  that  where 
this  predisposing  influence  is  guarded  against,  such  rot  is  generally 
confined  to  comparative  narrow  limits  or  does  not  occur  at  all.  Many 
varieties  of  apples  are  disposed  to  rot  in  a  similar  manner,  and  to  fall 
from  the  tree  just  as  they  are  ripening.  This  rot  in  apples,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  transactions  of  our  State  Horticultural  S^ociety,  was 
very  prevalent  last  fall — the  Kawles  Janet  being  especially  predis- 
posed to  it — and  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  punctures  and 
gnawings  of  the  little  Turk,  combined  with  those  of  the  Apple  Cur- 
culio  are  likewise  the  pricipal  agents  in  producing  it;  for  I  have  over 
and  over  again  noticed  the  rot  to  spread  in  a  circle  from  thes«  punc- 
tures, not  only  on  hanging  fruit  but  just  as  invariably  upon  fruit 
punctured  after  it  was  plucked.  Whether  we  believe  that  the  fungus 
growths,  often  noticeable  on  such  rotting  fruit,  are  the  direct  result  of 
the  punctures,  or  that  the  latter  only  act  indirectly  by  furnishing  a 
proper  nidus  for  the  infectious  fungus-spores  which  are  supposed  tO' 
be  ever  floating  in  the  atmosphere,  is  a  question  which  I  shall  not 
mow  stop  to  consider,  though  I  have  my  own  views  which  are  some- 
■wliat^feterodox.  In  either  case,  the  Curculios  are  just  as  much  to 
blame,  and  this  should  be  an  additional  incentive  to  a  general  war^ 
if^re  .upon  them.  Judge  A.  M.  Brown,  of  Villa  Ridge,  has  noticed  that 
■some  varieties  of  apples  are  mucli  more  subject  to  rot  and  also  more 
.subject  to  the  attacks  of  Curculios  than  others,*  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  he  will  make  further  observations  and  give  us  a  reliable  list  of 
such  varieties,  and  that  other  fruit-growers  will  do  the  same. 

THE   SEASON  OF  THE    YEAR  DURING   WHICH  IT  WORKS. 

The  beetles  come  from  their  winter  quarters  and  begin  to  work  on 
lithe  fruit  at  about  the  same  time  as  does  the  Plum  Curculio — if  any- 
thing, a  little  later.  They  have  generally  got  fully  to  work,  and  larvae 
may  be  found  already  hatched  by  the  first  of  June,  and  they  may  be 
found  in  the  fruit,  in  one  stage  or  another,  all  along  through  the 
;months  of  June  and  July  and  the  greater  part  of  August. 

JIEMEDIES  AND  PREVENTIVE  MEASURES. 

Notwithstanding  we  have  had  reports,  published  in  the  columns  of 
.  our  agricultural  papers,  of  the  relative  number  of  Apple  and  Plum  Cur- 
culios captured  from  peach  trees  by  jarring  with  the  Curculio-catch- 
er,  I  am  fully  convinced  that  such  reports  were  not  based  on  facts,  and 
that  we  may  never  expect  to  subdue  this  insect  by  the  jarring  pro- 
cess.   It  is  not  as  timid  or.  as  much  inclined  to  drop  as  the  Plum  Cur- 

ii-prairie  Farmer,  January  28,  1871.^ 


THE  STATE   ENT0M0L00I6T.  rg6 

ciilio,  and  though  it  can  occasional!}-  be  brought  clown,  it  generally 
remains  defiantly  on  the  fruit  or  on  the  bough,  through  the  gentles^t 
as  well  as  the  severest  jarring  of  the  tree.  Indeed,  its  habit  of  trans- 
forming in  the  fruit,  places  it  in  a  great  measure  beyond  our  control, 
and  I  fear  that  this  is  one  of  the  few  insects  with  which  we  cm\  do 
but  little  by  artificial  means.  But  we  have  only  just  commenced  to 
understand  this  foe,  and  there  is  much  yet  to  learn  about  it.  I  sin- 
cerely hope  that  the  few  facts  which  have  been  here  given,  will  in- 
crease the  reader's  interest  in  this  insect  and  enable  him  to  carry  on  fu- 
ture observations  and  experiments  with  a  better  understanding;  so 
that  they  will  at  last  result  in  making  us  masters  of  this  rather  difficult 
situation.  Mr.  H.  Lewelling,  of  High  Hill,  Montgomery  county.  Mis 
souri,  who  has  had  much  of  his  fruit  injured  by  this  insect,  informs  me 
that  Tallman's  Sweet  is  preferred  by  it  to  all  other  varieties,  and  our 
observations  should,  as  much  as  possible,  tend  in  the  direction  of  de- 
ciding which  varieties  are  most  subject  to,  and  which  most  exempt 
from  its  attacks;  and  which  varieties  fall  most  readily  when  infested 
by  it.  For  it  is  obvious  that  with  our  present  knowledge,  the  onl}^ 
real  remedy  which  yet  exists,  is  the  destruction  of  the  infested  fruit, 
whether  upon  or  off  the  tree;  and  it  may  turn  out  that  although  we 
cannot  jar  down  the  beetles,  we  can  jar  down  much  of  the  infested 
fruit,  which  w^ould,  without  jarring,  remain  on  the  trees. 

Anthonomus  quadrigibbus,  Say — Larva  (Fig.  11,  6) — Average  dorsal  length  wbeai  full  grown 
0.45  inch;  soft  and  ■white,  with  a  very  few  sparse  soft  hairs  ;  arched  and  wrinkled  Lamellicorn- 
fashion,  the  space  between  the  wrinkles,  and  a  distinct  dorsal  vascular  line,  bluish-black.  Head 
free  and  almost  perpendicular,  yellowish-brown  with  the  mandibles  darker.  A  pair  of  polished 
ventral  tubercles  on  each  of  the  three  thoracic  joints,  and  each  bearing  a  distinct  bristle. 

Pupa  (Fig.  11,  c) — Average  length  0.40  inch.  Whitish,  the  snout  of  $  reaching  beyond 
tip  of  wing-cases,  that  of  ^5*  not  much  beyond  the  elbow  of  middle  femora  and  tibia}.  Thorax 
wilh  a  few  short  stiff  hairs  springing  from  slight  conical  elevations.  Wing-cases  showing  the 
striffi  and  humps  of  future  beetle,  the  tip  of  the  upper  case  usually  terminating  in  a  thorn.  The 
nine  abdominal  joints  deeply  and  distinctly  separated,  the  first  showing  a  rounded  scuttellar  tur- 
bercle  ;  the  sides  angular,  conically  ridged  and  armed  on  each  joint  with  two  brown  thorns  or 
bristles,  which  become  stouter  towards  apex  ;  a  transverse  dorsal  row  of  about  eight  similar  bris- 
tles on  the  posterior  sub-margin  of  each  joint,  also  becoming  larger  towards  apex:  Terminal  sub- 
■segment  ending  in  one  stout,  slightly  curved,  thorn. 


THE  QUINCE  CURCVLIO—Conoirachelus  craicBffi,  Wsihh. 

HOW   IT   DIFFERS   FROM   THE    OTHERS. 

This  insect  has  been  called  the  Quince  Curculio  by  Dr.  Trimble, 
and  though  it  breeds  in  other  fruits,  the  name  is  a  good  one  as  it  "will 
enable  us  to  distinguish  it  at  once  from  our  other  fruit  snout-beetles. 
I  have  had  the  beetle  in  my  cabinet  for  several  years,  but  knew  noth- 
ing of  its  larval  history  till  a  year  ago  last  falL  It  breeds  very  abund- 
antly in  our  common  haws,  and  I  raised  a  number  of  them  the  pres- 


85  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

ent  season  from  the  fruit  of  the  Pear  or  Black  Thorn  ( Cratoegus  to- 
mentosa)  obtained  from  Mr.  Walsh. 

Though  belonging  to  the  same  genus  as  our 
'Plum  Curculio,  and  having  ver}"  much  the  same 
form;  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  the  figure, 
(Fig.  12,  a  side  view  ;  h  back  view),  yet  it  differs 
remarkably  in  its  habits  from  both  of  the  preced- 
,ing  weevils.  It  is,  like  them,  an  indigenous  spe- 
cies, and  its  original  fruit  was  evidently  the  wild 
Haw,  which  in  the  West  it  yet  seems  to  prefer  to 
the  cultivated  fruits.  But  in  the  East  it  has  become  very  injurious 
to  the  Quince  and,  as  we  might  naturally  expect,  also  attacks  the 
Pear,  and  especially  the  Lawrence  and  other  late  varieties.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1868, 1  received  specimens  from  W.  W.  Sweet,  of  Highstown, 
W.  J.,  with  the  statement  that  they  were  found  on  pears,  and  Dr. 
Trimble  at  a  late  meeting  of  the  New  York  Farmers'  Club  (Oct.  22, 
1870),  gave  the  following  account  of  its  injuries  in  New  Jersey  the 
present  year: 

"Yesterday  five  or  six  hundred  were  taken  from  the  bottoms  ot 
two  barrels  of  quinces,  although  those  quinces  had  only  been  gath- 
ered four  days  before.  A  friend  of  mine  has  a  quince  orchard  of  286 
trees.  These  trees  this  season  should  average  seventy  or  eighty 
quinces  to  a  tree,  making  more  than  twenty  thousand.  Upon  a  most 
careful  search  I  was  unable  to  find  one  specimen  perfect,  or  clear  of 
one  or  more  blemishes  caused  by  the  punctures  of  this  insect.  Fre- 
quently four,  five,  or  six  grubs  will  be  found  in  a  single  quince.  Mr. 
Goldsmith,  the  owner,  keeps  this  orchard  in  first-rate  order;  he  has 
faithfully  kept  out  the  borers,  so  fatal  to  the  quince  trees;  has  fertil- 
ized very  freely,  and  the  cultivation  is  perfect.  He  told  me  yester- 
day, that  his  crop  this  year  is  thirty  barrels,  which  will  yield  him 
about  §!125.  Had  this  insect  let  him  alone  he  should  have  had  at  least 
100  barrels,  worth  .f800  to  $1,000.  Many  of  his  later  pears,  including 
the  Seckel  and  Lawrence,  have  suff'ered  greatly,  though  not  to  the 
same  extent  as  his  quinces.  A  few  days  ago  he  emptied  a  barrel  of 
cullings,  chiefly  Lawrence  pears,  and  in  and  near  the  bottom  of  that 
barrel  were  found  at  least  4C0  of  these  grubs.  A  month  ago  I  visited 
the  orchards  attached  to  one  of  the  best  nurseries  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  I  found  the  sad  evidence  of  the  presence  of  this  enemy.  Even 
the  Seckel  pears,  though  very  abundant,  were  almost  worthless; 
later  varieties  still  worse.  Mr.  Fuller  tells  me  that  he  has  seen  this 
season,  in  Western  New  York,  the  same  condition  of  fruit  at  a  well 
known  nursery,  even  the  Duchesse  pears  almost  totally  destroyed. 
This  fruit  enemy  seems  yet  confined  to  localities;  but  is  spreading 
rapidly." 

This  beetle  was  first  very  briefly  described  by  Mr.  Walsh  in  a  note 
in  the  Prarie  Farmer  for  July  18th,  1863,  p.  37,  from  specimens  found 
by  him  on  the  hawthorn,  but  until  I  bred  it  this  spring,  nothing  was 
known  of  its  larval  history.  It  is  a  somewhat  larger  insect  than  the 
Plum  Curculio,  has  a  comparatively  longer  snout,  and  is  very  broad- 
shouldered;  thus  tapering  just  the  opposite  way  to  the  Apple  Curcu- 


OF   THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  37 

lie.  Its  general  color  is  a  tolerably  uniform  ash-gray,  mottled  more 
or  less  with  ochre-yellow,  dusky  and  whitish,  and  it  has  a  dusky 
somewhat  triangular  spot  at  the  base  of  the  thorax  above,  and  seven 
distinct  narrow  longitudinal  elevations  on  the  wing-covers,  with  two 
rows  of  punctures  between  each. 

This  beetle  differs  farther  from  the  others,  in  the  fact  that  it  does 
not  appear,  even  in  tlie  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  till  about  the  first  of 
June,  and  I  have  had  its  larvae  of  the  previous  year  in  the  ground  in 
May,  when  the  newly  hatched  larvne  of  the  Plum  Curculio  were 
already  working  destruction  in  the  fruit.  In  some  of  the  more  north- 
ern States  it  would  not  appear  till  the  middle  of  July. 

ITS  TRANSFORMATIONS    AND  HABITS. 

This  snout-beetle  does  not  make  a  crescent  like  the  Plum  Cur- 
culio; but,  like  the  Apple  Curculio,  makes  a  direct  puncture  for  the 
reception  of  its  egg,  the  hole  being  somewhat  larger  than  that  of  the 
latter,  and  the  bottom  of  the  cavity  similarly  enlarged  and  gnawed, 
so  as  to  form  a  neat  bed  for  the  egg.  The  egg  is  very  similar  to  that 
of  the  Plum  Curculio,  and  hatches  in  a  few  days  after  being  depos- 
ited. In  all  probability  it  also  swells  and  enlarges  somewhat  before 
hatching.  The  larva  works  for  the  most  part  near  the  surface  of  the 
fruit,  and  does  not  enter  to  the  heart.  It  is  of  the  general  form  of 
that  of  the  Plum  Curculio,  and  differs  principally  in  being  somewhat 
larger,  more  opaque-white,  and  in  having  a  narrow  dusky  dorsal  line 
and  a  distinct  lateral  tubercle  on  each  joint.  When  full  grown,  which 
is  in  a  month  or  more  from  the  time  of  hatching,  it  leaves  the  fruit 
through  a  smooth  cylindrical  hole  and  burrows  two  or  three  inches 
into  the  ground.  Here,  singularly  enough,  it  remains  all  through  the 
fall,  winter  and  spring  months  without  changing — no  matter  whether 
it  left  the  fruit  as  early  as  the  first  of  August  or  as  late  as  the  first  of 
October.  This  is  the  peculiar  feature  of  the  insect,  namely,  that  it 
invariably  passes  the  winter  in  the  larva  state,  and  does  not  even 
assume  the  pupa  state  till  the  fore  part  of  May,  or  a  few  days  before 
issuing  as  a  beetle.  In  this  respect  it  resembles  the  nut-weevils 
which^infest  our  hickory-nuts,  hazel-nuts  and  acorns.  In  higher  lat- 
itudes than  that  of  St.  Louis,  there  is  evidence  that  some  of  the  late 
hatched  larvae  do  not  leave  the  haws  they  infest  till  frost  overtakes 
them,  but  pass  the  winter  within  the  fruit  as  it  lies  on  the  frozen 
ground.  The  pupa  differs  only  from  that  of  the  Plum  Curculio  in  the 
greater  length  of  the  proboscis. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  Dr.  Fitch  supposed  the 
Plum  Curculio  to  be  two-brooded,  and  those  who  have  read  his  "Ad- 
dress" on  this  insect  will  readily  perceive  that  he  based  his  opinion 
on  finding  what  he  took  to  be  its  larvae  in  the  tender  bark  of  a  pear 
twig  late  in  the  fall,  and  on  finding  what  he  similarly  mistook  for 
such  larvae  in  haws  in  winter.    Of  course,  we  know  positively  now 


3'8  THIKD   ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

that  the  Plum  Curculio  does  not  so  breed  in  pear  twigs,  and  it  is  very- 
evident  that  what  Dr.  Fitch  took  to  be  Plum  Curculio  larvae  in  such  a 
twig,  were  the  young  of  some  other  insect,  or  perhaps  even  the  eggs 
of  some  leaf-hopper  {Tettigonia),  which  are  generally  placed  in  the 
position  described  by  him.  But,  though  this  first  error  of  Dr.  Fitch's 
has  been  explained  away,  the  second  never  has  till  now,  when  we  may 
assume,  with  great  reason,  that  the  larva3  which  misled  the  Doctor, 
and  w;hich  were  found  in  haws  in  winter  time,  were  in  reality  the 
larvas  of  our  Quince  Curculio.  How  easily  are  fallacies  exploded, 
and  errors  corrected,  even  years  after  they  are  committed,  hj  a  few 
well  tested  facts ! 

The  two  former  Curculios  which  we  have  been  considering  have 
a  beetle  existence  of  between  nine  and  ten  months,  during  most  of 
which  time,  or  as  long  as  the  weather  is  sufficiently  mild,  they  feed  in 
the  manner  described.  The  present  species  has  a  beetle  existence  of 
not  more  than  two  months,  and  as  though  aware  of  the  short  term 
allotted  to  it  for  enjoyment,  it  endeavors  to  make  the  best  use  of  its 
time.  Consequently  we  find  it  more  ravenous  than  either  of  the 
other  species,  and  it  is  really  astonishing  how  much  this  insect  eats. 
It  excavates  immense  holes  for  food,  often  burying  itself  in  them  com- 
pletely, and  I  have  known  apples  furnished  to  these  beetles  in  con- 
finement, to  have  their  substances  so  completely  devoured  that  noth- 
ing but  the  rind  was  left.  Two  years  ago  last  fall  there  was  scarcely 
a  quince  that  came  into  the  St.  Louis  market  that  was  not  marred  by 
numbers  of  large  gougings,  and  though  I  was  then  inclined  to  attrib- 
ute such  holes  to  the  gnawings  of  grasshoppers,  I  feel  pretty  well 
convinced  at  present  that  the  work  might  with  more  justice  have 
been  attributed  to  this  Quince  Curculio. 

The  question  will  naturally  arise,  since  this  insect  breeds  in  the 
Haw,  the  Qaince  and  the  Pear,  whether  it  will  also  breed  in  the 
closely  allied  Apple  ?  So  far  as  my  experiments  go,  they  indicate 
clearly  that  it  Avill  not;  tor  although  the  beetle  will  eat  and  greatly 
disfigure  apples,  when  no  other  nourishment  is  athand.yeta  number 
which  I  confined  to  a  large  branch  of  an  apple  tree  on  the  14th  of 
June  last,  absolutely  refused  to  deposit  eggs,  and  died  three  weeks 
afterwards. 

REMEDIES. 

Very  fortunately  this  insect  drops  as  readily  when  alarmed  as 
does  the  Plum  Curculio,  and  the  jarring  process  will  be  found  just  as 
effectual  in  catching  it,  with  the  additional  advantage  that  the  jar- 
ring need  only  be  carried  on  for  about  ten  weeks  of  the  year,  namely, 
from  about  the  first  of  June  to  the  middle  of  August  in  this  latitude. 
Moreover,  in  accordance  with  its  late  appearance,  we  find  that, 
according  to  Dr.  Trimble,  whenever  it  attacks  pears,  it  prefers  the 
late  ripening  varieties.     Again,  it  is,  like  the  Plum  Curculio,  nocturnal 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  ^9' 

in  its  habits,  and  secretive  during  the  day,  so  that  the  Ransom  pro- 
cess will  undoubtedly  prove  effectual  with  it,  if  used  at  the  right 
season.  All  fruit  that  falls  should  be  destroyed,  and  as  we  know  that 
the  larva  hibernates  in  the  ground,  many  of  them  will  be  injured  and 
destroyed  by  late  stirring  of  the  soil. 

CoNOTUACHELUs  ccAT,EGi,  Walsh — Larva — Average  length  when  fuU  grown  0.32  inch;  4J  times 
as  long  as  wide,  and  straight.  Oi)aque  whitish,  with  a  narrow  dusky  dorsal  line,  generally  obso- 
lete on  thorax,  and  a  few  very  short  hairs.  Distinct  lateral  tubercles  on  allthe  joints.  Head 
rufous  with  mandibles  black,  except  at  base,  and  distinctly  two-toothed  at  tip. 

Pupa — Average  length  0.28  inch.  Snout  reaching  a  little  beyond  elbow  of  middle  tibia;  and 
tarsi,  with  two  stout  rufous  thorns  near  the  origin  of  antennte,  two  more  at  base  and  sometimes 
others  more  toward  the  tip.  Head  and  thorax  also  armed  with  such  thorns,  and  also  two  to  each 
■elbow  of  the  femora  and  tibiae  "Wing  casee  with  rows  of  short  rufous  bristles  along  the  elevations 
between  the  stria;.  Abdomen  cylindrical,  the  basal  joint  with  u  central  scutellar  bristleless 
tubercle  and  two  others,  one  each  side  of  it,  each  bearing  a  bristle  ;  the  other  joints  conically 
tubercled, laterally,  each  tubercle  bearing  a  stout  bristle,  and  each  joint  bearing  dorsally  about  four 
other  bristles  on  its  posterior  sub-margin.  Terminal  sub-segment  squareljf  cut  off  and  bearing  two 
£.tout  inwardly-curved  brown  thorns. 


THE  PLUM  GOUGEK— AHtho7ioniuspmnicida,  Walsh. 

ITS   CHARACTER,   DISTRIBUTION,   AND   FOOD, 

This  name  was  given  by  Mr.  Walsh  to  another  indigenous  weevil 
-which  is  represented  enlarged  in  the  accompanying  illustration  (Fig. 
[Pig'.  1.3.]  ][3j.     It  is  easily  distinguished  from  either  of  the  pre- 

ceding weevilS;  by  its  ochre-j'^ellow  thorax  and  legs, 
and  its  darker  wing-covers,  which  are  dun-colored, 
or  brown  with  a  leaden-gray  tint,  and  have  no 
humps  at  all.  Its  snout  is  not  much  longer  than  the 
thorax,  but  as  in  the  Apple  Curculio,  projects  for- 
wards, or  downwards  but  cannot  be  bent  under  as 
in  the  Plum  Curculio.  This  insect  was  first  described  in  the  Prairie 
Farmer  for  June  13th,  1863,  and  the  description  was  afterwards  repub- 
lished in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  for 
February,  1864. 

Mr.  Walsh  gave  such  a  good  account  of  it  in  his  report  as  Acting 
State  Entomologist  of  Illinois,  that  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  go  into 
detail,  and  I  will  therefore  only  briefly  allude  to  those  traits  in  its  his- 
tory which  are  well  established. 

The  Plum  Gouger  seems  to  be  unknown  in  the  Eastern  States,  or 
at  least  is  not  common  there ;  but  it  is  very  generally  distributed 
throughout  the  Yalley  of  the  Mississippi.  As  a  rule  it  is  much  less 
common  and  does  much  less  injury  than  the  little  Turk,  though  in 
some  few  districts  it  is  found  equally  abundant,  and  I  received  speci- 
mens on  the  first  of  June  last,  from  my  esteemed  correspondent  Mr. 


40  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

Huron  Burt,  of  Williamsburg,  Callaway  county,  Mo.,  with  the  state- 
ment that  it  was  doing  great  damage  to  the  plums  in  that  locality, 
though  the  little  Turk  was  scarcely  met  with.  There  is  a  plum  known 
there  as  "Missouri  Nonsuch"  which,  though  said  to  be  Curculio  proof, 
is  worked  upon  verj'-  badly  by  the  Gouger. 

The  Plum  Gouger  is  often  found  on  wild  crab  trees,  and  may,  like 
the  Plum  Curculio,  occasionally  deposit  and  breed  in  pip  fruit;  but 
it  is  partial  to  smooth-skinned  stone-fruit  such  as  prunes,  plums,  and 
nectarines,  and  it  does  not  even  seem  to  relish  the  rough  skinned 
peach. 

OriEN  MISTAKEN  FOR  THE  PLUM   CURCULIO. 

It  has  often  been  confounded  with  the  Plum  Curculio,  and  was 
once  supposed  by  my  friend  L.  C.  Francis,  of  Springfield,  Ills.,  to  be 
the  male  of  that  species.  We  all  have  a  right  to  suppose  what  we 
please,  and  as  long  as  our  suppositions  are  not  thrust  on  the  public 
for  ascertained  facts,  they  can  do  no  possible  harm.  But  Mr.  J.  P. 
Williamson,  of  Des  Moines  county,  Iowa,  is  not  satisfied  with  suppos- 
ing this  or  some  other  straight-snouted  weevil,  to  be  the  female  of  the 
Plum  Curculio,  but,  in  a  last  summer's  issue  of  the  Prairie  Farmer^ 
not  only  emphatically  speaks  of  it  as  such,  but,  finding  that  these 
supposed  females  frequent  the  trees  two  weeks  earlier  than  the  males, 
(?)  he  concludes  for  some  unexplained  reason,  that  the  sole  object  of 
visiting  the  fruit  is  for  the  deposition  of  eggs  ;  and  straightway  hatches 
the  theory  that  the  Flum  Curculio  can  do  no  harm  till  the  males  ap- 
pear! Consequently,  instead  of  jarring  our  trees  as  long  as  fruit  re- 
mains on  them,  we  are  informed  by  Mr.  Williamson  that  it  is  only 
necessary  to  jar  them  about  six  weeks. 

And  thus  it  always  is  with  men  who  do  not  sufficiently  understand 
the  absolute  importance  of  care  and  caution  in  reading  Nature's 
secrets:  from  supposition  to  assumption  ;  from  assumption  to  theory; 
from  theory  to  advice,  which — it  is  unnecessary  here  to  say — is  of  a 
most  pernicious  character. 

ITS  TIME   OP  APPEARANCE. 

This  beetle  appears  in  the  spring  about  the  same  time  as  the  Plum 
Curculio,  but  as  no  eggs  are  deposited  after  the  stone  of  the  fruit 
becomes  hard,  and  as  its  larva  requires  a  longer  period  to  mature 
than  that  of  the  latter,  its  time  of  depositing  is  shorter,  and  the  old 
beetles  generally  die  off  and  disappear  before  the  new  ones  eat  their 
way  out  of  the  fruit,  which  they  do  during  August,  September,  and 
October,  according  to  the  latitude. 

ITS  NATURAL   HISTORY. 

Though  we  have  no  absolute  proof  of  the  fact,  analogy  would 
lead  us  to  believe,  and  in  my  own  mind  there  is  no  doubt,  that  this 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  41 

insect  passes  the  winter  in  the  beetle  state,  and  that  it  is,  like  the 
other  species,  single-brooded.  Both  sexes  bore  cylindrical  holes  in 
the  fruit  for  food,  and  these  holes  are  of  the  exact  diameter  of  the 
snout,  and  consequently  somewhat  larger  than  those  of  the  Apple 
Curculio.  These  holes  are  broadened  at  the  bottom,  or  gouged  out 
in  the  shape  of  a  gourd;  and  especially  is  this  the  case  with  those  in- 
tended by  the  female  for  the  reception  of  an  egg.  The  egg.,  in  this 
case  also,  enlarges  from  endosmosis,  and  it  is  probable  that  all  wee- 
vils that  make  a  puncture  for  the  reception  of  their  eggs,  gnaw  and 
enlarge  the  bottom,  not  only  to  give  the  egg  room  to  swell,  but  to 
deaden  the  surrounding  fruit,  and  prevent  its  crushing  such  egg — the 
same  object  being  attained  by  the  deadened  flap  made  by  the  cres- 
cent of  the  little  Turk.  Wherever  this  insect  abounds,  plums  will  be 
found  covered  with  its  holes,  the  great  majority  of  them,  however, 
made  for  feeding  purposes.  The  gum  exudes  from  each  puncture,  and 
the  fruit  either  drops  or  becomes  knotty  and  worthless. 

The  young  larva  which  hatches  from  the  egg,  instead  of  rioting  in 
the  flesh  of  the  plum,  or  remaining  around  the  outside  of  the  kernel, 
makes  an  almost  straight  course  for  that  kernel,  through  the  yet  soft 
shell  of  which  it  penetrates.  Here  it  remains  until  it  has  become  full- 
fed,  when  by  a  wise  instinct  it.  cuts  a  round  hole  through  the  now 
hard  stone,  and  retires  inside  again  to  change  to  the  pupa  and  finally 
to  the  beetle  state.  When  once  the  several  parts  of  the  beetle  are 
sufiiciently  hard  and  strong,  it  ventures  through  the  hole  which  it 
had  already  providently  prepared  for  exit  with  its  stronger  larval 
jaws,  and  then  easily  bores  its  way  through  the  flesh  and  escapes. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  while  the  kernel  of  the  fruit  is  yet 
soft,  the  larva  of  the  little  Turk  often  penetrates  and  devours  it ;  but 
in  this  case  the  soft  stone  is  more  or  less  reduced  to  reddish  powder, 
whereas  the  larva  of  the  Plum  Gouger  enters  the  stone  and  feeds  on 
the  inside  while  the  outside  hardens.  The  normal  habit  of  the  for- 
mer is  to  feed  on  the  outside ;  that  of  the  latter  on  the  inside  of  the 
stone. 

KEMEDIES. 

This  Plum  Gouger  is  about  as  hard  to  deal  with  as  the  Apple 
Curculio.  It  drops  almost  as  reluctantly  and  we  therefore  cannot  do 
much  by  the  jarring  process  to  diminish  its  numbers.  Moreover  it 
takes  wing  much  more  readily  than  the  other  weevils  we  have  men- 
tioned ;  and  though  fruit  that  is  badly  punctured  for  food,  often  falls 
prematurely  to  the  ground,  yet,  according  to  Mr.  Walsh,  that  infested 
with  the  larva  generally  hangs  on  the  tree  until  the  stone  is  hard  and 
premature  ripening  sets  in.  In  all  probability  the  stunted  and  pre- 
maturely ripened  fruit  containing  this  insect  will  jar  down  much  more 
readily  than  the  healthy  fruit,  but  I  have  so  far  had  no  opportunity  of 
making  any    practical    observations  myself,  and  must   conclude  by 


42  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

hoping  that  our  plum-growing  members  will  make  the  proper  experi- 
ments and  give  us  the  results. 


THE   STEAWBERRr  GnO^YN■BOREU.—A7lalcis  fragarice  N.  sp. 

This  is  another  indigenous  insect,  which  seems  to  be  confined  to 
our  Mississippi  Valley,  lor  I  have  heard  no  complaints  in  any  of  the 
^^'s-  14-]  Atlantic    States,   of   injuries   that 

could  be  attributed  to  this  weevil. 
In  the  Maine  JF'armer  for  July  25th, 
1S67,  we  find  a  brief  reference, 
made  by  Mr.  G.E.  Brackett  of  Bel- 
fast, Me.,  in  answer  to  a  certain 
"E.  B.,"  of  a  "worm  that  eats  into 
the  crown  of  the  plant  and  kills 
it."  The  worm  referred  to  was,  in  all  probability,  the  Crown-borer 
under  consideration,  but  as  no  postofiice  address  of  the  questioner  is 
given,  the  paragraph  might  just  as  well  never  have  been  written,  for 
any  light  that  it  throws  on  the  distribution  of  the  insect.  However, 
no  such  insect  has  ever  been  mentioned  by  our  Eastern  writers  on 
the  Strawberry,  and  w^e  must  necessarily  conclude  that  it  does  not 
exist  in  the  Atlantic  States. 

This  insect  has  done  considerable  damage  to  the  strawberry  crop 
in  the  southern  portion  of  Illinois,  especially  along  the  line 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad ;  and  I  have  seen  evidence  of  its 
work  in  St.  Louis  county,  Mo.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Southern  Illi- 
nois Fruit  Growers'  Association,  held  at  South  Pass,  in  November, 
1867,  several  complaints  were  made  by  parties  from  Anna  and  Makan- 
da,  of  a  white  worm  which  worked  in  the  roots  of  their  strawberries 
and  in  1868,  the  greater  portion  of  the  plants  of  a  ten-acre  field  at 
Anna,  belonging  to  Mr.  Parker  Earle,  was  destroyed  by  it. 

In  the  fall  of  1869  I  had  some  correspondence  with  Mr.  Walsh  on 
this  insect,  and  learned  that  he  had  succeeded  in  breeding  it  to  the 
perfect  state  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  his  untimely  death,  its  history 
would  no  doubt  have  been  published  a  year  ago.  Through  the  kindness 
of  Jos.  M.  Wilson,  of  Sterling,  Whiteside  county,  and  of  J.  B.  Miller, 
of  Anna,  Union  county.  Ills.,  I  received  during  the  past  year  speci- 
mens of  the  larvae,  from  which  I  succeeded  in  rearing  the  perfect 
beetle.  It  is  therefore  by  the  aid  of  these  gentlemen,  and  especially 
from  the  experience  of  Mr.  Miller,  that  I  am  enabled  to  give  the 
above  illustrations  (Fig.  14)  of  the  Strawberry  Crown-borer,  and  the 
following  necessarily  imperfect  account  of  its  mode  of  working.  I 
give  them  in  the  hope  that  they  will  prompt  further  investigation,  and 
serve   as   a  clue   to   enable  others    who    have    opportunit}',  to   in- 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  43- 

crease  our  knowledge  of  this  pest;  for  there  is  much  yet  to   learn   of 
its  habits,  and  consequently  of  the  best  means  of  iighting  it. 

From  the  middle  of  June  to  the  middle  of  July  in  Southern  Illi- 
nois, and  later  further  north,  the  larva  hatches  from  an  egg  which,  in 
all  probability,  is  deposited  in  the  crown  of  the  plant,  and  it  imme- 
diately commences  to  bore  its  way  downwards,  into  the  pith.  Here 
it  remains  till  it  has  acquired  its  full  size,  working  in  the  thick  bul- 
bous root  and  often  eating  through  the  more  woody  portions;  so  that 
when  frost  sets  in,  the  plant  easily  breaks  off  and  is  heaved  out  of  the 
ground.  When  full  grown  it  presents  the  appearance  of  Figure  14,  «5, 
being  a  white  grub  with  arched  back  and  tawny-yellow  head,  and 
measuring  about  one-fifth  of  an  inch  when  stretched  out.  It  under- 
goes its  transformations  to  the  pupa  and  perfect  beetle  states  within 
the  root,  and  the  latter  makes  its  appearance  above  ground  during  the 
month  of  August. 

The  beetle  (Fig.  14,  h  side  view;  g  back  view)  is  about  l-6th  of  an 
inch  in  length,  of  a  chestnut-brown  color,  and  marked  and  punctured 
as  in  the  figure. 

From  analogy  we  may  infer  that  the  beetle  feeds  on  the  leaves  of 
the  strawberry,  for  it  is  a  very  general  rule  with  snout-beetles,  that 
the  perfect  insects  feed  on  the  leaves  of  such  plants  as  they  infest  in 
the  larva  state.  But  whether  it  lives  on  through  the  winter  as  a 
beetle  and  does  not  commence  depositing  eggs  again  till  the  follow- 
ing June;  or  whether  it  is  double-brooded  and  produces  a  second  lot 
of  larvos  which  pass  the  winter  in  the  roots,  are  questions  which  are 
not  yet  decided;  and  until  we  get  a  more  comprehensive  knowledge 
of  this  insect's  ways  and  doings,  we  shall  be  in  a  measure  powerless 
before  it.  From  all  the  facts  that  can  be  obtained,  the  first  hyiDothesis 
is  the  correct  one,  and  in  that  event  we  can,  in  an  emergency,  easily 
get  rid  of  this  pest  by  plowing  up  and  destroying  the  plants  soon 
after  they  have  done  bearing,  or  sa}^  about  the  latter  part  of  June  in 
the  latitude  of  St.  Louis.  By  doing  this  the  whole  brood  of  borers 
will  perish  with  the  plants.  Most  strawberry-growers  renew 
their  plants,  in  some  way  or  another,  about  every  three  years,  and 
where  this  insect  abounds,  it  will  be  best  subdued  hy  destroying  the 
Avhole  bed  at  the  time  already  suggested  and  afterwards  planting  a 
new  one;  rather  than  by  annually  thinning  out  the  old  and  leaving 
the  new  plants  in  the  same  bed.  Here  we  have  an  elFectual  means  of 
extirpating  the  little  pest,  if,  as  I  believe,  the  first  hypothesis  is  the 
correct  one  ;  but  if  the  second  hypothesis  be  correct — i.  e.,if  the  insect 
be  double-brooded — then  it  will  avail  nothing  to  carry  out  the  above 
suggestions,  and  we  thus  see  how  important  it  is  to  thoroughly  under- 
stand an  insect's  habits  in  order  to  properly  cope  with  it.  Though  we 
may  occasionally  hit  upon  some  plan  of  remedying  or  of  preventing  an 
insect's  injuries  without  knowing  its  habits,  yet  as  a  general  rule  we 
but  grope  in  the  dark  until  we  have  learned  its  natural  history! 

According  to  Mr.  Miller,   all  plants  infested  with   this  larva  are 


44  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

sure  to  perish,  and  he  has  also  noticed  that  old  beds  are  more  apt  to 
be  injured  by  it  than  new  ones. 

In  one  of  the  roots  received  from  him,  I  found  a  parasitic  cocoon, 
so  that  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that,  as  is  so  very  generally 
the  case  with  insects,  this  noxious  species  has  at  least  one  natural 
enemy  which  will  aid  us  in  keeping  it  in  dae  bounds.  Indeed,  Mr. 
Miller  so  often  found  this  parasitic  cocoon,  that  he  at  first  surmised 
that  the  Crown-borer  spun  it.    But  no  snout-beetle  larvfp  spin  cocoons. 

This  Crown-borer  must  not  be  confounded  with  another  white 
worm  of  about  the  same  size  which  lives  in  the  ground  and  subsists 
on  the  roots  by  devouring  them  from  the  outside.  This  last  may 
always  be  distinguished  by  having  six  distinct  legs  near  the  head,  and 
its  habits  are  quite  different.  It  occurs  earlier  in  the  season,  and,  as 
I  have  proved  the  past  summer,  is  the  larva  of  the  little  clay-yellow 
beetle,  known  as  the  Grape-vine  Colaspis  {Colaspis  Havida,  Say). 
A  full  account  of  this  last  insect,  with  illustrations,  will  be  given  in  a 
later  portion  of  this  Keport. 

The  Crown-borer  belongs  to  the  genus  Analcis  which  is  distingu- 
ished by  its  sub-cylindrical  oblong-oval  body,  its  short  robust  snout 
which  fits  into  a  deep  grove,  its  10-jointed  antennae,  and  its  simple  or 
unarmed  thighs.  As  it  is  a  new  species  I  subjoin  a  description  of  it 
for  the  scientific  reader  : — 

Analcis  fragari.e,  N.  Sp. — Imago,  (Fig  14,  b,  c) — Color  depp  chestnut-brown,  sub-polished, 
the  elytra  somewhat  lighter.  Head  and  rostrum  dark,  finely  and  densely  punctate  and  with  short 
coarse  fulvous  hairs,  longest  at  tip  of  rostrum  ;  antennse  rather  lighter  towards  base,  10-jointed, 
the  scape  much  thickened  at  apex,  join  2  longest  and  robust,  3  moderately  long,  4-7  short,  8-10 
connate  and  forming  a  stout  club.  Thorax  dark,  cylindrical,  slightly  swollen  across  the  middle 
and  uniformly  covered  with  large  thimble-like  punctures,  and  with  a  few  short  coarse  fulvous  hairs, 
unusually  arranged  in  three  more  or  less  distinct  longitudinal  lines  ;  pectoral  groove  ending 
between  front  legs.  Abdomen  with  small  remote  punctures  and  hairs,  which  are  denser  towards 
apex.  Legs  of  equal  stoutness,  and  with  shallow  dilated  punctures  and  uniform  very  short  hairs. 
Elytra  more  yellowish-brown,  dilated  at  the  lower  sides  anteriorly,  and  with  about  9  deeply- 
punctured  striaj,  the  striaj  themselves  sometimes  obsolete  ;  more  or  less  covered  with  coarse  and 
short  pale  yellovr  hairs  which  form  by  their  greater  density,  three  more  or  less  conspicuous  trans- 
verse bands,  the  first  of  which  is  at  base  ;  between  the  second  and  third  band,  in  the  middle  of  the 
elytron,  is  a  smooth  dark-brown  or  black  spot,  with  a  less  distinct  spot  of  the  same  color  below 
the  third,  and  a  still  less  distinct  one  above  the  second  band.     Length  0.16  inch. 

Described  from  four  specimens  bred  from  strawberry-boring  larvas.  The  black  spots  on  the 
elytra  are  quite  distinct  and  conspicuous  on  two  specimens,  less  so  on  one,  and  entirely  obsolete  on 
the  other. 

Larva,  (Fig.  14  a) — White  with  back  arched  Lamellicorn-fashion.  Head  gamboge-yellow, 
glabrous,  with  some  faint  transverse  striations  above  mouth  ;  mandibles  rufous  tipped  with  black  ; 
labrum  emarginate,  and  with  palpi,  pale.  A  faint  narrow  dorsal  vascular  line.  Legs  replaced 
by  fleshy  tubercles.     Length  0.20  inch  when  stretched  out. 


THE  FEA-WEEYIL—Bruchtis  pisi,  Linn. 

Our  common  garden  pea  has  not  many  insect  enemies,  for  with 
the  exception  of  the   Striped  Flea-beetle  {Haltica  striolata}^  M^hich 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  45 

gnaws  numerous  small  holes  in  the  leaves,  and  the  Corn-worm  alias 
Boll-worm  {Ileliothis  armigera)^  which  eats  into  the  pod,  there  are 
very  few  others  besides  the  Pea  weevil  under  consideration.  This 
species  alone  is  so  numerous,  however,  as  to  be  a  serious  drawback 
to  pea  culture  in  this  part  of  the  country. 

[Fig,  15.]  rri       i.  7->  7 

j^y.—.^^^^^,,..,^^  the  term  hruclius^  meaning  a  devourer, 

was  given  by  the  celebrated  Linucneus  to  a 
genus  of  beetles  which  at  first  appear  to 
have  very  little  resemblance  to  the  onout- 
beetles.  They  form,  however,  at  present,  a 
^sub-family  (^r?<c7i*(7t\9)  of  the  great  Snout- 
^  il  ^^w^  il      t)eetle  family,  though  they  posses  nearly  as 

„a^  G>  X,  close  affinities  to  the  great  Chrysomela  fam- 
ily, and  really  form  a  connecting-link  between  the  two.  They  are 
characterized  by  a  depressed  head  and  very  short  snout,  by  the  an- 
tennas being  11-jointed,  straight  and  but  slightly  thickened  towards 
the  end,  by  the  wing-covers  being  shorter  than  the  abdomen,  and  by 
the  rather  long  hind  legs  and  much  swollen  thighs.  Their  larva?  are 
short,  arched,  and  swollen  in  the  middle,  with  a  camparatively  small 
head;  and  their  depredations  are  confined  all  over  the  world,  to  le- 
guminous or  pod-bearing  plants — another  beautiful  illustration  of  the 
"Unity  of  Habits"  referred  to  on  page  9. 

They  are  far  more  abundant  in  the  tropics  than  in  more  tempe- 
rate climes,  and  in  North  America  we  have  not  many  species  to  con- 
tend with.  With  the  exception  of  the  Honey-locust  seed-weevil 
{Spermopliagus  rohinice^  Fabr.),  which  I  have  bred  from  the  seeds  of 
that  tree,  there  are  only  two  species,  namely:  the  Pea  and  the  Bean 
weevils  that  are  really  injurious  in  our  State,  though  BriLchus  dii.- 
coideus^  Say,  often  badly  infests  the  seeds  of  Ipomea.  A  third  species 
however,  namel3%  the  Grain  Bruchus  of  Europe,  has  lately  been  intro! 
duced  into  this  country,  and  may  some  day  become  unduly  multi- 
plied in  our  midst. 

The  Pea-weevil  is  very  generally  dubbed  "Pea-bug,"  but  this 
latter  term  is  not  nearly  so  appropriate  as  the  former,  to  which  it 
should  give  way.  Though  everybody  may  notknow  by  sight  the  per- 
fect beetle,  yet  every  one  has  most  assuredly  seen  the  work  of  the 
worm,  and  though  knowledge  of  the  fact  may  not  add  to  our  enjoy- 
ment of  a  mess  of  green  peas,  yet  the  fact  nevertheless  remains,  that 
those  of  us  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  who  indulge  in  this  delicious 
esculent,  necessarily  devour  a  young  worm  with  nearly  every  pea 
that  we  eat.     Gray's  oft  quoted  lines, 

— "Where  ignorance  is  bliss, 
'Tis  folly  to  be  wise," 

Would  seem  to  apply  here  with  great  force  ;  but  when  we  reflect  that 
the  diminutive  and  almost  imperceptible  worm,  nourished  so  to 
speak  in  the  very  marrow  of  the  pea,  really  has  no  flavor  and  pro- 
duces no  injurious  effects  on  the  human  system ;  we  can  chuckle  in 


4.6  THIRD    ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

our  sleeves  and  console  ourselves  with  the  thought  that,  notwith- 
standing the  above  truism,  "wisdom  is  justified  of  her  children.'' 
JSTeither  this  nor  any  other  of  the  true  weevils  mentioned  in  this  pa- 
per, can  do  harm  when  taken  as  food  in  the  larva  state,  but  there 
is  good  testimony  that  the  hard-shell  beetles  are  injurious  when  fed 
in  aground  or  unground  condition,  along  with  the  seeds  they  infest, 
either  to  man  or  to  other  animals. 

The  Pea-weevil  which  is  here  well  illustrated,  Figure  15,  a  show- 
ing aback  view,  and  17, 1  a  side  view,  the  small  outlines  at  the  sides 
showing  the  natural  size,  is  easily  distinguished  from  all  other  species 
of  the  genus  with  which  we  are  troubled,  by  its  larger  size,  and  by 
having  on  the  tip  of  the  abdomen  projecting  from  the  wing-covers? 
tw^odark  oval  spots  which  cause  the  remaining  white  portion  to  look 
something  like  the  letter  T.  It  is  about  0.18—0.20  inch  long,  and  its 
general  color  is  rusty-black,  with  more  or  less  white  on  the  wing- 
covers,  and  a  distinct  white  spot  on  the  hinder  part  of  the  tho- 
rax near  the  scutel.  There  is  a  notch  on  each  lateral  edge  of  the 
thorax,  and  a  spine  on  the  under  side  of  the  hind  thighs  near  the 
apex.  The  four  basal  joints  of  the  antennae  and  the  front  and  middle 
shanks  and  feet  are  more  or  less  tawny.  It  is  supposed  to  be  an  in- 
digenous N.  A.  insect,  and  was  first  noticed  many  years  ago  around 
Philadelphia,  from  whence  it  has  spread  over  most  of  the  States  where 
the  pea  is  cultivated.  This  supposition  is  probably  the  correct  one 
though  we  have  no  means  at  present  of  proving  it  to  be  so,  and  cer- 
tain it  is  that,  as  the  cultivated  pea  was  introduced  into  this  country, 
our  Pea-weevil  must  have  originally  fed  on  some  other  indigenous 
plant  of  the  Pulse  family.  It  is  at  present  found  in  the  more  southern 
parts  of  Europe  and  in  England,  and  is  one  of  the  few  injurious  insects 
which  have  found  their  way  there  from  this  country  ;  but  in  accord- 
ance with  the  facts  given  in  my  last  Report,  under  the  head  of  "Im- 
ported Insects  and  Native  American  Insects,"  which  clearly  prove 
that  our  native  plants  and  insects  do  not  become  naturalized  in  the 
Old  World  with  anything  like  the  facility  with  which  thoseof  the  Old 
World  are  every  day  being  naturalized  here,  this  Pea-weevil  does  not 
begin  to  be  as  destructive  there  as  it  is  at  home. 

THE  FEMALE  DEPOSITS  HER  EGGS  ON  THE  OUTSIDE  OF  THE  POD. 

It  is  a  very  general  remark  that  peas  are  "  stung  by  the  bug," 
and  the  impression  prevails  almost  universally,  not  only  among  gard- 
eners but  with  many  entomologists,  that  the  female  weevil  punctures 
and  deposits  her  eggs -^'^^  the  pea  in  which  the  larva  is  to  be  nour- 
ished. It  is  a  little  singular  that  so  many  writers  should  have  fallen 
into  this  error,  for  it  is  not  only  the  accepted  view  amongst  writers 
for  the  agricultural  press,  but  has  been  adopted  by  many  eminent 
entomologists,  Taschenberg,  Harris,  and  Dr.  Boisduval  being  about 
the  only  authors  who  have  rightly  comprehended  the  true  manner  of 
:  egg^depositing.    All  this. comes  of  course  from  one  man's  palming  off 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


47 


tlie  opinions  of  another  as  his  own,  and  by  his  adopting  such  opin- 
ions, whether  good  or  bad,  without  due  credit.  Even  Noerdlinger  in 
his  "  Kleinen  Feunde  der  Landwirtschaft,"  though  he  cites  the  excel- 
lent and  original  observations  of  Taschenberg,  feels  himself  called 
upon  to  doubt  their  correctness,  and  himself  inclines  to  believe  that 
the  female  may  put  her  eggs  in  the  pea.  In  Packard's  Guide,  the 
eggs  are  erroneously  said  to  be  laid  on  the  blossoms. 

The  true  natural  history  of  the  Pea-weevil  may  be  thus  briefly 
told.  The  beetles  begin  to  appear  as  soon  as  our  peas  are  in 
bloom,  and  when  the  young  pods  form,  the  female  beetles  gather 
upon  them  and  deposit  their  eggs  on  any  part  whatever  of  the  sur- 
face without  attempting  to  insert  the  eggs  within  the  pod. 

The  eggs,  (Fig.  16,)  are  deep  yellow,  0.035  inch  long,  three  times 
as  long  as  wide,  fusiform,  pointed  in  front,  blunt  behind,  but  larger 
[Fig.  16.]  anteriorly  than  posteriorly.  They  are  fastened  to  the  pod 
by  some  viscid  fluid  which  dries  white  and  glistens  like  silk. 
As  the  operation  of  depositing  is  only  occasionally  noticed 
during  cloudy  weather,  we  may  safely  assume  that  it  takes 
place  for  the  most  part  by  night.  If  pea  vines  are  carefully 
examined  in  this  latitude  any  time  during  the  month  of  June, 
the  pods  will  often  be  found  to  have  from  one  to  fifteen  or 
twenty  such  eggs  upon  them,  and  the  black  head  of  the  future 
larva  may  frequently  be  noticed  through  the  delicate  shell. 

As  already  stated,  the  eggs  are  deposited  on  all  parts  of  the  pod, 
and  the  mother  beetle  displays  no  particular  sagacity  in  the  number 
which  she  consigns  to  each,  for  I  have  often  counted  twice  as  many 
eggs  as  there  were  young  peas,  and  the  larvas  from  some  of  these  eggs 
would  of  course  have  to  perish,  as  only  one  can  be  fully  developed 
in  each  pea.  The  newly  hatched  larva  is  of  a  deep  yellow  color  with 
a  black  head,  and  it  makes  a  direct  cut  through  the  pod  into  the  near- 
est pea,  the  hole  soon  filling  up  in  the  pod,  and  leaving  but  a  mere 
speck,  not  so  large  as  a  pin-hole,  in  the  pea.  The  larva  feeds  and 
grows  apace  and  generally  avoids  the  germ  of  the  future  sprout,  per- 
haps because  it  is  distasteful,  so  that  most  of  the  buggy  peas  will 
germinate  as  readily  as  those  that  have  been  untouched.    When  full 

grown  this  larva  presents  the 
appearance  of  Figure  IT,  c, 
(after  Curtis)  and  with  won- 
derful precognition  of  its  fu- 
ture wants,  eats  a  circular  hole 
on  one  side  of  the  pea,  and 
leaves  onl}^  the  thin  hull  as  a 
covering.  It  then  retires  and 
lines  its  cell  with  a  thin  and 
smooth  layer  of  paste,  pushing  aside  and  entirely  excluding  all  ex- 
crement, and  in  this  cell  it  assumes  the  pupa  state  (Fig.  17,  d,  after 
Curtis,)  and  eventually  becomes  a  beetle,  which,  when  ready  to  issue, 


48  THIRD   ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

lias  only  to  eat  its  way  through  the  thin  piece  of  the  hull  which  the 
larva  had  left  covering  the  hole.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  beetle 
would  die  if  it  had  not  during  its  larval  life  prepared  this  passage  way, 
for  Ernest  Menault  asserts*  that  the  beetle  dies  when  the  hole  is 
pasted  over  with  a  piece  of  paper  even  thinner  than  the  hull  itself. 

REMEDIES    AND   PREVENTIVES. 

Sometimes,  and  especially  when  the  summer  has  been  hot  and 
prolonged,  many  of  the  beetles  will  issue  from  the  peas  in  the  fall  of 
the  same  year  that  they  were  born,  but  as  a  more  general  rule  they 
remain  in  the  peas  during  the  winter  and  do  not  issue  till  new  vines 
are  growing.  Thus  many  yet  remain  in  the  seed  peas  until  they  are 
planted  and  especially  is  this  apt  to  be  the  case  with  such  as  are 
planted  early.  We  see,  therefore,  how  easily  this  insect  may  be  in- 
troduced into  districts  previously  free  from  it  by  the  careless  planting 
of  buggy  peas,  for  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  beetle  issues  as 
readily  from  peas  planted  in  the  earth  as  it  does  from  those  stored 
away  in  the  bin.  All  peas  intended  for  seed  should  be  examined  and 
it  can  very  soon  be  determined  whether  or  not  they  are  infested.  The 
thin  covering  over  the  hole  of  the  peas  that  contain  weevils,  and 
which  may  be  called  the  eye-spot,  is  generally  somewhat  discolored, 
and  by  this  eye-spot  those  peas  which  ought  not  to  be  planted  can 
soon  be  distinguished.  Where  this  covering  is  off  and  the  pea  pre- 
sents the  appearance  of  Figure  15,  h,  there  is  little  danger,  for  in  that 
case  the  weevil  has  either  left,  or,  if  still  within  the  pea,  is  usually 
dead.  It  would  of  course  be  tedious  to  carefully  examine  a  large  lot 
of  peas,  one  by  one,  in  order  to  separate  those  that  are  buggy,  and 
the  most  expeditious  way  of  separating  the  sound  from  the  unsound, 
is  to  throw  them  into  water,  when  the  sound  ones  will  mostly  sink 
and  the  unsound  swim. 

There  are,  however,  other  and  more  certain  means  of  preventing 
the  injuries  of  this  insect,  and  whenever  agriculture  shall  have  pro- 
gressed to  that  point  where  by  proper  and  thorough  organization  all 
the  farmers  of  a  county  or  of  a  district  can,  by  vote,  mutually  agree 
to  carry  out  a  measure  with  determination  and  in  unison,  then  this 
insect  can  soon  be  exterminated  ;  for  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  such 
a  result  would  be  accomplished  by  combinedly  ceasing  to  cultivate 
any  peas  at  all  for  one  single  year!  Until  some  such  united  action 
can  be  brought  about,  we  shall  never  become  entirely  exempt  from 
this  insect's  depredations,  for  no  matter  how  sound  the  peas  may  be 
that  I  plant,  my  vines  are  sure  to  be  more  or  less  visited  by  the 
beetles  as  long  as  I  have  slovenly  neighbors.  Yet  comparatively,  my 
peas  will  always  be  enough  better  to  well  pay  for  the  trouble,  even 
under  these  circumstances. 


'^Imcctes  Nuisibles  a  I' Agriculture. 


'THE   STATE  ENXaMOLOGISTv  49 

As  already  hinted  the  Pea- weevil  prefers  a  Warm  to  a  cold  climatej 
and  its  devastations  are  scarcely  known  in  high  latitudes.  On  this 
account  the  impression  prevails  that  it  does  not  occur  in  certain  parts 
of  Canada,  and  few  persons  are  aware  that  it  is  nearly  as  bad,  espe- 
cially in  Ontario,  as  it  is  with  us.  We  are  in  the  habit  of  sending  to 
Canada  for  our  seed  peas,  because  we  get  them  free  from  bugs  ;  but 
the  reason  that  their  seedsmen  have  such  a  reputation  is  to  be  traced 
to  their  greater  care  in  destroying  the  weevil  and  in  sorting  their  seed 
rather  than  to  any  immunity  from  its  ravages  which  their  peas  possess 
The  following  extract  from  a  letter  from  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders,  of  London, 
Ontario,  who,  as  secretary  of  the  Ontario  Fruit  Growers'  Association 
and  as  a  prominent  member  of  the  Canadian  Entomological  Society, 
is  as  well  posted,  perhaps,  as  any  one  in  the  Dominion,  will  give  some 
idea  of  its  occurrence  there: 

The  Pea-weevil  I  find  prevails  in  all  parts  of  Canada  to  a  greater 
or  lesser  extent,  from  the  Red  Kiver  settlement  to  Quebec.  In  some 
places  it  is  so  numerous  as  to  discourage  farmers  from  attempting  to 
grow  peas  at  all,  while  other  localities  are  but  little  troubled.  About 
the  neighborhood  of  Windsor  (opposite  Detroit)  there  are  no  peas 
grown  worth  speaking  of ;  but  60  or  70  miles  iurther  east,  towards 
London,  they  are  an  important  crop,  and  about  London,  say  within  30 
or  4  '  miles,  and  as  far  east  as  Guelph  and  Hamilton,  will  include  the 
chief  district  from  which  your  western  supplies  are  drawn. 

During  18691  grew  a  ifield  of  peas  on  my  own  farm.  They  pro- 
duced a  good  crop,  and  although  we  have  some  of  them  on  hand  yet 
I  have  never  observed  a  buggy  one  amongst  them,  although  I  have 
examined  them  several  times.  But  it  is  rare  to  find  them  so  Iree  as 
that  and  something  depends  on  the  season.  Last  season  the  weather 
was  very  wet  and  the  crop  very  light,  and  the  dealers  tell  me  now 
that  there  are  scarcely  any  peas  fit  to  ship  in  the  country  on  account 
of  the  quantity  of  bugs  they  contain.  They  say  that  they  always 
have  to  select  for  shipping,  and  while  sending  them  as  clean  as  pos- 
sible they  do  not  profess  to  send  them  entirely  free  from  bugs. 

Our  farmers  here  are  perhaps  a  little  more  particular  than  yours 
about  their  seed.  They  will  sometimes  keep  it  over  till  the  second 
year  or  else  scald  it  before  planting  so  as  to  destroy  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  bugs.  The  general  opinion  seems  to  be  that  if  peas  are 
sown  late,  say  about  the  first  of  June,  they  will  be  almost  free  from 
bugs  in  any  season,  and  some  adopt  this  method,  but  it  is  not  by  any 
means  a  general  thing,  for  should  the  weather  set  in  very  hot,  as  it 
sometimes  does  about  that  time,  they  would  become  somewhat 
dwarfed  and  the  crop  lessened.  I  have  not  heard  of  anyone  growing 
two  crops  in  one  season. 

Many  eminent  seedsmen— Mr.  Langdon  for  instance  as  I  have  been 
credibly  informed— effectually  kill  the  weevils  by  enclosing  the  peas 
in  tight  vessels  along  with  camphor.  The  same  object  is  attained  by 
keeping  peas  two  years,  and  taking  care  that  the  beetles  do  not  es- 
cape before  they  die.  Peas  will  grow  well  when  kept  for  two  years 
or  even  longer,  but  they  should  always  be  well  dried  so  as  not  to 
mould.  A  good  plan  is  to  tie  them  up  in  bags  and  hang  them  in  an 
airy  place  from  the  time  they  are  gathered  till  about  Christmas,  and 
then  in  order  that  they  may  not  become  too  dry,  to  put  them  into 
s  £ — 4 


50  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

tighter  vessels.  To  a  certain  extent  sound  peas  may  be  obtained  by 
planting  late,  for  the  period  of  egg-depositing  is  limited  to  about  a 
month.  Peas,  as  Mr.  F.  A.  Nitchy  of  Jefferson  City  has  demonstrated, 
may  be  planted  in  the  central  part  of  the  State  as  late  as  the  first  of 
June,  and  by  the  time  the  plants  from  such  late  planted  seed  begin 
to  bear  pods,  all  the  weevils  will  have  died  and  disappeared.  Wher- 
ever a  second  crop  of  peas  can  be  grown  the  same  year,  this  second 
crop  will  be  entirely  free  from  weevils,  and  though  there  seems  to  be 
some  difficulty  in  producing  a  second  crop  in  our  State,  on  account 
of  mildew,  it  is  often  done  in  higher  latitudes.  Choice  lots  of  seed,  if 
found  to  be  infested  when  received  from  the  seedsman,  may  be  thrown 
into  hot  water  for  a  minute  or  two,  and  the  sprouting  of  the  peas  will 
be  quickened,  and  most  of  the  weevils,  but  not  all,  be  killed.  But 
whatever  plan  be  adopted  to  obtain  sound  seed,  it  should  be  every 
man's  aim,  in  duty  to  himself  and  to  his  neighbors,  to  plant  none  but 
bugless  peas! 

As  natural  checks,  the  Crow  Black-bird  is  said  to  devour  great 
numbers  of  the  beetles  in  the  spring,  and  according  to  Harris  the 
Baltimore  Oriole  splits  open  the  pods  to  get  at  the  grubs  contained  in 
them. 


THE  GRAIN  ^RJJCRUS—Bruc/ms  gmnarhts,  Linn. 

There  is  a  weevil  in  Europe  which  is  very 
common,  attacking  peas  there  as  badly  aa  our 
T^  S^^^:         ^^^  Pea-weevil  does  in  this  country.    It  also  in- 

J?575rfnimv  ^gg^g  beans  and  several  other  grains  and  seeds. 
It  has  on  several  occasions  been  imported  with 
foreign  seeds  into  this  country,  but  very  fortu- 
nately does  not  seem  so  far  to  have  obtained  a 
istrong  foothold.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  its 
doing  so,  however,  except  the  utmost  vigilance  on  the  part  of  those 
who  import  seeds,  and  it  may  at  any  time  get  scattered  over  the 
country  by  the  distribution  of  infested  seed  from  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  unless  the  authorities  are  ever  watchful  to  prevent  such 
a  catastrophe.  To  enable  a  ready  recognition  of  this  weevil,  I  present 
an  enlarged  portrait  of  it  at  Figure  18.  As  will  be  noticed  by  that 
figure  it  bears  a  tolerably  close  resemblance  to  our  own  Pea-weevil^ 
but  it  may  always  be  distinguished  from  the  latter  species  by  the  fol- 
lowing characters  as  given  by  Curtis: — 

It  is  in  the  first  place  a  smaller  insect,  averaging  but  0.14  inch 
while  pisi  averages  nearly  0.20  inch.  It  is  rather  darker,  there  are  tw» 
small  white  spots  on  the  disk  of  the  thorax,  and  the  tooth  at  each  side 
of  the  thorax  is  indistinct;  the  suture  of  the  wing-covers  forms  Br 
brown  stripe,  and  the  apical  joint  of  the  abdomen  which  pretrudes ' 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  51 

beyond  the  wing-covers  and  which  is  otherwise  known  as  the  py- 
gidium,  is  densely  clothed  with  grayish  pubescence,  and  shows  in  cer- 
tain lights  four  minute  dark  dots,  but  no  indication  of  the  two  large 
oval  spots  so  characteristic  of  our  Pea-weevil.  The  four  basal  joints 
of  the  antennae  and  the  front  legs  are  reddish,  and  the  inner  spine  of 
the  hind  shanks  is  prolonged. 

It  would  be  a  sad  misfortune  to  have  this  insect  added  to  our  list 
of  injurious  species,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  ui)on  discovering  speci- 
mens of  our  own  Pea-weevil  just  disclosed  in  a  parcel  of  peas  which 
he  had  taken  with  him  from  America,  the  Swedish  traveler  Kalra 
was  thrown  into  such  a  trepidation  lest  he  should  be  the  instrument 
of  introducing  so  fatal  an  evil  into  his  beloved  country. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  habits  of  the  Grain  Bruchus,  I  quote  the 
following  account  from  Curtis's  Farm  Insects: — 

''This  species,  which  is  everywhere  abundant  as  eari}^  as  Febru- 
ary on  the  furze  when  it  is  in  blossom,  inhabiting  also  the  flowers  of 
various  other  plants  in  the  beetle  state,  as  the  Rhubarb,  Meadow- 
sweet (<S??m<:' a  ulmaria),  etc.,  is  a  most  destructive  insect  in  our  pea 
and  bean  fields,  the  larvas  feeding  in  the  seeds  and  sometimes  destroy- 
ing more  than  half  the  crop.  They  are  exceedingly  abundant  in  some 
parts  of  Kent,  where  they  often  swarm  at  the  end  of  May,  and  are  oc- 
casionally found  as  late  as  August;  indeed  I  killed  one  in  November, 
imported  with  Russian  beans,  which  had  been  alive  since  the  end  of 
September.  It  attempted  to  fly  away  in  October ;  it  then  became 
torpid,  but  on  warming  it  by  a  tire  in  the  middle  of  November,  it  was 
as  lively  and  active  as  in  the  height  of  summer,  and  I  dare  say  would 
have  lived  through  the  winter. 

"It  is  said  that  the  female  beetles  select  the  finest  peas  to  deposit 
their  eggs  in,  and  sometimes  they  infest  crops  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  are  eaten  up  by  them,  little  more  than  the  husk  being  left.  The 
various  kinds  of  beans  are  equally  subject  to  their  inroads;  besides 
the  long-pods  I  have  alluded  to,  I  have  had  broad  Windsor  beans  sent 
to  me  containing  these  Bruchi;  and  Mr.  C.  Parsons  transmitted  me 
some  horse-beans  in  the  beginning  of  August,  1SJ:2,  which  were  en- 
tirely destroyed  by  them.  Mr.  F.  J.  Graham  showed  me  some  seed 
beans  which  were  inoculated  by  these  beetles  to  a  great  extent,  and 
some  of  them  were  alive  in  the  seeds ;  yet  to  any  one  ignorant  of  the 
economy  of  this  pest,  there  would  not  appear  the  slightest  external 
indication  of  their  operations.  I  also  received  from  a  gentleman  resid- 
ing in  Norfolk  a  sample  of  seed  beans  from  Russia,  for  winter  sowing, 
a  large  proportion  of  which  was  perforated  by  this  Bruchus. 

"  It  has  already  been  intimated  that  as  the  beetles  generally  leave 
the  germ  uninjured,  the  vitality  of  infested  seeds  is  not  destroyed.  I 
doubt,  however,  if  they  produce  strong  healthy  plants;  and  from  my 
own  experience  I  have  no  doubt  if  peas  and  beans  be  sown  contain- 
ing the  BriicMis  granarius,  that  the  beetles  will  hatch  in  the  ground, 
and  thus  the  cultivator  will  entail  upon  himself  a  succession  of  dis- 
eased pea  and  bean  crops.  Now  to  avoid  this  loss,  the  seed  should  be 
examined  before  sowing,  when  to  an  experienced  eye  the  presence  of 
these  beetles  will  be  discernible,  where  to  a  common  observer  they 
would  appear  sound  and  good.  The  maggots,  when  arrived  at  their 
full  size,  gnaw  a  circular  hole  to  the  husk  or  skin  of  the  seed,  whether 
pea  or  bean,  and  even  cut  around  the  inner  surface  which  covers  the 
aperture,  so  that  a  slight  pressure  from  within  will  force  this  lid  ofl'; 


52  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

these  spots  are  of  a  different  color  to  the  rest  of  the  seed,  generally 
having  a  less  opaque  appearance,  and  often  are  of  a  duller  tint ;  on 
picking  off  this  little  lid,  a  cavity  will  be  found  beneath  containing 
either  a  maggot,  pupa,  or  beetle." 


THE  AMERICAN  BEAJOi-WEEYlL-BruGhus  fahce,  N.  sp. 

This  is  another  BrucJius  which  bids  fair  to  out-do  the  celebrated 
Pea-weevil  in  its  injurious  work,  and  since  it  has   but  just  made  its 
[F's- 19-]  appearance  in  our  State  as  a  bean  destroyer, 

and  is  yet  confined,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  to 
one  single  locality,  I  hope  that  the  following 
account  of  it  will  have  the  effect  to  prevent 
[•  ^'tjl  ^r^/H|ffl|S|,V_  its  introduction  into  neighborhoods  where  it 
is  now  unknown,  and  thus  keep  it  from  spread- 
"^  »    'Hl^^    <([      ing  over  the  State.    It  appears  to  be  a  native 

American  insect  and  doubtless  fed  originally 
on  some  kind  of  wild  bean  {PJiaseohis  or  LatTiyriis^)  but  it  was  first 
noticed  in  our  cultivated  beans  about  ten  years  ago,  in  Rhode  Island, 
and  has  since  at  difi"erent  times  suddenly  made  its  appearance  in  sev- 
eral other  parts  of  the  country.  Maj.  J.  R.  Muhleman,  of  Woodburn? 
Ills.,  informs  me  that  while  in  South  Carolina  in  1863,  some  kind  of 
weevil  was  often  so  common  in  the  beans  used  by  the  army  that  be- 
fore using  such  beans  the  men  had  to  soak  them,  and  afterwards  lay 
them  out  to  dry,  in  order  to  allow  the  beetles  to  escape.  The  weevil 
was  doubtless  the  species  under  consideration,  but  there  is  no  means 
of  ascertaining  from  which  part  of  the  country  the  beans  came. 

Though  already  pretty  well  distributed  in  some  of  the  Eastern 
States,  especially  in  New  York,  it  appears  to  be  yet  confined  to  cer- 
tain localities  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  It  has  for  instance,  been 
quite  troublesome  of  late  years  in  Madison  county,  Ills.,  for  I  re- 
ceived last  spring  numerous  specimens  from  Mr.  Geo.  W.  Copley,  of 
Alton,  and  am  informed  by  Mr.  J.  F.  Wielandj^,  of  Jefferson  City,  Mo., 
thait  his  father  who  is  a  resident  of  that  county  has  been  much  troub- 
led with  it;  yet  it  has  never  been  heard  of  in  other  parts  of  the  State, 
The  only  place  in  which  I  have,  so  far,  found  it  in  Missouri,  is  around 
Eureka,  in  St.  Louis  county,  where  it  was  first  noticed  in  1869,  but 
where  it  occurred  the  present  year  in  great  numbers  in  two  different 
fields  of  a  white  pole  bean.  It  occurs  in  some  parts  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  is  quite  common  in  New  York,  and  to  illustrate  the  amount  of 
damage  it  is  capable  of  doing,  I  make  room  for  the  following  letter^ 
which  was  received  in  November,  1870,  from  Mr.  James  Angus,  of 
West  Farms,  N.  Y.,  and  which  refers  to  this  insect: 

I  enclose  you  a  sample  of  beans  to  show  you  how  thoroughly  and 
effectually  this  lii  tie  vagabond  is  plying  his  time  immemorial  avoca- 
tions in  the  bean-patches  in  this  quarter.  Five  or  six  years  ago  I  had 
occasion  to  call  on  a  neighbor,  and  in  passing  through  the  barn  he 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  53 

pointed  out  to  me  aheap  of  threshed  beans,  on  the  floor,  of  the  Early 
Mohawk  variety,  which  he  said  had  been  destroyed  by  bugs  getting 
into  them  since  they  were  threshed.  (?)  A  casual  inspection  showed 
that  they  were  destroyed  sure  enough.  At  least  one-half  of  them 
were  as  badly  infested  as  the  sample  I  send  you,  but  as  I  pointed  out 
to  him,  the  damage  which  was  now  an  accomplished  fact,  had  been 
commenced  during  the  growing  season,  and  the  "bugs"  were  now 
leaving  the  beans  instead  of  entering  them. 

Next  season  I  found  a  few  among  my  own  beans,  and  they  have 
been  on  the  increase  ever  since;  and  this  year  my  Yellow  Six  Week 
variety  are  nearly  as  bad  as  my  neighbors  referred  to  above.  They 
are  nearly  as  bad  this  year  on  a  pole  variety,  the  "Dutch  Case  Knife," 
as  they  are  on  the  low  growing  ones.  The  small  black  bush  variety, 
however  seems  to  have  escaped  them.  If  some  check  is  not  put  to 
their  ravages  soon,  the  culture  of  beans  will  have  to  be  given  up 
here. 

In  a  short  article  on  this  weevil,  published  by  Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon, 
in  the  American  Entomologist^  (Vol.11,  pages  118-119,)  that  gentle- 
man gives  the  following  account  of  its  appearance  in  his  neighbor- 
hood : 

My  specimens  evolved  in  the  months  of  June,  July,  August  and 
September,  from  three  varieties  of  the  domestic  bean  {Phaseohis^) 
commonly  called  "Cranberry,"  the  "Agricultural,"  and  the  "Wrens- 
egg"  beans,  obtained  from  Mrs.  P.  C.  Gibbons,  Enterprise,  Lancaster 
county,  Pa.  *  *  *  *  I  have  not  yet  heard  of  this  insect 
being  found  in  any  other  locality  in  Lancaster  county  than  the  one 
above  named.  The  tenant  from  whom  Mrs.  Gibbons  received  these 
infested  beans  has  been  engaged  in  the  bean  culture  for  twenty-five 
years  on  the  same  farm,  and  never  noticed  these  weevils  until  within 
the  last  two  or  three  years,  and  only  last  year  did  their  destructive 
character  become  conspicuously  apparent;  for  out  of  a  small  sack  of 
seed-beans  hung  awa}',  containing  less  than  two  quarts,  she  gathered 
nearly  a  teacup-full  of  the  weevils  at  planting  time,  in  the  early  part 
of  June,  and  had  all  been  infested  as  those  were  which  she  brought  to 
me,  she  could  have  easily  doubled  the  quantity.  About  five  years 
ago  Mrs.  Gibbons  received  some  seed-beans  of  the  "Cranberry"  va- 
riety, from  Nantucket,  Mass  ,  and  prior  to  that,  she  also  received  some 
from  the  Agricultural  Department  of  the  Patent  Office,  and  with  the 
one  or  the  other  of  these,  the  impression  is  that  the  weevils  must 
have  been  received. 

If,  as  I  have  supposed  (and  by  perusing  what  is  printed  below  in 
small  type,  the  reader  will  see  that  no  other  conclusion  can  be  drawn), 
this  weevil  is  indigenous  ;  it  may  possibly  occur  over  large  tracts  of 
our  country,  though  the  fact  that,  till  a  few  years  ago,  it  had  never 
been  collected  by  any  American  entomologist,  would  strongly  inti- 
mate that,  in  what  may  be  termed  its  wild  state,  it  was  quite  rare  and 
had  a  limited  range.  But  even  if  it  should  occur  in  this  wild  state  more 
generally  through  the  country  than  the  facts  would  lead  us  to  believe, 
there  is  nevertheless  more  danger  of  its  being  introduced  into  a  bean 
field  hitherto  exempt  by  the  planting  of  infested  cultivated  beans, 
than  by  its  spreading  from  the  wild  food.  And  if  once  a  few  buggy 
beans  are  planted,  they  will  in  a  few  years  contaminate  the  other 
beans  cultivated  in  the  neighborhood,  so  that  the  man  who  year  after 


54  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

year  grows  his  own  seed  will  suffer  as  much  as  the  man  who  origirr- 
allj'-  introduces  the  weevils  from  afar. 

Except  in  being  smaller,  the  larva  and  pupa  of  this  weevil  have 
a  close  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Pea-weevil,  and  its  habits  are 
very  similar,  with  the  exception  that  the  female  deposits  a  greater 
number  of  eggs  on  a  single  pod,  so  that  sometimes  over  a  dozen  lar- 
vae enter  a  single  bean.  I  have  counted  as  many  as  fourteen  in  one 
small  bean,  and  the  space  required  for  each  individual  to  develop  is 
not  much  more  than  sufficient  to  snugly  contain  the  beetle.  The 
little  spot  where  the  Pea-weevil  entered  can  always  be  detected  even 
in  the  dry  pea,  but  in  the  bean  these  points  of  entrance  become  al- 
most entirely  obliterated.  The  cell  in  which  the  transformations  take 
place  is  more  perfect  and  smooth,  and  the  lining  is  easily  distin- 
guished from  the  meat  of  the  bean  by  its  being  more  white  and 
opaque.  ITie  excrement  is  yellow  or  darker  than  the  meat,  and  even 
where  a  bean  is  so  badly  infested  that  the  inside  is  entirely  reduced 
to  this  excrementitious  powder,  each  larva,  before  transforming, m.an- 
ages  to  form  for  itself  a  complete  cell,  which  separates  it  from  the 
rest  of  its  brethren.  The  eye-spot,  as  in  the  pea,  is  perfectly  circular 
and  quite  transparent  in  white-skinned  varieties,  so  that  infested 
beans  of  this  kind  are  easily  distinguished  by  the  bluish-black  spots 
which  they  exhibit  (Fig.  19,  h).  Dark  beans  when  infested  are  not  so 
easily  distinguished. 

I  have  always  found  the  germ  either  untouched  or  but  partially 
devoured  even  in  the  worst  infested  beans,  so  that  when  but  two  or 
three  weevils  inhabit  a  bean,  it  would  doubtless  grow  ;  but  where  the 
meat  is  entirely  destroyed,  as  it  often  is,  the  bean  would  hardly  grow 
though  the  germ  remained  intact,  and  it  would  certainly  not  produce 
a  vigorous  plant. 

Many  of  the  beetles  are  perfected  in  the  fall,  but  many  of  them 
not  till  the  following  spring,  so  that  there  is  the  same  danger  of  in- 
troducing them  in  seed-beans,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Pea-weevil.  The 
remedies  and  preventives  given  in  the  former  case  will  of  course  ap- 
ply equally  well  in  this,  and  I  hope  that  every  bean-grower  in  Mis- 
souri who  reads  this  article  will  make  some  effort  to  keep  the  scourge 
out  of  his  own  neighborhood,  by  urging  upon  others,  at  the  Farmers' 
Club,  or  at  the  meetings  of  any  local  societies,  the  necessity  of  sow- 
ing only  sound  seed,  and  of  thoroughly  destroying  any  that  may  be 
received  from  abroad  and  found  buggy. 

Regarding  the  proper  nomenclature  of  our  Bean-weevil,  there 
has  been  some  confusion,  and  though  it  has  heretofore  been  consid- 
ered by  several  eminent  entomologists  as  the  Brnchiis  obsoletus 
of  Say,  and  I  have  heretofore,  upon  insufficient  grounds,  referred  it  to 
that  species  myself,  it  nevertheless  turns  out  to  be  undescribed.  In 
Europe,  besides  the  Grain  Bruchus  which  I  just  treated  of,  there  are 
several  other  species  belonging  to   the   same  genus  which  attack 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST;  ^^ 

beans ;  but  our  insect  differs  from  all  of  them  and  especially  from  the 
Grain  Bruchus,  to  which  it  has  been  erroneously  referred  by  Dr.  A. 
S.  Packard,  Jr.*  Jf  it  were  the  imported  Grain  Bruchus,  our  peas 
and  some  other  grains  would  probably  suffer  as  much  from  its  attacks 
as  our  beans,  because  that  species  infests  peas  and  other  seeds  in  Eu- 
rope ;  but  in  reality  we  have  no  more  reason  to  believe  that  our  Bean- 
weevil  will  attack  our  peas  than  that  the  Pea-weevil  will  attack  our 
beaiis. 

The  general  color  of  our  Bean  weevil  is  tawny-gray,  tiie  ground- 
color being  dark  and  the  whole  body  covered  with  a  grayish  pubes- 
cence which  inclines  to  yellow  or  fulvous,  or  wears  a  slight  moss- 
green  hue,  and  is  shaded  as  in  Figure  19,  a.  It  is  but  half  the  size  of 
the  Pea-weevil  and  has  the  four  or  five  basal  joints  and  the  terminal 
joint  of  the  antennae,  and  the  legs,  with  the  exception  of  the  lower 
and  inner  part  of  the  hind  thighs,  reddish-brown. 

Brdchus  fab-e  N.  Sp.  (Fig.  19,) — General  color  tawny-gray  with  more  or  less  dull  yBllowisL. 
Bodi/ black  tinged  with  brown  and  with  dull  yellowish  pubescence,  the  pygidium  and  sides  of  abdo- 
men almost  always  brownish.  Head  dull  yellowish-gray  with  the  jaws  dark  brown  and  palpi 
black  ;  antenna;  not  deeply  serrate  in  $,  more  so  in  (j' ;  dark  brown  or  black  with  usually  5,  some- 
times only  4,  sometimes  4  and  part  oJ  5  basal  joints,  and  with  the  terminal  joint,  more  or  less 
distinctly  rufous,  or  testaceous,  the  color  being  so  slight  in  some  specimens  as  scarcely  to  contrast 
at  all  with  the  darker  joints.  Thorax  narrowed  before,  immaculate,  but  with  the  pubescence 
almost  always  exhibiting  a  single  pale  medio-dorsal  line,  sometimes  three  dorsal  lines,  more 
rarely  a  transverse  line  in  addition,  and  still  more  rarely  (two  specimens)  forming  a 
large  dark,  almost  black  patch  each  side,  leaving;  a  median  stripe  and  the  extreme 
borders  pale  and  thus  approaching  closely  to  erythroccrus  Dej.  ;  base  with  the  edges 
almost  angulated ;  central  lobe  almost  truncate  and  with  a  short  longitudinal  deeply  impressed 
median  line :  no  lateral  notch :  scutel  concolorous  and  quadrate  with  the  hind  edge  more 
or  less  notched.  Elytra  with  the  interstitial  lines  having  a  slight  appearance  of  alternating 
transversely  with  dull  yellowish  and  dusky;  so  slight  however  that  in  most  of  the  specimens  it  can 
hardly  be  traced  ;  the  dark  shadings  form  a  spot  on  each  shoulder  and  three  transverse  bands 
tolerably  distinct  in  some,  almost  obsolete  in  others,  the  intermediate  row  being  the  most  persistent 
and  conspicuous  :  between  these  dark  transverse  rows  the  interstices  are  alternately  more  or  less 
pale,  especially  on  the  middle  of  the  3rd  interstitial  lines.  Legs  covered  with  grayish  pubescence, 
and  with  the  tibiiv  and  tarsi,  especially  of  first  and  second  pair,  reddish-brown  ;  the  hind  thighs 
usually  somewhat  darker,  becoming  black  below  and  inside,  and  with  a  tolerably  long  black  spine 
followed  by  two  very  minute  ones.  Length  0.09 — 0.14  inch.  Described  from  40  specimens  all 
bred  from  different  kinds  of  beans.     Hundreds  of  others  examined. 

This  insect  has  been  for  several  years  ticketed  in  some  of  the  Eastern  collections  by  the  name 
of  B. /«&«;,  or  else,  what  is  worse,  the  corruption  of  it, /a6i.  The  former  name  has  been  disseminated 
by  my  friend  F.  G.  Sanborn  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  who  says  that  he  received  the  weevil  thus 
named,  together  with  beans  attacked  by  it,  in  the  year  1S62  from  Rhode  Island.  The  name  was 
credited  to  Fabricius,  but  I  can  find  no  notice  in  any  of  the  works  I  possess  of  any  European 
Bruchus  fahcE,  and  several  of  my  Eastern  correspondents  who  have  access  to  large  libraries  have 
been  unable  to  find  any  description  or  allusion  to  a  species  by  that  name.  Dr  LeConte  has  given  it 
the  MS  name  of  varicornis  but  as  his  description  will  not  appear  perhaps  for  years  to  come  and 
as  no  comprehensive  description  has  yet  been  pviblished,  1  have  deemed  it  advisable  to  dispel  in  a 
measure  the  confusion  thatsurrounds  the  nomenclature  of  the  species.  There  is  need  of  a  descrip- 
tion of  so  injurious  an  insect,  and  a,?  fab  a.  is  not  preoccupied  I  adopt  the  name  because  it  is  entirely 
appropriate  and  because  it  is  more  easily  rendered  into  terse   popular  language  tha^t  varicornis .  f 

-■■  Injurious  insects  new  and  little  known,  pp.  19-21. 

f  No  one  can  have  a  greater  regard  than  I  have,  for  the  work  of  our  great  Coleoptenst,  Dr. 
LeConte,  who  is  justly  looked  up  to  as  our  authority  in  his  specialty  ;  and  for  no  other  reason 
than  the  one  given  above  would  1  venture  to  disregard  even  one  of  his  manuscript  names.  Were 
he  now  at  home,  I  should  have  corresponded  with  him  on  the  subject,  and  I  feel  satisfied  that  he 
vould  have  sanctiooed  this  course.     These  remarks  are  prompted  by  the  fact  that  certain  entomolo- 


5(?  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

It  resembles  most  closely  of  any  other  species  whicli  I  have  seen,  the  B.  erytKrocerus,  Dej", 
which,  however,  is  smaller,  and  differs  in  having  a  mtrrower  thorax  which  has  light  sides  and  a 
dark,  broad  dorsal  stripe  divided  down  the  middle  by  a  pale  narrow  line  :  erythrocerus  is  further 
distinguished  by  the  antennto  being  entirely  testaceous  and  the  hind  thighs  more  swollen. 

From  otsoletuB  Say,  fabx  differs  materially  :  obsoletus  is  a  smaller  species,  dark  gray,  with  thft 
antenna?  all  dark,  the  pygidium  not  rufous,  the  thorax  with  a  perceptibl}'  darker  dorsal  shade  so 
that  the  sides  app/ear  more  cinfrreous,  a  white  scutel,  and  each  interstitial  line  of  the  elytra  with  a 
slight  appearance  of  alternating  whitish  and  dusky  along  its  whole  length  ;  for  though  ther© 
is  nothing  in  Say's  language  to  indicate  whether  it  is  th«  interstitial  lines  that  alternate  trans- 
versely, whitish  and  dusky,  or  each  line  that  so  alternates  longitudinally,  I  find  from  an  examina- 
tion of  a  specimen  in  the  Walsh  collection,  that  the  latter  is  the  case,  and  so  much  so  that  the 
insect  almost  appears  speckleKi.  The  two  species  differ  both  in  size  and  color,  though,  as  Say's 
description  is  short  and  imperfect  it  is  not  surprising  that /aft*  should  have  been  referred  to  it. 

IVom  the  European  bean-feeding  Br.  Jtavimanus  (which  is  apparently  either  a  clerical  error 
for,  or  a  synonym  of  Br.  rufimanus,  Schoenh.)  as  described  by  Curtis,  it  differs  notably;  as  it  does 
likewise  from  their  Br,  serratus.  111.,  which  also  attacks  beans. 

Dr.  LeConte,  according  to  Mr.  Rathvon,  was  inclined  to  consider  this  insect  the  obsoletus  of 
Say,  from  the  fact  that  in  specimens  which  the  latter  gentleman  sent  him,  the  antennae  were  not 
varied  as  in  his  MS.  varicornis,  but  uniformly  black,  A  few  specimens  which  Mr.  Rathvon  fent 
me  nearly  two  j'ears  ago,  taken  from  the  same  lot  as  were  those  which  he  forwarded  to  Dr.  Le- 
Conte, were  singularly  enough,  all  decapitated  but  two  ;  and  these  two  showed  the  varied  antennae. 
These  specimens  had  all  been  kept  in  alcohol,  and  I  am  greatly  inclined  to  believe  that  the  uni- 
formly dark  appearance  of  the  antennae  that  was  noticed  by  LeConte  was  the  effect  of  the  alcohol 
on  those  which  naturally  had  the  rufous  joints  but  faintly  indicated.  At  all  events,  though  Mr. 
Rathvon  tells  me  that  he  found  a  small  proportion  of  beetles  with  dark  antenna),  after  examining, 
at  my  suggestion,  over  two  hundred  specimens  that  had  thus  been  kept  in  alcohol ;  yet  from  over 
one  hundred  specimens  which  he  had  the  kindness  to  send  me,  I  only  find  (after  thoroughly  drying 
them)  three  with  the  terminal  joint  really  as  dark  as  the  subterminal,  and  not  a  single  one  in 
which  the  rufous  basal  joints  cannot  be  more  or  less  distinctly  traced. 

gists  have  objected  to  isolated  descriptions  of  insects,  on  the  plea  that  they  cause  confusion  and  an 
unnecessary  synonymy  in  our  nomenclature.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  certain  class  of  persons — and  they 
have  been  aptly  termed  closet-entomologists — who  manifest  a  superlative  contempt  for  anything 
that  does  not  appear  in  the  transactions  or  publications  of  some  scientific  society  ;  and  they  even 
claim  that  the  descriptions  which  have  appeared  in  State  Entomological  Reports  are  invalid  and 
should  be  disregarded.  The  descriptions  of  Dr.  Fitch,  and  many  of  those  of  the  late  Mr.  Walsh,  and 
my  own,  would  of  course  come  under  this  head.  It  is  a  little  significant,  however,  that  the  very  per- 
sons who  manifest  such  a  contempt  for  scientific  work,  whenever  it  is  combined  with  the  practi- 
cally useful,  are  the  very  ones  who  indulge  in  the  fatal  monomania  for  grinding  out  new  species 
from  the  mere  comparison  of  a  few  more  or  less  damaged  specimens  of  the  perfect  insects,  ob- 
tained nobody  knows  how,  when  or  where  ;  and  without  even  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  larval 
and  pupal  history  and  the  general  habits  of  the  so-called  species.  They  make  species  out  of  the 
slightest  individual  variation,  and  even  erect  genera  upon  a  slight  individual  difference  in  the  size 
or  shape  of  the  wing.  So  baseless  a  system  must  necessarily  be  fraught  with  great  scientific  un- 
truthfulness, and  is  well  calculated  to  disgust  the  student  who  endeavors  to  rightly  interpret  the 
significances  in  Nature.  An  immense  number  of  the  published  descriptions  in  the  Class  of  insects 
in  this  country  are  based  upon  the  simple  examination  of  solitary  specimens  of  the  perfect  insects, 
without  the  fact  being  mentioned,  and  are  therefore  not  in  any  true  sense  of  the  term  descriptions 
of  species,  but  mere  descriptions  of  individuals.  The  few  men  whose  sole  ambition  seems  to  be 
to  attach  their  names  to  as  many  of  these  so-called  species  as  possible,  are  the  ones  who  are  most 
inclined  to  sneer  at,  and  treat  lightly  the  honest  work  of  more  practical  men — forgetting  that 
science  does  not  consist  of  mere  classification  and  orderly  arrangement,  but  that  she  wears  a 
nobler  mien  when  applied  to  penetrating  and  comprehensive  search  after  Nature's  truths. 

A  truth  is  equally  scientific,  whether  published  in  a  plain,  practical  work,  or  in  the  drier 
pages  of  the  transactions  of  some  august  scientific  body  ;  and  so  far  as  the  science  of  entomology 
is  concerned,  it  will  certainly  be  more  advanced  by  the  full  and  comprehensive  description  of  a 
species,  albeit  such  description  be  clothed  in  plain  terms  and  published  in  a  popular  work,  than 
by  a  less  complete  and  more  confused  description,  in  the  transactions  of  an  Entomological  Soci^ 
ety  ;  and  provided  it  is  published  in  a  work  essentially  entomological,  the  monographer  will  cer- 
tainly prefer  the  former  to  the  latter.  In  the  pMst,  science  belonged  to  the  few,  and  was  always 
paraded  before  the  world  in  as  unattractive  and  technical  a  form  as  possible.  To-day  she  is  fast 
becoming  the  property  of  the  multitude,  and  should  be  popularized  as  much  as  possible  ;  for  it  is 
folly  to  suppose,  as  some  men  do,  that  in  science  "  popular"  and  "inaccurate"  are  synonymous 
terms,  simply  because  some  writers  have  failed  to  combine  the  scientifically  accurate  with  the 
popular  and  practical. 

The  entomologist  who  occupies  himself  with  the  habits  of  insects,  cannot  well  become  a  sys- 
teraatist,  and  would  far  sooner  accurately  describe  the  hitherto  unknown  habits  and  transforma- 
tions of  a  single  common  species,  than  describe  a  dozen  new  ones.  He  may  have  hundreds  of  new 
species  in  his  cabinet;  but  these  he  prefers  to  turn  over  to  the  specialist,  whose  work  he  fully 
appreciates  and  whose  aid  he  must  often  seek.  "W^hen,  however,  in  the  course  of  his  work,  he  is 
obliged  to  ]>ublish  an  isolated  description,  the  specialist  proper  should  certainly  not  depreciate 
l»is  labor,  providing  it  is  well  performed^ 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  57 

THE  NEW  YORK  y^'KEYlL—Ithycerus  novehoracensis,  Forster. 


cut 


The   large   graj''  beetle   represented  at  c,  in   the   accompanying 
often   does   considerable    damage    to    fruit    trees,  and   I   con- 


tinually receive  it  every  spring  by  persons 
who  desire  to  know  more  of  its  habits.  It  kills 
the  twig  by  gnawing  off  the  tender  bark,  in 
the  early  part  of  the  season  before  the  buds  have 
put  out,  and  later  in  the  year  it  destroys  the  ten- 
der shoots  which  start  out  from  old  wood,  by 
entirely  devouring  them.  It  eats  out  the  buds 
and  will  also  frequently  gnaw  off  the  leaves  at  the 
^  base  of  the  stem,  after  they  have  expanded.  It 
attacks,  by  preference,  the  tender  growth  of  the 
Apple,  though  it  will  also  make  free  with  that  of 
Peach,  Plum,  Pear  and  Cherry,  and  probably  of 
other  fruit  as  well  as  forest  trees.  It  is  the  largest 
snout-beetle  which  occurs  in  our  State,  and  with 
the  rest  of  the  species  belonging  to  the  same  gen- 
us (Tt7u/cerus=strRight-horD)  it  is  distinguished  from  most  of  the 
other  snout-beetles  by  the  antennas  or  feelers  being  straight  instead 
of  elbowed  or  flail-shaped  as  they  are  in  the  common  Plum  Curculio^ 
for  instance.  The  specific  name  novehoracensis  which  means  "  of  New 
York"  was  given  to  this  beetle  just  100  years  ago  by  Forster,  doubt- 
less because  he  received  his  specimens  from  New  York.  But  like 
many  other  insects  which  have  been  honored  with  the  name  of  some 
Eastern  State,  it  is  far  more  common  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  than 
it  is  in  the  the  State  of  New  York,  it  scarcely  being  known  as  an 
injurious  insect  in  the  East.  It  was  subsequently  described  as  Pa- 
hyrhynchus  SoTicenherri  by  Mr.  Kirby.  The  general  color  of  the 
beetle  is  ash-gray,  marked  with  black  as  in  the  cut  (Fig.  20,  c),  and 
with  the  scutel  or  small  semi-circular  space  immediately  behind  the 
thorax,  between  the  wings,  of  a  yellowish  color.  Its  larval  habits 
were  for  a  long  time  unknown,  but  two  years  ago  I  ascertained  that 
it  breeds  in  the  twigs  and  tender  branches  of  the  Bur  oak,  and  have 
good  reason  to  believe  that  it  also  breeds  in  those  of  the  Pignut 
hickory.  The  female  in  depositing,  first  makes  a  longitudinal  exca- 
vation with  her  jaws  (Fig.  20,  a)  eating  upwards  under  the  bark 
towards  the  end  of  the  branch,  and  afterwards  turns  round  to  thrust 
her  egg  in  the  excavation.  The  larva,  (Fig.  20,  h)  hatching  from  the 
egg  is  of  the  usual  pale  yellow  color  with  a  tawny  head.  I  have 
watched  the  whole  operation  of  depositing,  and,  returning  to  the 
punctured  twig  a  few  days  after  the  operation  was  performed,  have 
cut  out  the  young  larva  ;  but  I  do  not  know  how  long  a  time  the  larva 
needs  to  come  to  its  growth,  nor  whether  it  undergoes  its  transforma- 
tions within  the  branch,  or  leaves  it  for  this  purpose  to  enter  the 
ground;  though  the  former  hypothesis  is  the  more  likely. 


58 


THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


This  insect  is  more  active  at  night  than  during  the  day,  and  is 
often  jarred  down  upon  the  sheet  or  the  Curculio-catcher,  for  it  falls 
about  as  readily  as  the  Plum  Curculio. 

The  destructive  pear  blight,  otherwise  known  as  fire-blight,  has 
been  attributed  to  a  peculiar  poisonous  fluid  which  this  beetle  se- 
cretes and  with  which  it  poisons  the  wood.*  I  have  never  noticed 
any  such  secretion,  and  feel  quite  convinced  that  it  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  real  pear  blight  (and  there  are  more  than  one  kind) 
which  is  very  justly  considered  by  the  most  eminent  horticulturists 
of  the  land  to  be  of  fungoid  rather  than  insect  origin.  It  is  quite 
probable  that  the  beetle  secretes  some  such  fluid  which  causes  a  sort 
of  blight,  because  several  bark-boring  and  wood-boring  beetles  are 
known  to  produce  such  an  eff"ect ;  but  this  insect-blight  must  not  be 
confounded  with  the  far  more  subtle  and  destructive  Pear  Blight,  so 
called. 


THE  IMBRICATED   SNOJJT-BEETLE—J^pzecerus  imhicatus,  Say. 

This  is  another  insect,  which  is  quite  frequently  met  with  on  our 
different  fruit  trees,  doing  considerable  injury  to  apple  and  cherry 
trees  and  gooseberry  bushes,  by  gnawing  the  twigs  and  fruit.  Its 
natural  history  is,  however,  a  sealed  book,  and  I  introduce  it  at  pres- 
[Fig.  21.]  ent  more  to  draw  the  attention  of  orchard- 

ists  to  this  fact  than  to  give  any  informa- 
_^tion  with  regard  to  it.    The  beetle  is  a 
native  of  the  more  Western  States  and  is 
found  much  more  commonly  in  the  wes- 
ern  part  of  the  State,  in  Iowa,  Kansas,  and 
,;^     towards  the  mountains  than  it  is  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  great  Father  of  Waters. 

The  general  color  is  a  dull  silvery- white  with  brown  markings  as 
in  the  figure  (Fig.  21),  which  are  sometimes  dark  and  distinct,  and  at 
others  almost  obsolete.  Indeed  the  species  is  so  variable  that 
it  has  received  no  less  than  four  distinct  names,  i.  e.  four  distinct  spe- 
cies have  been  fabricated  out  of  one.f 


■■■See  a  commnnication  from  H.  H.  Babcock,  of  Chicago,  in  the  Am.  Entomologist  and  Botanist, 
Vol.  II,  p.  176. 

fThere  can  be  no  doubt  of  this,  for  the  range  of  variation  is  so  great  that  specimens  agreeing 
in  every  respect  -(vith  imbricatus,  fornudolosus,  vadosus  andfallax,  are  to  be  met  with  in  very  limi- 
ted localities  ;  and  both  Dr.  LeConte  and  Mr.  Walsh  -were  of  opinion  that  these  four  so-called 
species  were  but  varieties. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  59 


THE  CORN  SPJlE^OFROmjS—Sphenophorns  zece,  Walsh. 

In  the  last  number  of  the  Practical  Entomologist^  Mr.  Walsh  gave 
the  first  account  of  a  weevil  which  in  certain  years  does  great  damage 
[Fig-.  22.]  to  the  corn  crop  by  puncturing  the  young  plant 

near  the  ground,  and  riddling  it  with  holes  of 
about  the  size  that  an  ordinary  pin  would  make. 
They  may  even  be  found  under  ground  attached 
firmly  to  the  stalk,  and  when  numerous  enough 
the  plant  always  dies. 
^1  1  ^  \  e         The  color  of  the    beetle  is   brown-black  or 

black,  often  obscured  by  yellowish  or  grayish  matter  adhering  to,  and 
filling  up  the  hollow  punctures.  Figure  22  gives  a  good  illustration 
of  it,  a  showing  a  shaded  back  view,  h  an  outline  side  view,  and  g 
showing  the  manner  in  which  the  wing-covers  are  punctured.  The 
original  description  as  given  by  Mr.  Walsh  will  be  found  below. 

In  the  spring  of  1S68,  Mr.  L.  V.  Smith,  of  Geneva,  Ontario  county, 
N.  Y.,  sent  me  numerous  specimens;  and  I  have  often  found  it  in 
great  numbers  on  the  lake-beach  at  Chicago,  though  it  does  not  seem 
to  be  common  in  our  own  State.  But  it  is  well  that  corn-growers  be 
made  familiar  with  its  appearance. 

The  larval  history  of  this  weevil  is  unknown,  but  there  seems 
good  reason  to  believe  that  it  breeds  in  rotting  and  moist  wood, 
situated  in  places  where  it  is  constantly  washed  by  the  water;  for  the 
beetles,  with  others  belonging  to  the  same  genus  are  found  in  such 
situations  and  in  decayed  logs  floating  in  swamps.  If  this  supposi- 
tion be  the  correct  one — and  the  fact  that  it  has  been  injurious  only 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  rivers  and  lakes  adds  great  weight 
to  such  a  supposition — then  this  weevil  will  not  be  likely  to  multiply 
unduly  where  there  are  not  large  bodies  of  water. 

"  SpENOPnoRUs  ZE.E,  new  species?  Color  black,  often  obscured  by  yellowish  matter  adhering- 
to  the  hollow  places,  which,  however,  can  be  partially  washed  o£f.  Head  finely  punctured  towards 
the  base,  with  a  large  dilated  puncture  between  the  eyes  above.  Snout  one-third  as  long  as  the 
body,  of  uniform  diameter,  as  fine  as  a  stout  horse-hair,  and  curved  downwards.  Before  the 
middle  of  the  thorax  a  polished  diamond-shaped  space,  prolonged  in  a  short  line  in  front  and  in  a 
long  line  behind;  and  on  each  side  of  this  an  irregularly  defined  polished  space,  somewhat  in  the 
form  of  an  inverted  Y  ;  the  rest  of  thorax  occupied  by  very  large  punctures,  which  fade  into  finer 
and  sparser  ones  on  the  polished  spaces.  Wing-cases  with  rows  of  still  larger  punctures,  placed 
very  wide  apart  in  the  usual  grooves  or  striaj ;  the  sutural  interstice,  that  between  the  2nd  and  3rd 
striae,  and  that  between  the  4th  and  5th  stria3  wider  than  the  rest,  elevated,  and  occupied  by  very 
fine  punctures  ;  a  small  elongate-oval  polished  spot  on  the  shoulder  and  another  near  the  tip  of  the 
wing-case.  Beneath,  polished,  and  with  punctures  as  large  as  those  of  the  thorax. — Length 
about  three-tenths  of  an  inch,  exclusive  of  the  snout.  Comes  very  near  Sphenophorus  truncalus 
Say,  but  the  snout  is  not  "attenuated  at  tip"  and  has  no  "elongated  groove  at  base  above  ;"  and 
moreover,  nothing  is  said  in  the  description  of  that  species  of  the  very  large  and  conspicuous  punc- 
tures, found  in  the  elytral  striaj  of  our  species." 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


THE  COCKLEBUK  SFRENOFRORVS—Sphenop/iorus  pulchellus, 

Schoenherr. 

[Fig.  23.]         ^  In  closing  this  chapter  on  snout-beetles  I  intro- 

duce this  species  (Fig.  23,  a  shaded  back  view; 
I>  outline  side-view,)  not  that  it  is  injurious,  but 
because  it  belongs  to  the  same  genus,  and  is 
closely  allied  to  the  preceding  insect;  and  be- 
cause its  larval  habits,  which  are  now  given  for 
'  the  first  time,  may  lead  us  more  readily  to  discover 
those  of  its  more  injurious  ally. 

The  color  of  this  beetle  above,  is  of  a  deep 
brick-red  inclining  to  blood-red,  often  with  a  tinge  of  orange,  and  it  is 
marked  with  black  as  in  the  figure^  the  whole  underside  being  also 
black.  The  larva  bores  the  stalks  of  the  common  cocklebur  (Xan- 
tliiuin  striimariumS)  and  differs  from  most  other  snout-beetle  larva  in 
having  a  dark  mahogony-brown  head,  and  in  the  anal  joint  being 
slantingly  truncated  and  furnished  with  fuscous  elevations  which  give 
rise  to  short  stiff  bristles.  It  transforms  in  the  fall  of  the  year  within 
the  stem  and  issues  as  a  beetle  about  the  end  of  September.* 

Of  our  other  N.  A.  snout-beetles  may  be  mentioned  as  especially 
injurious  the  Grape  Curculio  {Codiodes  inmqualis^  Say),  Grape-cane 
Curculio  {Baridius  sesostris^  Lee.)  Potato-stalk  weevil  {Baridius 
trinotatus^  Say),  the  different  nut-weevils  (genus  Balaninus)^  the 
Grain-weevil  {SitopMlus  granarius,  Linn.),  the  White-pine  weevil 
(Pissodes  sirohi,  Peck),  and  the  Cranberry-weevil  {Anthonom^is 
sutic7'alis,Jjec.)  The  first  three  have  already  been  treated  of  in  my 
first  Report,  the  nut-weevils  will  form  the  subject  of  a  future  article, 
and  the  others  have  either  been  fully  treated  of  in  standard  works  or 
are  not  particularly  injurious  in  Missouri. 

"•"This  insect  seems  to  differ  from  IS-punctatus,  Say,  in  absolutely  nothing  but  in  having  a 
large  black  patch  at  the  tip  of  the  elytra  instead  of  two  spots.  I  have  bred  four  specimens  from 
cocklebur,  and  they  are  all  tolerably  constant  in  the  characters  accorded  to  pulchellus.  But  I  am 
etrongly  of  opinion  that  we  have  to  deal  here  with  but  one  species,  and  that  with  a  sufficiently 
large  series,  the  dividing  line  could  not  be  drawn.  At  all  events  13-pu7ictatus  is  very  variable  in 
the  size  of  its  spots,  and  the  greatest  variation  occurs  in  these  two  at  the  tip  of  the  elytra,  while 
Say  describes  and  figures  a  variety  of  his  \S-punctatus  which  is  singularly  intermediate  between 
the  two  species.  In  three  specimens  of  l3-punctatus  in  my  cabinet,  the  two  posterior  spots  are 
so  large  that  they  almost  meet,  while  in  some  specimens  they  are  not  larger  than  the  other  elytral 
spots. 


TUE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


61 


INSECTS  INJURIOUS  TO  THF  GRAPE  VINE. 

The  following  articles  under  this  head  are  a  continuation  of  the 
series  began  in  my  first  and  continued  in  my  second  Report,  and  I 
shall  continue  the  series  until  all  the  insects  of  any  note,  which  affect 
the  Grape-vine,  shall  be  treated  of. 


THE  GRArE  LEAF-FOLDER— />^5we^  maculalis,  Westw. 

(Lepidopteia,  Asopidae.) 


S  3 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  has  long  been  know^n  to  depredate  on 
the  leaves  of  the  Grape-vine  in  many  widely  separated  parts  of  North 
America.  It  is  not  uncommon  in  Canada  West,  and  is  found  in  the 
extreme  southern  parts  of  Georgia.  It  appears  to  be  far  more  inju- 
rious, however,  in  the  intermediate  country,  or  between  latitude  35° 
and  40°,  than  in  any  other  sections,  and  in  Southern  Illinois  and  Cen- 
tral Missouri  proves  more  or  less  injurious  every  year.  It  was  first 
described  and  named  by  Westwood,*  who  erected,  for  it,  the  genus 
Desmia. 

The  genus  is  characterized  by  the  elbowed  or  knotted  appear- 
ance of  the  c?  antennfe,  in  contrast  with  the  smooth,  thread-like  ? 
antennae;  the  maxillary  palpi  are  not  visible,  while  the  compressed 
and  feathery  labial  palpi  are  recurved  against  the  eyes,  and  reach 
almost  to  their  summit;  the  body  extends  beyond  the  hind  wings. 

The  moth  of  the  Grape  Leaf-folder  is  a  very  pretty  little  thing, 
expanding  on  an  average  almost  an  inch,  with  a  length  of  body  of 
about  one-third  of  an  inch.  It  is  conspicuously  marked,  and  the 
sexes  differ  sufficiently  to  have  given  rise  to  two  names,  the  female 
having  been  named  Botys  hioolor.  The  color  is  black  with  an  opal- 
escent reflection,  and  the  under  surface  differs  only  from  the  upper 
in  being  less  bright ;   all  the  wings  are  bordered  with  white.    The 

«  Mag.  Zool.,  par  M.  Guerin,  1831 ;  pi.  2. 

f  Mr.  Glover,  In  the  Agricultural  Report  for  1854,  p.  79,  says  that  the  male  has  a  semi-lunar 
mark  of  white  on  the  outside  of  each  spot,  which  in  his  figure,  pi.  6,  ibiil.,  is  very  distinct.  In 
dozens  of  specimens  bred  in  Illinois  and  Missouri  no  such  mark  appears,  though  there  is  an  appa- 
rent coincident  shade,  barely  distinguished  from  the  black  ground-color,  on  the  outside  of  each  spot 
in  both  male  and  female. 


62  THIRD  ANNUAL   REl>ORT   OF 

front  wings  of  both  sexes  are  each  furnished  with  two  white  spots  ;f 
but  while  in  the  male  (Fig.  24,  4)  there  is  but  one  large  spot  on  the 
hind  wings,  in  the  female  (Fig.  24,  5)  this  spot  is  invariably  more  or 
less  constricted  in  the  middle,  especially  above,  and  is  often  entirely 
divided  into  two  distinct  spots.  The  body  of  the  male  has  but  one 
distinct  transverse  band,  and  a  longitudinal  white  dash  at  its  extrem- 
ity superiorly,  while  that  of  the  female  has  two  white  bands.  The 
antennae,  as  already  stated,  are  still  more  characteristic,  those  of  the 
male  being  elbowed  and  thickened  near  the  middle,  while  those  of 
the  female  are  simple  and  thread-like. 

There  are  two  broods  in  this  latitude — and  probably  three  farther 
south — during  the  year;  the  first  moths  appearing  in  June,  the  sec- 
ond in  August,  and  the  worms  produced  from  these  last  hibernating 
in  the  chrysalis  state.  The  eggs  are  scattered  in  small  patches  over 
the  vines,  and  the  worms  are  found  of  all  sizes  at  the  same  time. 
These  last  change  to  chrysalids  in  24  to  30  days  from  hatching,  and 
give  forth  the  moths  in  about  a  week  afterwards. 

The  worm  (Fig.  24,  1)  folds  rather  than  rolls  the  leaf,  by  fastening 
two  portions  together  by  its  silken  threads ;  and  for  this  reason,  in 
contradistinction  to  the  many  leaf-rollers,  may  be  popularly  known 
as  the  "  Grape  Leaf-folder."  It  is  of  a  glass-green  color,*  and  very 
active,  wriggling,  jumping  and  jerking  either  way  at  every  touch. 
The  head  and  thoracic  segments  are  marked  as  at  Figure  24,  2.  If 
let  alone,  these  worms  will  soon  defoliate  a  vine,  and  the  best  method 
of  destroying  them  is  by  crushing  suddenly  within  the  leaf,  with  both 
hands.  To  prevent  their  appearance,  however,  requires  far  less 
trouble.  The  chrysalis  is  formed  within  the  fold  of  the  leaf,  and  by 
going  over  the  vineyard  in  October,  or  any  time  before  the  leaves 
fall,  and  carefully  plucking  and  destroying  all  those  that  are  folded 
and  crumpled,  the  supply  for  the  following  year  will  be  cut  off.  This 
should  be  done  collectively  to  be  positively  effectual,  for  the  utmost 
vigilance  will  avail  but  little  if  one  is  surrounded  with  slovenly  neigh- 
bors. 

I  believe  this  insect  shows  no  preference  for  any  particular  kind 
of  grape-vine,  having  found  it  on  well  nigh  all  the  cultivated  as  Avell 
as  the  wild  varieties.  Its  natural  enemies  consist  of  spiders,  wasps, 
and  a  small  undescribed  species  of  TacJiina-^y  which  I  have  ascer- 
tained to  infest  it  in  the  larva  state,  and  to  which  I  have  given  the 
MS.  name  of  desmice.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  also 
attacked   by  a  small  clay-yellow   beetle,   the   Grape-vine    Colaspis 

*  I  subjoin  a  description  of  this  worm,  as  first  given  by  me  in  the  Prairie  Farmer  Annual  for 
1868.  Average  length,  0.80.  Largest  on  abdominal  joints,  and  tapering  thence  slightly  each  way. 
Color  glass-green,  always  darker  above  than  below.  A  narrow  darker  dorsal  line,  with  each  joint 
swollen  into  two  transverse  wrinkles.  Laterally  paler  or  yellowish,  and  a  large  and  distinct  pilif- 
erous  spot  on  each  joint,  with  others  scarcely  visible  with  a  lens.  Ilead  fulvous,  polished,  hori- 
zontal, with  two  small  eyespots  and  two  larger  dark  patches.  Joint  1  of  the  same  color,  and 
marked  as  in  Figure  24,  2.  Joint  2  has  two  small  spots,  with  an  intermediate  larger  one,  on  each 
side.  Legs  yellowish.  Acquires  a  carneous  or  pink  tint  before  changing  to  chrysalis,  which  lat- 
ter is  of  the  normal  color,  size  and  form  of  Figure  24,  3,  and  has  at  the  tail  several  very  minute 
curved  hooks,  joining  and  forming  into  a  point. 


ME   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


63 


{Ootaspis  Uavida^  Say,)  which  is  described  further  on,  and  which, 
though  a  vegetable  feeder,  may  often  be  found  in  the  fold  of  the  leaf 
in  company  with  some  shrunken,  half-dead  worm. 


THE  GRAPE-VINE  Y.V\yi^m-^.—FsyGliomorpha  epimenis, 

Drury. 

(Lepidoptera  Zygsenidse.) 

Under  the  head  of  "  Blue  Caterpillars  of  the  Vine,"  an  account 
was  given  in  my  last  Report  (pp.  83-5)  of  the  Pearl  Wood  Nymph, 
{Eudryas  unio,  Huebner),  and  of  what  I  thought  there  was  good  rea- 
son to  believe  was  its  larva,  namely,  the  smaller  of  the  blue  caterpil- 
lars (Fig.  25,  a  full  grown  caterpillar;  h  enlarged  side  view  of  one  of 
the  joints;    c  enlarged  hump  on  the  11th  joint).    I  have  since  been 


[Fig 


[Fig.  26.] 


able  to  decide  defin- 
itely as  to  the  charac- 
ter of  this  larva,  hav- 
ing bred  numerous 
specimens  to  the  per- 
fect state.  It  turns  out  to  be  an  en- 
tirely different  insect  to  what  I  had  conjectured,  and  produces  a  beau- 
tiful little  moth  (Fig.  26),  which  may  be  known  to  the  grape-grower 
as  the  Grape-vine  Epimenis. 

This  moth  is  most  strikingly  marked  and  bears  no  resemblance 
whatever  to  the  Pearl  Wood  Nymph.  Its  color  is  deep  velvety-black 
with  a  broad  irregularly  lunate  white  patch  across  the  outer  third  of 
the  front  wings,  and  a  somewhat  larger,  more  regular  patch  of  orange- 
red  or  brick-red  on  the  hind  wings.  The  underside  is  similarly 
marked,  but  that  of  the  front  wings  is  less  velvety  with  two  additional 
white  spots  inside  near  the  costa,  the  outer  one  generally,  and  some- 
times both  of  them,  connected  with  the  broad  white  patch.  Espe- 
cially is  this  the  casein  the  males;  the  wing  appearing  to  have  a 
large  triangular  white  patch  with  two  quadrate  black  spots  in  it  con- 
nected with  the  costa.  The  wings  are  beautifully  tinselled  with  steel- 
blue,  or  purplish  scales,  which  form  a  narrow  band  near  the  outer 
margin  of  each  and  appear  more  or  less  distinctly  on  the  basal  half  of 
the  front  wings.  On  the  under  side  the  steel-blue  is  especially  con- 
spicuous on  the  costa  and  hind  border  of  the  hind  wings.  In  old  spe- 
cimens the  scales  get  much  rubbed  off  and  the  general  color  appears 
duller  and  more  brown.  The  antennae  of  the  female  are  thread-like 
and  with  alternate  black  and  white  scales.  Those  of  the  male  are 
beautifully  and  broadly  toothed  on  two  sides,  or  bi-pectinatC;  and  he 
is  furthermore  distinguished  from  the   female  bv  the  more  uniform 


64:  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

diameter  of  his  abdomen  which  is  slightly  tufted  and  squarely  cut  off 
at  the  apex. 

A  full  account  was  given  of  the  larva  in  the  article  already  re- 
ferred to,  and  the  proper  remedy  for  its  injuries  suggested,  so  that  I 
shall  simply  add  below  a  technical  description  x)f  it.  Its  habit  of  bor- 
ing into  some  substances  to  prepare  for  the  change  to  pupa,  is  invete- 
rate, and  it  always  neatly  covers  up  the  orifice  so  that  it  is  difficult  to 
detect.  I  have  had  over  a  dozen  of  them  enter  a  single  cork  but  1^ 
inches  in  diameter  and  about  an  inch  deep  ;  and  such  a  cork,  if  given 
during  May  of  one  year  to  an  uninitiated  person,  with  instructions  to 
keep  it  in  a  glass  vessel,  will  cause  much  surprise  and  interest  the 
following  March  when  the  moths  will  begin  to  issue  from  it. 

Dr.  Melsheimer*  wrote  to  Dr.  Harris  on  the  28th  of  Februar}^ 
1840,  that  he  had  bred  this  moth  from  the  larva,  and  rightly  states 
that  recent  specimens  are  not  brown,  and  that  the  larva  is  a  half 
looper;  but  he  does  not  mention  its  food-plant.  Dr.  Packard,!  who 
does  not  mention  the  sexual  differences,  quotes  Harris  as  stating  on 
the  authority  of  Abbott,  that  the  larva  feeds  on  the  wild  Trumpet- 
creeper  {Bignonio  radicans)  in  Georgia.  But  no  one  has  heretofore 
mentioned  its  Grape-vine  feeding  propensities,  and  it  is  consequently 
now  added  ^or  the  first  time  to  our  list  of  Grape-vine  depredators, 
and  there  are  four  instead  of  three  bluish  caterpillars,  all  bearing  a 
close  general  resemblance,  which  feed  upon  that  plant.  They  all 
occur  in  Missv,\iri,  but  the  present  species  is  far  more  numerous  and 
destructive  than  the  other  three  put  together.  I  have  now  described 
three  of  them,  and  shown  wherein  they  differ  from  one  another,  and 
the  fourth,  namely,  the  larva  of  the  Pearl  Wood  Nymph,  is  said  by 
Dr.  Fitch  to  so  closly  resemble  that  of  the  Beautiful  Wood  Nymph 
that  we  know  not  yet  whether  there  are  any  distinguishing  charac- 
teristics between  them. 

PsYcnoMORPHA  EPiMENis,  Drury — Larva. — General  appearance  bluish.  The  ground-color  is 
however  pure  white,  and  the  apparent  bluish  cast  is  entirely  owing  to  the  ocular  delusion  pro- 
duced by  the  white  with  the  transverse  black  bands  as  in  Alypia  octomaculata.  Transversely 
banded  with  four  black  stripes  to  each  joint,  the  third  and  fourth  being  usually  rather  wider  apart 
than  the  other  two,  and  diverging  at  the  lower  sides  where  they  make  room  for  two  more  or  less 
conspicuous  dark  spots  placed  one  below  the  other ;  the  third  on  some  of  the  middle  joints  is  fre- 
i[uently  broken,  with  an  anterior  curve,  justabove  stigmata,  and  on  joints  2  and  3  it  is  twice  as  thick 
as  the  rest.  Cervical  shield,  hump  on  joint  11,  anal  piate,  legs  and  venter,  dull  pale  orange. 
.Joint  1  with  about  14  large  shiny  piliferous  black  spots,  8  of  which  form  two  rows  on  the  cer- 
vical shield  (those  in  the  anterior  row  being  largest  and  farthest  apart,)  and  six  of  which  are  late- 
ral, namely,  three  eacli  side,  with  more  or  less  distinct  dusky  marks  between  and  in  front  of  them. 
The  spots  on  the  hump  are  usually  placed  as  at  Figure  26,  c,  but  vary  very  much,  though  the  four 
principal  ones  on  the  top  are  generally  placed  in  a  square.  The  anal  plate  is  marked  with  8  such 
spots,  very  much  as  in  the  cervical  shield,  but  smaller.  The  tips  of  the  thoracic  legs  are  black 
and  the  other  legs  and  venter  are  also  spotted.  Head  gamboge-yellow,  inclining  to  orange,  with 
!S  principal  and  other  minor  black  piliferous  spots.  The  ordinary  piliferous  spots  are  small,  and 
except  two  dorsal  ones  which  are  in  the  white  space  between  the  second  and  third  band,  they  are 
not  easily  detected.     The  stigmata  are  also  quite  small  and  round.     The  abdominal  prolegs  de- 


®  Harr.  Corr.,  p.  HI. 
t  Guide,  etc.,  p.  281. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


^t 


crease  in  size  from  the  last  to  the  first  pair,  and  the  larva  curves  the  thoracic  joints  and  is  a  half- 
looper,  especially  when  young.  Average  length  about  one  inch.  Described  from  numerous 
specimens. 

Chrysalis. — Average  length  0.37  inch  ;  reddish-brown;  rugose,  especially  on  dorsum  of  ab- 
dominal joints,  but  distinguished  principally  by  the  truncated  apex,  which  has  a  large  horizontally 
compressed  ear-like  horny  projection  at  each  upper  and  outer  edge. 


THE  GRAPE-VINE  FLUME— Pter op horus  periscelidactylus.  Fitch. 

(Lepidoptera,  Alucitidae.) 

In  my  first  Report  a  short  account  has  already  been  given  of  this 
insect,  but  as  it  was  very  numerous  last  spring,  and  as  I  had  good  op- 
[Fig.  27.]  portunities  of  making  further  observations, 

I  have  concluded,  by  aid  of  the  accompany- 
ing figure,  to  give  a  more  complete  account 
of  it. 

In  the  earlier  published  Proceedings  of 
our  State  Horticultural  Society  reference  is 
occasionally  made  to  "  small  grey  or  green 
worms  which  feed  on  the  young  leaves  be- 
fore blossoming,"  *  without  any  definite 
name  being  given  to  them.  Husmann,  in 
his  "Grrapes  and  Wine,"  (p.  80)  mentions 
similar  worms,  and  I  have  little  doubt  but 
that  the  insect  referred  to  is  the  little  Plume 
we  are  now  considering. 

Just  about  the  time  that  the  third  bunch 
of  grapes,  on  a  given  shoot,  is  developing, 
many  of  the  leaves,  and  especially  those  at 
the  extremity  of  the  shoot,  are  found  fas- 
tened together  more  or  less  closely,  but  generally  so  as  to  form  a  hol- 
low ball.  These  leaves  are  fastened  by  a  fine  white  silk,  and  upon 
opening  the  mass  and  separating  the  leaves,  one  of  two  caterpillars 
will  generally  be  found  in  the  retreat.  I  say  one  of  two,  because  the 
retreat  made  by  the  smallest  of  the  Blue  Caterpillars  of  the  Vine, 
namely,  the  larva  of  the  Grape-vine  Epimenis  (Fig.  26,  «)  which  we 
have  just  treated  of,  so  closely  resembles  that  of  the  Grape-vine 
Plume  under  consideration,  that  until  the  leaves  are  separated  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  tell  which  larva  will  be  found.  Both  occur  at 
the  same  time  of  year,  and  both  were  more  destructive  than  usual 
the  past  season  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis.  In  an  ordinary  season 
they  do  not  draw  together  the  tips  of  the  shoots  till  after  the  third 
bunch  of  grapes  is  formed,  and  in  devouring  the  terminal  bud  and 
leaves,  they  do  little  more  than  assist  the  vineyardist  in  the  pruning 

*  Proceedings  for  1860,  p.  68,  and  1861-2,  p.  77. 
S  E— 5 


^^ 


66  THIRD   ANNUAL  REPORT   Of 

which  he  would  soon  have  to  give.  They  act,  indeed,  as  Nature^ 
pruning-knives.  But  the  late  and  severe  frost  which  killed  the  first 
buds  last  April,  so  retarded  the  growth  of  the  vines  that  the  worms 
were  out  in  force  before  the  third  bunch  had  fully  formed,  and 
this  bunch  was  consequently  included  in  the  fold  made  by  these 
worms,  and  destroyed. 

The  larva  of  the  Grape-vine  Plume  invariably  hatches  soon  after 
the  leaves  begin  to  expand;  and  though  it  is  very  generally  called 
the  Leaf-folder,  it  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  true  Leaf-folder, 
■which  was  just  now  described,  and  which  does  its  principal  damage 
later  in  the  season.  At  first  the  larva  of  our  Plume  is  smooth  and 
almost  destitute  of  hairs,  but  after  each  moult  the  hairs  become  more 
perceptible,  and  when  full  grown  the  larva  appears  as  at  Figure  27;  a, 
the  hairs  arising  from  a  transverse  row  of  warts,  each  joint  having 
•four  above  and  six  below  the  breathing-pores  *  (see  Fig.  27,  e).  After 
feeding  for  about  three  weeks,  our  little  worm  fastens  itself  securely 
'by  the  hind  legs  to  the  underside  of  some  leaf  or  other  object,  and, 
casting  its  hairy  skin,  transforms  to  the  pupa  state.  This  pupa  (Fig, 
27,  J),  with  the  lower  part  of  the  three  or  four  terminal  joints  attached 
to  a  little  silk  previously  spun  by  the  worm,  hangs  at  aslant  of  about 
40^.  It  is  of  peculiar  and  characteristic  form,  being  ridged  and  angu- 
Ilar,  with  numerous  projections,  and  having  remnants  of  the  larval 
warts;  it  is  obliquelj'' truncated  at  the  head,  but  is  chiefly  distin- 
guished by  two  compressed  sharp-pointed  horns,  one  of  which  is  en- 
larged at  Figure  27,  <?,  projecting  from  the  middle  of  the  back;  it 
measures,  on  an  average,  rather  more  than  one-third  inch,  and  varies 
in  color  from  light  green  with  darker  green  shadings,  to  pale  straw- 
color  with  light  brown  shadings. 

The  philosophic  student  ot  insect  life  cannot  fail  to  be  struck 
with  the  wonderful  disguises  which  these  little  animals  often  assume, 
the  better  to  escape  detection  from  their  enemies.  The  instances  of 
protective  mimicry  are  more  numerous  among  insects  than  among 
any  other  Class  of  animals,  and  in  the  last  part  of  this  Report,  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  refer  to  this  subject  more  fully.  I  had  often  won- 
dered why  the  pupa  of  the  Grapevine  Plume  was  seldom  noticed  in 
the  open  vineyard,  and  I  very  well  recollect,  when  three  j^ears  ago, 
this  worm  was  abundant  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Pea- 
body  of  Glenwood,  L  M.  R.  R.,  that  he  one  day  expressed  great  aston- 
ishment at  their  total  and  sudden  disappearance.      I  told  him  that 

•••  As  Dr.  Fitch's  description  of  this  larva  is  the  only  one  I  know  of,  and  is  rather  incomplete, 
'I  subjoin  the  following  for  the  scientific  reader  : 

Mattrk  Larva  df  PrwROPiioRCjs  pkriscelidacttlus. — Average  length  0.50  inch.  Color  pale 
greeiiish-jellow.  Joints  separated  by  deep  constrictions.  Each  joint  with  a  trarisverse  row  of 
largp  cream-colored  w.irt^,  giving  rise  to  soft  white  hairs,  many  of  which  are  slightly  clubbed  at 
tip.  Four  of. these  warts  above,  and  si.v  below  stigmata,  the  four  lower  smaller  than  the  sL^c  upper 
ones.  Tne  hair.s  from  warts  above  stigmata  diverging  in  all  directions  and  strai£;ht.  those  from 
the  row  immediately  below  stigmata  decurving.  Other  short  and  more  minute  club-tipped  hairs 
spring  from  the  general  surface  of  the  body  between  the  warts.  Heiid  yellow,  witli  labruin 
slightly  tawny.  Legs  also  ^yellow,  immaculate  and  very  long  and  slender.  Described  from  nu- 
merous living  specimens. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  67 

tliey  had  changed  to  the  pupa  state  and  were  more  thoroughly  hid- 
den among  the  leaves;  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  feeding  any  of  the 
pup£e,  and  I  did  not  then  suspect  that  we  have  here  a  case  of  mimicry. 
From  some  interesting  facts  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  M.  C.  JRead 
of  Hudson,  Ohio,  I  am  atistied,  however,  that  we  have  here  a  clear 
•case  of  protective  disguise.  He  says  :  "  Of  a  large  number  raised  in 
jars  by  me,  there  were  two  well  defined  colors,  one  a  reddish-brown 
resembling  closely  the  bark  of  ripe  grape  wood,  the  other  a  light  green, 
or  exactly  the  color  of  the  leaves  and  young  wood.  Without  an  ex- 
ception the  green  ones  were  attached  to  the  green  leaves  and  green 
wood,  or  to  the  sides  of  the  glass  jar  of  very  similar  color ;  while  all 
of  the  brown  ones  were  attached  to  stems  of  the  ripened  grape-wood." 
Having  noted  this  fact  he  put  large  numbers  of  larv£e  in  a  jar  with 
sticks  and  material  of  various  colors,  but  he  obtained  only  the  two 
"varieties  of  pupae  and  each  was  invariably  attached  to  an  article  of 
the  same  color  as  itself. 

So  far  as  I  recollect  the  facts  noticed  in  my  own  breeding  of  this 
insect,  the}^  accord  with  the  observations  of  Mr.  Read,  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  in  a  state  of  nature  the  green  variety  confines 
itself  to  the  leaves,  and  the  brown  variety  to  the  wood  of  the  vine. 
Upon  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection,  ? .  g.,  in  this  case,  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  best  disguised  specimens,  these  facts  become  significant, 
and  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the  two  distinct  forms  would  in  time 
inevitably  be  produced;  but  whether  these  singular  disguises  be  ex- 
plained on  that  theory  or  on  any  other,  they  are  equally  interesting 
and  afford  good  food  for  the  reflective  mind. 

The  moth  (Fig.  27,  d)  escapes  from  this  pupa  in  about  one  week, 
and,  like  all  the  species  belonging  to  the  genus,  it  has  a  very  active 
and  impetuous  flight,  and  rests  with  the  wings  closed  and  stretched  at 
right  angles  from  the  body,  so  as  to  recall  the  letter  T.  It  is  of  a 
tawny  yellow  color,  the  front  wings  marked  with  white  and  dark 
brown  as  in  the  figure,  the  hind  wings  appearing  like  burnished  cop- 
per, and  the  legs  being  alternately  banded  with  white  and  tawny  yel- 
low. 

All  the  moths  of  the  family  (ALUCiiiDiE)  to  which  it  belongs  have 
the  wings  split  up  into  narrow  feather-like  lobes,  and  for  this  reason 
they  have  very  appropriately  been  called  Plumes  in  popular  lan- 
.gunge.  In  the  genus  Pterophorus  the  front  wings  are  divided  into  two, 
and  the  hind  wings  into  three  lobes.  As  I  have  shown  in  my  first 
Heport  we  have  a  somewhat  larger  species  (P.  carduidacUjlus^  Riley) 
which  occurs  on  the  Thistle,  and  which,  though  bearing  a  close  re- 
semblance to  the  Grape-vine  Flume  in  color  and  markings,  yet  dif- 
fers very  remarkably  in  the  larva  and  pupa  states. 

From  analogy  we  mav  infer  that  there  are  two  broods  of  these 
worms  each  year,  and  that  the  last  br)od  passes  tlie  winter  in  the 
moth  state.  I  have,  however,  never  noticed  any  second  appearance 
of  them,  and  whether  this  is  from  the  fact  that  the  vines  are  covered 


68 


THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


•with  a  denser  foliage  in  the  summer  than  in  the  spring,  or  whether 
there  is  really  but  one  brood,  are  points  in  the  history  of  our  little 
Plume  which  yet  have  to  be  settled  by  further  observation. 

On  account  of  its  spinning  habit,  which  enables  us  to  detect  ity 
this  insect  is  easily  kept  in  check  by  hand  picking. 


THE  COMMON  YELLOW  BEAU— Spilosoma  virginica,  Fabr, 

(Lepidoptera,  Arctiidae.) 

This  is  one  of  the  most 
common  North  American  in- 
sects. The  moth  (Fig.  28,  c) 
which  is  very  generally  dub- 
bed "  the  Miller,"  frequently 
flies  into  our  rooms  at  night ; 
and  there  are  quite  a  number 
of  our  farmers  who,  somehow 
or  other,  have  got  the  idea 
that  this  "Miller"  is  the  in- 
sect that  infests  their  bee- 
hives— that  it  is,  in  short,  the 
Bee-moth.  Of  course  no  such  ridiculous  idea  could  for  a  moment  pre- 
vail among  those  who  read  these  Reports. 

Though  the  moth  is  so  common,  how  few  persons  ever  think  of  it 
as  the  parent  of  that  most  troublesome  of  caterpillars,  which  Harris 
has  so  aptly  termed  the  Yellow  Bear  (Fig.  28,  a).  These  caterpillars 
are  quite  frequently  found  on  the  Grape-vine,  and  when  about  one- 
fourth  grown  bear  a  considerable  resemblance  to  the  mature 
larva  of  the  Grape-vine  Plume  which  we  have  just  described.  They 
seldom  appear,  however,  till  that  species  has  disappeared,  and  may 
always  be  distinguished  from  it  by  their  semi-gregarious  habit  at  this^ 
time  of  their  life,  and  by  living  exposed  on  the  leaf  (generally  the 
under  side)  instead  of  forming  a  retreat  within  which  to  hide  them- 
selves, as  does  the  Plume, 

The  Yellow  Bear  is  found  of  all  sizes  from  June  to  October;  and 
though  quite  fond  of  the  vine,  is  by  no  means  confined  to  that  plant. 
It  is,  in  fact,  a  very  general  feeder,  being  found  on  a  great  variety  of 
herbaceous  plants,  both  wild  and  cultivated,  as  butternut,  lilac,  beans, 
peas,  convolvulus,  corn,  currant,  gooseberry,  cotton,  sunflower,  plan- 
tain, smart-weed,  verbenas,  geraniums,  and  almost  any  plant  with 
soft,  tender  leaves.  These  caterpillars  are  indeed  so  indiff"erent  as  to 
their  diet,  that  I  have  actually  known  one  to  subsist  entirely,  from 
the  time  it  cast  its  last  skin  till  it  spun  up,  on  dead  bodies  of  the 
Camel  Cricket  {Mantis  Carolina). 


When  young  they  are  invariably  bluish-white,  but  when  full- 
igrown  they  may  be  found  either  of  a  pale  cream-color,  yellow,  light 
brown  or  very  dark  brown,  the  different  colors  often  appearing  in  the 
same  brood  of  worms,  as  I  have  proved  by  experiment.  Yellow  is  the 
most  common  color,  and  in  all  the  varieties  the  venter  is  dark,  and 
there  is  a  characteristic  longitudinal  black  line,  more  or  less  inter- 
rupted, along  each  side  of  the  body,  and  a  transverse  line  of  the  same 
color  (sometimes  faint)  between  each  of  the  joints:  the  head  and 
feet  are  ochre-yellow,  and  the  hairs  spring  from  dark  yellow  warts,  of 
which  there  are  10  on  each  joint,  those  on  joint  1  being  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable, and  those  on  joint  12  coalescing.  There  are  two  broods 
of  these  worms  each  year,  the  broods  intermixing,  and  the  last  pass- 
ing the  winter  in  the  chrysalis  state.  The  chrysalis  (Fig.  28,  h)  is 
formed  in  a  trivial  cocoon,  constructed  almost  entirely  of  the  cater- 
pillar's.hairs,  which,  though  held  in  position  by  a  few  very  fine  silken 
threads,  are  fastened  together  mainly  by  the  interlocking  of  their 
minute  barbs,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  caterpillar  interweaves 
them. 

The  moth  makes  its  appearance  as  early  as  the  first  of  May  in  the 
latitude  of  St.  Louis,  but  may  often  be  found  much  earlier  in  stove- 
warmed  rooms.  It  is  easily  recognized  by  its  pure  white  color,  by  its 
abdomen  being  orange  above,  with  three  rows  of  black  spots,  and  by 
the  black  dots  on  its  wings.  These  dots  vary  in  number,  there  being 
usually  two  on  each  of  the  front  and  three  on  each  of  the  hind  wings, 
though  sometimes  they  are  all  more  or  less  obsolete,  except  that  on 
the  disk  of  the  front  wings. 

It  is  fortunate  for  us  that  this  caterpillar  is  attacked  by  a  large 
number  of  insect  parasites;  for,  were  this  not  the  case,  it  would  soon 
multiply  to  such  a  degree  as  to  be  beyond  our  control.  I  know  of  no 
less  than  five  distinct  parasites  which  attack  it — some  living  singly  in 
the  body  of  the  caterpillar,  and  issuing  from  the  chrysalis  without 
spinning  any  cocoon  of  their  own  ;  others  living  singly  in  the  body, 
but  forming  a  cocoon  of  their  own  inside  the  chrysalis  of  their  vic- 
tim, and  still  others  infesting  the  caterpillar  in  great  numbers,  and 
completely  filling  the  chrysalis  with  their  pupas.* 

The  best  time  to  destroy  these  worms  is  soon  after  they  hatch 
from  their  little  round  yellow  eggs,  which  are  deposited  in  clusters  ; 
for,  as  already  intimated,  they  then  feed  together. 

*  For  the  benefit  of  the  scientific  reader  I  enumerate  the  five  parasites  which  I  have  ascer- 
tained to  infest  this  caterpillar :  1.  Anomalonjlavicorne  {BruUiJlym  IV,  p.  171).  2.  Ichneu- 
mon iVLbcyanem,  Cress.  (Proc.  Ent.  Sec,  Phila.,  Ill,  p.  148),  and  Ich.  pullatus,  Cress.  (Pro.  E.  S. 
P..  Ill,  p.  146),  described  as  a  distinct  species,  hutpullatui  is  evidently  the  male,  and  subcyaneus  the 
female  of  the  same  species,  as  I  have  bred  from  Spilosoma  virginica  three  males  all  answering  to 
the  description  of  the  former,  and  two  females  both  answering  to  the  description  of  the  latter.  3. 
Jchneumon  lignatipes,  Cress.  (Trans.  Araer.  Ent.  Soc,,  I,  p.  .^508).  4.  Ophion  bilineatus,  Say,  (Ent. 
•of  N.  A.,  I,  p.  '379).     ft.     A.fimaU  undetermined,  and  probably  undescribed  Dipteron  belonging  to 


70 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


THE  SMEARED  BAGGER— Aoromjcta  ohUnita,  Sm.  &  Abb. 

(Lepidoptera,  Acronyctidae.) 

Ihis  is  another  insect  which  is  occasionally  found  upon  the  Grape- 
vine, but  never  in  sufficient 
numbers  to  do  any  considerable 
harm.  It  is  one  of  our  most 
common  insects,  and  a  very 
general  feeder,  occurring  on  a 
great  variety  of  herbaceous 
plants,  among  others  asparagus 
and  cotton,  and  being  especially 
'^partial  to  the  common  smart- 
weed  {^Polygonum  hydropiper). 
It  also  feeds  on  some  shrubs 
and  trees,  occasionaly  proving; 
qiite  injurious,  for  Mr.  F.  A. 
Nitchy,  of  Jefferson  City,  sent 
me  specimens  last  summer  with 
the  statement  that  they  were- 
very  numerous  on  his  peach  trees,  and  I  have  known  it  to  denude 
both  apple  and  willow  trees. 

The  larva  (Fig.  29,  a)  is  easily  recognized  by  the  distinct  wavy 
bright  yellow  band  at  the  side,  and  the  transverse  row  of  crimson-red 
warts  and  stiff  yellowish  or  rust-red  bristles  across  each  joint,  in  con- 
trast with  the  black  color  of  the  body.  When  full  grown  it  draws  a 
few  leaves  or  stems  together,  or  retreats  into  some  fence  corner,  and 
spins  a  narrow  elongated  cocoon  (Fig.  29,  I)  generally  white,  tut  oc- 
casionally inclining  to  ochre-yellow,  some  which  I  have  found  on 
Willow  being  of  this  last  color.  The  chrysalis  is  very  dark  brown^ 
and,  with  the  exception  of  a  smooth  shiny  band  on  the  posterior  bor- 
der of  each  abdominal  joint,  is  rough  or  shagreened.  It  has  the 
power  of  violently  turning  round  and  round  in  its  cocoon  when  dis- 
turbed, thereby  causing  a  rustling  noise.  The  moth  (Fig.  29,  c)  has 
the  front  wings  of  an  ash-gray  color,  caused  by  innumerable  dark 
atoms  scattered  over  a  white  ground,  and  there  is  a  distinct  row  of 
black  dots  along  the  posterior  border,  a  more  or  less  distinct  black 
zigzag  line  across  the  outer  fourth,  and  some  dusky  spots  just  above 
the  middle  of  the  wing.     The  hind  wings  are  pure  white. 

There  are  two  broods  each  year,  the  first  brood  of  worms  appear- 
ing for  the  most,  part  during  June,  and  giving  out  the  moths  in  July, 
and  the  second  brood  occurring  in  the  fall,  passing  the  winter  in  the 
chrysalis  state,  and  producing  moths  the  following  May. 

Handpicking  is  the  only  remedy  that  it  has  been  found  necessary 
to  adopt  with  this  caterpillar  whenever  it  liecomes  troublesame^ 


THE   STATE  ENTOMULOGIST.  71 

There  arc  at  least  three  natural  enemies  which  serve  to  keep  it 
in  check.  The  largest  of  these  is  the  Uni-banded  Ichneumon-fly 
{Ichneumon  unifasciatorius^  Say),  a  large  black  fly,  0,60  inch  long, 
and  characterized  by  a  white  annulus  about  the  middle  of  the  an- 
tenna, a  large  white  spot  about  the  middle  of  the  thorax,  and  a  white 
band  on  the  first  joint  of  the  abdomen. 

This  fly  oviposits  in  the  larva  of  the  Smeared  Dagger,  but  the  latter 
never  succumbs  till  after  it  has  spun  up  and  become  a  chrysalis,  fori 
have  always  obtained  the  Ichneumon  from  the  chrysalis.  The  other 
parasites  are  smaller  and  work  differently.  They  each  cause  the  larva 
of  the  Smeared  Dagger  to  die  when  about  full  grown,  and  its  contracted 
and  hardened  skin,  which  may  often  be  seen  during  the  winter,  with 
the  head  attached  (F'ig.  30,  a),  fastened  to  the  twigs  of  apple  and  wil- 
t|[^.- '^"^How  trees,  forms  a  snug  little  house  where  the  parasite  under- 
goes its  transformations  and  through  which  it  gnaws  a  round 
hole  (Fig.  30,  J),  to  escape  the  latter  part  of  April.  One  of 
these  flies  {Alewdes  Rileyi^  Cresson,)  is  described  on  page 
3S2,  of  Volume  II,  of  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Eiito- 
°  mological  Society,  and  is  of  a  uniform  reddish-yellow  color* 
The  other  is  a  black  fly  of  about  the  same  size,  but  belonging 
to  an  entirely  different  genus,  PolysphluGta.  It  has  two  prom- 
inent carinee  on  the  dorsum  of  the  basal  joint  of  the  abdomen,  and 
the  legs,  except  the  hind  tarsi  and  last  half  of  hind  tibiae  are  rufous. 
It  is  marked  hlcarinata  in.  my  MS.,  but  I  omit  the  description  as  I 
do  not  possess  the  female.  The  first  of  these  parasites  is  in  its  turn 
preyed  upon  by  a  minute  Chaleis^y  of  a  steel-blue  color  with  honey- 
yellow  legs,  which  issues  in  great  numbers  through  a  very  minute 
hole,  from  the  dried  caterpillar  skins. 

As  I  know  of  no  description  of  obllnita  in  the  English  language,  and  as  that  of  Guenee  is 
rather  summary,  I  subjoin  the  following  : 

AcaoNYCTA  OBLINITA,  Sm.  and  Abb. — Imago — Front  wings  oblong  ;  apex  more  or  less  prolonged  : 
posterior  margin  sometimes  rounded,  sometimes  straight ;  color  ash-gray,  caused  by  numerous 
dark  brown  atoms  more  or  less  suffused  on  a  white  ground,  from  which  the  ordinary  lines  are 
barely  discernible  in  the  better  marked  individuals;  a  row  of  distinct  black  dots  along  posterior 
border  ;  the  ordinary  spots  represented  by  blurred  marks  or  entirely  obsolete  ;  the  undulate  line 
across  posterior  fourth  of  wing  distinct,  and  relieved  inside  by  a  pale  coincident  shade,  with  the 
teeth  quite  aciculate  and  with  the  psi-spot  so  characteristic  of  the  genus,  but  rarely  traceable  ; 
fringe  narrow  and  generally  entire.  Hind  wings  pure  white,  with  afaintrowof  dark  spots  around 
posterior  border.  Underside  of  both  wings  white  with  faint  fulvous  tint  and  faint  irrorations  ; 
each  wing  showing  the  brown  discal  spot  and  the  row  of  points  at  posterior  border.  Head  and  tho- 
rax speckled  graj' ;  abdomen  whitish-gray ;  antenna;  short,  simple  in  both  sexes,  graj' above  and 
brown  below  ;  palpi  small.  Two  specimens  with  the  front  wings  very  dark,  showing  the  ordinary 
lines  and  spots  conspicuously,  and  with  the  antennae  brown  above  as  well  as  below.  Average 
length,  0.75  ;  expanse,  1.75  inches. 

Described  from  numerous  bred  specimens. 

Larva — Prevailing  color  black.  Each  joint  with  a  transverse  dorsal  crimson-red  band  across 
the  middle  from  stigmata  to  stigmata,  and  containing  six  warts,  each  furnishing  10  or  12  or  more 
stiff  yellow  or  fulvous  bristles,  and  the  two  dorsal  ones  being  farthest  apart.  A  sub  dorsal  longitu- 
dinal yellow  line  interrupted  by  this  transverse  band  and  at  incisures,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  black 
dorsum  appears  somewhat  diamond-shaped  on  each  joint.  A  broad,  wavy,  bright-yellow  stigmatal 
line,  containing  a  yellow  bristle-bearing  wart  in  middle  of  each  joint.  Lateral  space  occupied  with 
different  sized  pale  yellow  spots,  largest  towards  dorsum.     Head  chesnut-brown.     Venter  crimson- 


72 


THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 


black,  with  bristle-bearing  warts  of  same  color.  Stigmata  oblong-oval  and  pale.  Thoracic  legs  black* 
prolegs  with  black  extremities.  Such  is  the  normal  appearance  of  this  larva,  but  it  is  very  varia- 
ble. In  some  the  yellow  seems  to  predominate  over  the  black,  and  there  is  a  more  or  less  distinct 
dorsal  line.  In  some  this  dorsal  line  forms  a  mere  speck  at  the  incisures  of  the  middle  joints. 
The  transverse  crimson  band  is  often  entirely  obsolete,  and  the  warts  distinctly  separated,  while 
in  others  where  this  band  is  distinct,  the  warts  frequently  coalesce. 

Pupa— Almost  black,  and  shagreened  with  the  exception  of  a  smooth  and  polished  rim,  at  pos- 
terior border  of  joints,  which  becomes  reddish,  especially  ventrally,  on  the  three  joints  immediately 
below  wing-sheaths.  Terminal  joint  horizontally  compressed,  squarely  cut  off,  and  furnished  with 
a  little  brush  of  short  evenly-shorn,  stiff  rufous  bristles. 


THE  PYRAMIDAL    GRAPE-VINE  WOmiL.—AmpMpijra  pyrami- 

doides^  Guen. 

(Lepidoptera,  Amphipyrid».) 

Another  worm,  never  hitherto  mentioned  as  injurious  to   the 
Grape-vine,  is  often  found  resting  upon  it  in  the  posture   shown  in 
f^'s-  31-]  Figure  32,  and  may  be  at  once  distin- 

guished from  all  others  that  are  known 
to  attack  it,  by  having  a  pyramidal 
hump  near  the  end  of  its  body.  This 
worm  I  have  also  found  upon  the  Red 
Bud  {Cercis  canadensis)^  the  Rasp- 
berry and  the  Poplar,  but  it  is  only  as  a 
vine-feeder  that  it  can  be  considered 
injurious.  It  was  more  abundant  in  the  summer  of  1869  than  it  has 
been  since.  According  to  the  experience  of  Mr.  G.  Pauls,  of  Eureka, 
it  takes  the  Hartford,  Israella  and  lona  first,  and  the  Concord  and 
North  Carolina  next,  and  devours  the  blossoms  as  well  as  the 
leaves.  It  is  of  the  form  shown  in  the  figure  and  of  a  delicate  green 
color,  marked  with  pale  yellow  or  cream-colored  lines  and  spots,  as 
there  indicated.  It  is  found  on  the  vines  during  the  month  of  May 
with  us,  and  during  the  forepart  of  June  descends  to  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  where  it  spins  a  loose  cocoon  of  whitish  silk,  generally  con- 
structed between  some  fallen  leaves.  Within  this  cocoon  it  remains 
some  time  in  the  larva  state,  but  eventually  becomes  a  shiny  mahog- 
ony-brown  chrysalis  from  which  emerges  a  moth  (Fig.  31),  with  the 
front    wings    bark   brown    and  [Fig-  32.] 

glossy  and  marked  with  dark 
brown  and  pale  grayish-brown 
as  in  the  cut;  and  with  the  hind 
wings  of  a  lustrous  copper  color, 
from  which  character  it  may  be  called  in  popular  language  the  Amer- 
ican Copper  Underwing.    In  Chicago,  Illinois,  this  insect  is  single- 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  IS 

brooded,  for  a  poplar-feeding  larva  found  the  latter  part  of  May,  and 
which  spun  up  on  the  14th  of  June,  did  not  produce  the  moth  till  the 
following  April;  but  specimens  obtained  near  St.  Louis  often  produce 
the  moth  during  July  of  the  same  year  that  they  are  found  as  worms. 
In  this  last  case  a  second  brood  is  doubtless  produced  the  same  year 
though  it  is  barely  possible  that  the  moths  winter  over  and  do  not 
deposit  till  spring;  for  they  are  characterized  by  having  very  flat 
bodies,  and  with  their  wings  folded  flatly  on  their  backs  they  are 
often  found  hiding  in  narrow  cracks  and  crevices  where  they  seem  to 
love  to  shelter. 

There  is  an  insect  (^AmpJdpyra  pyramidea^  Linn.)  very  common 
throughout  the  continent  of  Europe,  on  Elm,  Poplar,  Oak,  and  other 
trees,  and  known  in  England  as  the  Copper  Underwing,  which  our 
pyrariiidoides,  as  its  name  implies,  so  very  closely  resembles  in  all  its 
stages,  that  it  is  difiicult  for  one  who  has  become  acquainted  with 
both  insects  in  the  field,  to  bring  himself  to  believe  that  they  are 
really  distinct  species.  No  one  can  behold  the  two  moths  and  specu- 
late on  their  great  similarity,  without  feeling  that  such  close  resem- 
blance between  the  insects  of  two  continents  is  hard  to  account  for 
on  any  other  theory  than  that  of  community  of  descent ;  or  without 
-questioning  whether  there  really  are  difi'erences  enough  to  make  two 
species,  when  he  reflects  that  far  greater  variations  often  occur  in  the 
particular  species  of  a  given  continent!  The  most  constant  diff'er- 
ence  seems  to  occur  in  the  larvae  which,  though  they  agree  in  almost 
every  other  detail,  difier  in  the  European  species  having  the  pyra- 
midal hump  more  strongly  developed  and  capped  with  a  red  horn-like 
point  which  curves  backwards,  while  in  our  species  this  point  is  more 
or  less  obsolete  and  not  red. 

Remedies. — This  worm  is  easily  kept  in  check  hy  hand-picking, 
and  though  its  moth  is  attracted  by  sweets,  it  has  never  been  numer- 
ous enough  in  the  past  to  warrant  this  mode  of  capturing  it.  We 
have  no  good  description  of  this  insect  in  the  English  language,  so  I 
subjoin  one. 

AstPHiPYRA  PYRAMiDoiDES,  Guen. —  Larva,  (Fig.  32.) — Length  when  full  grown  1.20-1.30 
inch.  Smallest  at  joint  1,  largest  at  joint  11  which  rises  pyramidally  above  the  others.  Color 
pale  bluish-green  inclining  to  whitish  dorsally,  and  rather  darker  at  each  end  than  in  the  middle 
of  body.  A  condnuous  narrow  cream-colored  medio-dorsal  line  extending  from  the  head  to  ex- 
tremity of  anal  shield ;  a  subdorsal  line  of  the  same  color  or  somewhat  more  yellow,  wavy  and 
broken  into  4  or  5  unequal  spots  on  each  of  joitits  1-10,  more  or  less  distinct,  ascending  continu- 
ously on  joint  11  to  the  summit  of  pyramid,  descending  in  a  curve  and  vanishing  in  the  anal  shield; 
a  broader  stigmatal  line,  bright  sulphur-yellow,'  except  where  intercepted  by  stigmata  where  it  is 
white,  distinct  on  joints  1  and  2,  less  so  on  3  and  4,  and  running  straight  to  the  extremity  of  anaj 
shield.  Looking  downwards  from  the  top  of  the  pyramid,  six  lines  seem  to  radiate  from  it  in  as 
many  different  directions.  Besides  these  lines,  each  joinc  has  about  ten  cream-colored  piliferous 
spots,  namely,  4  in  dorsal  space — the  anterior  ones  nearest  together — one  in  the  middle  of  each 
joint  in  subdorsal  space,  and  2  smaller  substigmatal  ones.  These  spots  are  more  or  less  obsolete 
on  the  thoracic  and  anal  joints  ;  they  are  arranged  transversely  on  the  former,  and  the  hairs  arising 
from  them  are  so  insignificant  that  they  are  scarcely  visible.  Stigmata  white,  with  a  black  annala- 
tion.     He.ad  free,  smaller  than  joint  1,  concolorous  with  body.     Venter  darker  green  with  cream- 


74:  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPOKT  OF 

colored  points.  Legs  of  the  same  color,  the  thoracic  with  three  brown,  or  black  spots  outside,  the 
prolegs  with  purplish  dingers.     Described  from  two  grape-feeding,  two  poplar-feeding  specimens. 

Pupa. — Highly  polislied  mahogony-brown,  rather  short  and  thick,  impunctate,  and  with  two 
small  short  spines  and  several  fine  curled  bristles  at  the  extremity. 

Imago. — Front  Wings,  with  the  costal  margin  more  or  less  arched  and  the  posterior  margin 
more  or  less  scalloped  or  dentate  ;  general  color  brown,  being  variegated  with  a  pale  glossy  gray, 
with  more  or  less  fulvous,  glossy  purple-brown  and  unpolished  purple-black;  the  transverse  an- 
terior nearly  obsolete  or  tolerably  well  defined,  in  strong  zigzag,  pal-e  with  a  dark  shade  each  side; 
reniform  spot  entirely  obsolete,  or  well  indicated  and  pale  ;  orbicular  small  and  illy  defined,  or 
large  and  forming  a  pale  ring  with  the  centre  sometimes  concolorous,  sometimes  lighter  than  me- 
dian space,  and  with  the  basal  side  sometimes,  not  always,  extended  into  a  beak  or  point ;  trans- 
verse posterior  well  relieved  inside  but  not  outside,  except  at  costa  ;  itstarts  distinctly  about  the 
middle  or  a  little  outside  the  middle  of  costa,  runs  outwardly  at  right  angles  along  costal  nerve, 
either  its  own  width  or  twice  its  width,  thence  obliquely  outwards  towards  the  middle  of  the  wing, 
with  a  more  or  less  conspicuous  inward  jog  or  curve  in  discoidal  cell ;  thence  across  the  wing  in  4 
undulations  :  in  some  specimens  it  makes  an  obtuse  angle,  so  that  the  inner  half  runs  parallel  with 
the  posterior  margin,  in  others  it  runs  almost  straight  across  the  wing,  so  as  not  to  be  parallel  with 
the  margin  at  any  point ;  in  some  it  traverses  the  wing  so  as  to  leave  a  full  third,  in  others  so  ss  to 
leave  only  a  fourth  of  the  wing  outside;  subterminal  line  pale  and  broken,  scarcely  distinguisha- 
ble, or  well  defined,  especially  at  costa,  where  the  apical  space  is  pale  and  blends  with  it,  or  as 
brown  as  the  rest  of  wing  and  relieves  it;  a  series  of  8  more  or  less  distinct  pale  terminal  dots,  often 
relieved  by  an  outer  black  shade,  fringes  concoloroMs  :  sometimes  with  a  pale  middle  line  often 
broken  and  appearing  like  a  second  series  of  dots;  the  posterior  median  space  is  the  darkest,  and 
the  subterminal  space  the  lightest  portion  of  the  wing,  though  the  contrast  is  often  very  slight. 
In  one  dark  specimen  the  sagittate  spots  and  a  longitudinal  shade  in  the  discoidal  cell  and  another 
below  the  sub-median  nerve — the  two  dividing  the  wing  in  three  equal  parts  longitudinally — are  very 
conspicuous  from  their  being  very  dark  and  without  gloss  ;  in  two  specimens  these  marks  are  en- 
tirely obsolete  ;  under  surface  smoky-gray,  more  or  less  suffused  with  fulvous,  and  with  a  dark 
shade  below  transverse  posterior.  Hind  vnr.gs  bright  glossy  cupreous,  or  with  but  a  very  faint  tint 
of  this  color,  and  more  or  less  distinctly  grayish-brown  along  the  costa  to  the  third  superior  nerve 
and  the  upper  posterior  border  ;  fringe  scalloped,  grayish-brown,  with  an  inner  paler  hue;  under 
surface  more  or  less  concolorous,  with  the  lunule  indicated  and  with  a  broad  line,  half  black,  half 
cupreous.  Thorax,  with  the  scales  large  and  mixed  fulvous  and  brown.  Abdomen,  with  the  sides 
dark,  intercepted  by  the  fulvous  margins  of  joints  ;  anal  tiift  more  or  less  rufous.  Legs  with  the 
tibia3  and  tarsi  alternately  fulvous  and  brown.     Expanse  1.G5-1.90  inches. 

Described  from  four  bred  and  four  captured  specimens. 

The  differences  between  the  European /iy.>amjdea  and  this  species,  as  given  bj' Guenee,  are  :  First, 
Inpyramidea  the  transverse  posterior  curves  outward  near  the  costa,  so  as  to  produce  an  inward  sinus 
in  the  discoidal  cell,  while  in  pyramidoides  it  runs  nearly  straight  and  obliquely  ;  Secondly,  in /Ji/ra- 
midoides  this  line  is  said  to  border  a  median  space  almost  always  darker  than  the  rest  of  wing  and 
absorbing  the  darker  longitudinal  lines,  while  the  lightlines  are  given  as  narrower  than  in  pyrcmidea, 
and  the  subterminal  more  continued  to  costa,  where  it  borders,  or  cuts,  as  Guenee  has  it,  a  light 
apical  space.  While  the  difference  mentioned  in  the  transverse  posterior  is  tolerably  constant  in 
the  eight  specimens  of  pyramidoides  in  my  possession,  I  have  seen  two  in  other  collections  where  this 
line  was  almost  a  fac-simile  of  the  same  line  in  pyramidra  ;  and  the  other  characters,  as  will  be  seen 
from  the  above  description  are  quite  variable,  sometimes  approaching  the  typicalpi/ronudfc  and  some- 
times the  typical  pyramidoides.  The  same  variations  doubtless  occur  in  the  European  species,  lor  if 
we  can  rely  on  Mr.  Edward  Newman's  figure  (British  Moths,  p.  457,)  the  median  space  is  sometimes 
as  much  darker  than  the  subterminal  in  their  insect  as  it  is  said,  by  Guenee,  to  be  in  ours  Upon 
critically  examining  two  European  specimens  of  pyramidea  in  the  collection  of  my  friend,  Mr.  A. 
Bolter,  of  Chicago,  I  find  this  shade  very  distitict  on  the  posterior  portion  of  the  median  space, 
but  instead  of  closely  bordering  and  relieving  the  transverse  posterior  it  fades  somewliat  before 
reaching  it.  The  transverse  posterior  crosses  the  wing  nearer  the  middle  than  in  our  species,  leav* 
ing,  in  one  of  the  specimens,  more  than  one-third  of  the  wing  outside.  But  the  distinguishing 
features  which  struck  me  as  less  subject  to  variation  than  those  mentioned  by  Guenee,  are  the 
somewhat  more  elongate  wings  aud  the  broader,  more  distinct,  subterminal  line  of  pyiamiilea.  I 
have  little  doubt,  however,  but  that  from  a  hundred  specimens  of  each  species  at  least  one  pyiomi- 
dea  and  one  pi/ca7nfdoidei  could  be  found  that  were  undistinguishabie  in  themselves.  The  under- 
gides  of  the  two  species  agree  entirely. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  75 

There  is  but  one  other  described,  N.  A.  Amphipyra,  namely,  the  A.  inornala  of  Grote — {Proc 
Ent.  Soc,  Phil.,  Ill,  p.  86,)  which  upon  the  very  face  of  it,  seems  to  be  but  a  small  variety  of 
pyramidoidcs,  as  will  be  seen  by  comparing  his  description  with  tliat  found  above.  The  species 
was  described  from  a  single  specimen  belonging  to  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders,  of  London,  Ont.,  who 
agrees  with  me  in  believing  it  to  be  but  a  variety  of  piframiuoides. 

I  have  a  unique  in  my  cabinet  which  differs  so.emarkably  in  the  front  wings  from  pyramidoides 
that  I  feel  constrained  to  briefly  describe  it,  and  yet  in  all  other  characters  it  so  closely  resem- 
bles that  species  that  I  should  hesitate  to  do  so,  had  I  not  bred  it  from  the  larva.  It  looks  exactly 
as  though  something  had  been  sprinkled  uniforraily  over  the  front  wings  and  had  eaten  the  dark 
color  away  in  spots  and  splashes,  but  the  specimen  is  in  i-eality  perfect,  with  not  a  scale  ruffled* 
It  may  be  called  the  Spattered  Copper  Underwing  : — 

Amphipyka  conspersa,  N.  Sp. — L'lrva. — Found  full  grown  July  2nd,  1S67  on  Hazel.  No  pyra- 
mindal  hump,  and  of  a  uniform  emerald-green,  the  dorsal  palpitations  visible  and  the  stigmata  pale 
with  a  black  annulation,  but  with  no  other  markings  either  on  the  head,  body  or  legs. 

Imago — Like  pyramidoides  in  every  particular  except  that  the  brown  of  front  wings  is  almost 
uniformily  spattered  over,  more  or  less  suffusely  with  pale  grayish  spots  so  that  no  regular  marks 
appear.  The  costal  marks  are  however  tolerably  distinct  as  in  pyramidoides  and  by  careful  exami- 
nation and  comparison,  traces  of  the  more  conspicuous    marks  of  that   species   ma^'  be  discerned^ 

Described  from  one  §  bred  July  iJlst. 


THE  GRArE-ROOT  BOB.ER—^(/eria  polistiformis,  Harr. 

(Lepidoptera,  Jilgeridre.) 

The  most  common  root-borers  of  the  Grape-vine  in  this  State  are 
those  which  I  have  termed  Gigantic  Root- borers,  namely,  the  larva© 
of  two  large  beetles  {Prlonus  latiGollis  an^  P.  imhricornis)  which 
were  treated  of  in  my  previous  Reports.  The  insect  now  under  con- 
sideration is  a  moth  and  not  a  beetle  and  has  for  a  number  of  years 
been  known  as  THE  Grape-root  Borer.    It  bears  a  very  close  resem- 

[Fig.  33.] 


blance  to  the  common  Peach  Borer,  botli  in  habit,  and  in  the  size  and 
general  appearance  of  the  larva,  but  it  is  a  somewhat  larger  insect 
and  the  moths  diiFer  materially. 

It  has  usualh'  been  considered  a  Southern  insect  and  certain  it  is 
that  it  is  not  as  destructive  in  the  vineyards  of  Missouri  as  the  Gigantic 
borers.  But  I  captured  specimens  of  the  motli  and  found  the  larva 
in  St.  Louis  county  last  summer,  and  it  has  long  been  known  to  be 
destructive  throughout  Kentucky.    It  was  also  reported  around  Gin- 


76  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

cinnati  in  1867,  though  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  insects  attacking 
vine  roots  there  were  this  species  and  not  the  Gigantic  borers. 

The  larva  can  easily  be  distinguished  from  the  Gigantic  root- 
borers,  by  having  16  legs  as  in  all  normal  Lepidopterous  larvae, 
namely,  six  true  horny  legs  head  near  the  and  ten  false  or  membranous 
legs,  eight  of  which  are  in  the  middle  and  two  at  the  end  of  the  body. 
When  full  grown  it  measures  from  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  three-quar- 
ters, and  it  then  forms  a  pod-like  cocoon  of  a  gummy  sort  of  silk  cov- 
ered with  little  bits  of  wood-bark  and  dirt,  within  or  adjacent  to  the 
injured  root.  Within  this  cocoon  it  becomes  a  chrysalis  which,  in  due 
time,  by  aid  of  rows  of  minute  teeth  with  which  it  is  furnished,  works 
its  way  out  of  the  cocoon  to  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  gives  forth 
the  moth.  As  with  the  Peach  Borer,  this  insect  requires  a  year  to 
develop  and  is  found  in  its  different  states  of  larva,  chrysalis  and  moth, 
throughout  the  summer  months,  and  it  doubtless  also  passes  the 
winter  as  a  larva. 

The  moth  looks  very  much  like  a  wasp  and  especially  like  some 
belonging  to  the  genus  Polistes—^hQnce  its  specific  name— and  the 
resemblance  becomes  still  more  striking  when  flying,  for  its  flight  is 
accompanied  by  a  buzzing  wasp-like  noise.  The  sexes  differ  consid- 
erably though  not  as  much  as  in  the  case  of  the  Peach  Borer.  The 
colors  are  dark  brown  and  tawny-orange,  and  the  male  is  well  repre- 
sented at  Figure  33,  a,  and  the  female  at  5,  but  as  the  description 
which  was  published  seventeen  years  ago  by  Harris,  and  copied  by 
Mr.  Walsh  in  his  Report,  is  brief  and  defective,  I  subjoin  one  which 
is  more  complete  : — 

^GERiA  POLiSTiPORMis,  Harris,— J.Tiagro  $— Head,  including  the  palpi,  orange-tawny.  An- 
tenna simple,  blue  black;  orange-tawny  above  at  their  extreme  base  and  tip  and  below  for  their 
entire  length.  TAoraa?  black ;  varied  with  orange-tawny  and  bright  yellow  on  the  lateral  and 
posterior  surface  above,  and  below  for  its  entire  surface,  jlftdomen  generally  with  the  four  basal 
joints  black  and  the  rest  orange-tawny  ;  sometimes  almost  entirely  orange-tawny ;  sometimes 
almost  entirely  black;  always  with  a  narrow  yellow  ring  at  the  tip  of  the  second  joint  above 
and  generally  with  another  such  ring  at  the  tip  of  the  fourth  joint ;  venter  mostly  black  with 
the  tip  of  all  the  joints  more  or  less  edged  with  orange-tawny,  and  with  a  short  lateral  penci^ 
of  orange-tawny  hairs  springing  from  the  tip  of  the  penultimate  joint  below,  and  reaching  a 
little  bpyond  anus.  Legs  orange-tawny  above,  mostly  black  below  but  with  a  yellow  patch  at  the 
origin  of  the  middle  spurs  on  the  hind  tibiiB.  All  the  spurs  and  tarsi  more  or  less  tinged  with  yel- 
low. Front  wings  brown-black  with  a  more  or  less  distinct  clear  space  at  base,  longitudinally  tra- 
versed by  a  nervure  ;  hind  wings  hyaline,  with  the  veins,  the  terminal  edge  and  the  fringe,  brown- 
black.     Length  0.66—0.85  inch  ;  expanse  1.15—1.50. 

The  (^  differs  from  the  $  as  follows: — 1st.  The  antennae  are  bipectinate  four-fifths  of  the  way 
to  the  tip,  which  is  strongly  clavate  and,  as  in  the  J  ,  bears  a  few  hairs  at  its  apex.  The  bi pec- 
tinations are  fully  one-fourth  as  long  as  the  head  is  wide,  and,  as  well  as  the  entire  basal  half  of 
the  antennas  are  orange-tawny.  2nd.  Both  thorax  and  abdomen  are  darker,  and  in  addition  to  the 
pair  of  short  anal  pencils  below,  there  is  a  pair  nearly  twice  as  long  above.  3rd.  The  short  hyaline 
space  straddling  a  black  nervure  at  base  is  more  distinct.     Length  0.68  inch;  expanse  1.10  inch. 

Described  from  1  i^  1  $  bred  July  8th — 16th,  from  grape  roots,  and  others  captured  during 
August  at  Kirkwood,  Mo.  It  is  remarkable  that  although  Dr.  Harris  chronicles  in  his  correspond- 
dence  with  Dr.  LeBaron,  as  a  notable  event,  his  having  captured  an  JEgeria  with  pectinate  anten- 
nas in  New  England  in  1850,  *  in  1854,  when  for  the  first  time  he  described  the  moth  of  our  Grape- 

*i£arris  correspondence,  p.  262. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  TT 

root  borer,  he  did  not  say  a  single  word  about  the  (^  antennae  being  bipectinate,  if  we  are  to  judge 
from  the  account  he  gives  in  a  Report  made  to  the  American  Pomological  Society  in  1854  (p  10.) 
Either  his  cf  specimens  had  lost  their  antennse,  or  the  pectinations  were  rubbed  oflF,  the  former 
being  the  more  likely  occurrence.  Certain  it  is  that  the  males  received  by  Dr.  Harris  once  had 
pectinated  antennas,  for  though  Mr.  Glover,  copying  after  Harris,  likewise  fails  to  mention  this 
sexual  character  in  his  account  published  in  the  Patent  Office  Report  for  185-1  (p.  80),  he  neverthe- 
less plainly  figures  the  pectinations  (Ibid,  PI.  6,  lower  right  hand  figure)  and  the  specimens  from 
which  he  made  the  figure  were  received  from  the  very  same  person  who  furnished  Dr.  Harris  with 
his  specimens. 

Unlike  the  Peach  Borer  which  makes  its  abode  quite  near  the 
surface,  this  borer  lives  exclusively  under  ground,  and  unlike  the 
Gigantic  root-borers  which  hollow  out  and  bore  up  along  the  heart  of 
the  roots,  it  confines  itself  almost  entirely  to  bark  and  sap-wood,  and 
the  effects  of  its  work  are  consequently  more  fatal  to  the  vine.  Hoots 
attacked  by  it,  to  use  one  of  Mr.  Walsh's  expressions,  look  "  as  if  a 
drunken  carpenter  had  been  diligently  scooping  away  the  sap-wood 
with  a  quarter-inch  gouge."  It  must,  however,  sometimes  hide  under 
the  bark  of  the  roots,  as  Mr.  H.J.  Kron  of  Albemarle,  North  Carolina, 
in  the  Monthly  Report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  1867,  (p. 
329),  describes  it  as  being  shielded  by  the  bark. 

Remedies — It  has  been  ascertained  by  observation  and  experi- 
ment that  the  Scuppernong  grape-vine — which,  according  to  Gray,  is 
a  cultivated  variety  of  the  Southern  Fox  Grape  (vitis  vulphia) — is 
never  attacked  by  this  borer,  and  consequently  that  other  varieties 
grafted  on  to  the  Scuppernong  share  its  immunity  from  attack.  This 
is  a  very  easy  mode  of  preventing  its  ravages  in  the  more  Southern 
States  where  the  Scuppernong  flourishes ;  and  if  this  borer  should  ever 
become  very  numerous  with  us,  it  may  be  deemed  advisable  to  in- 
troduce that  stock  here.  At  present  we  have  no  other  preventive 
than  mounding,  and  the  insect  is  so  comparatively  scarce  that  I  have 
not  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  testing  whether  such  mounding  would 
work  as  well  as  it  does  with  the  Peach  Borer.  When  it  is  once  ascer- 
tained that  the  borers  are  at  work  on  a  vine,  they  may  be  destroyed 
by  clearing  away  the  earth  and  applying  hot  water  to  the  roots. 


THE  SPOTTED  V^UXy^OTK—Pelidnota  punctata,  Linn. 

(Coleoptera,  Scarabseidae.) 

This  is  the  largest  and  most  conspicuous  beetle  that  attacks  the 
foliage  of  the  Grape-vine,  and  in  the  beetle  state  it  seems  to  sub- 
sist entirely  on  the  leaves  of  this  plant,  and  of  the  closely  allied 
Virginia  Creeper.  Though  some  years  it  becomes  so  abundant 
as  to  badly  riddle  the   foliage  of  our   vineyards,  yet  such  instan- 


78 


THTRD    ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 


[Fig. 34.]  ces  are  exceptional;  and  it  usu 

ally  occtirs  in  such  small  num- 
bers, and  is  so  large  and  clumsy, 
that  it  can  not  be  considered  a 
very  redoubtable  ere  ny. 

Its  larva  has,  for  a  number  6f 
years  been  known  to  feed  on 
the  decaying  roots  of  different 
trees,  but  was  first  described  by 
me  last  September.*  It  is  a 
large  clumsy  grub  (Fig.  34,  a) 
bearing  a  close  reseml)la*ioe  to 
the  common  White  Grub  of 
our  meadows,  and  it  difters 
from  that  species  princiiially 
in  being  less  wrinkled,  and  in 
having  the  chitinous  covering  (or  skin,  so-called )  more  polished  and 
of  a  pure  white  color,  and  in  the  distinct  heart-shaped  swelling 
above  the  anus  (Fig.  34,  d).  Towards  the  latter  part  of  June  I 
have  found  this  larva  in  abundance,  in  company  with  the  pupa 
(Fig.  34,  ?>),  in  rotten  stumps  and  roots  of  the  Pear.  In  pre- 
paring for  the  pupa  state,  the  larva  forms  a  rather  unsubstantial 
cocoon  of  its  own  excrement,  mixed  with  the  surrounding  wood.  The 
pupa  state  lasts  but  from  eight  to  ten  days,  and  the  beetle  (Fig.  34,  c) 
is  found  on  our  vines  during  the  months  of  July,  August  and  Septem- 
ber. It  is  not  yet  kno"vV^n  how  long  a  time  is  required  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  larva,  but  from  analogy  we  may  infer  that  the  insect 
lives  in  that  state  upwards  of  three  years. 

This  beetle  was  named  about  a  century  ago  by  Linnaeus  who  met 
with  a  specimen  in  the  magnificent  collection  of  shells  and  insects 
belonging  to  Queen  Louise  Ulrica  of  Sweden.  It  occurs  throughout 
the  States  and  Upper  Canada,  and  is  even  met  with  in  the  West 
Indies.  It  flies  and  feeds  hj  day,  and  is  most  abundant  during  the 
months  of  July  and  August.  The  wing- covers  are  of  a  slightly  metal- 
lic clay-yellow  color,  with  three  distinct  black  spots  on  each,  and  the 
wings  themselves  are  dark-brown  inclining  to  black;  the  thorax  is 
usually  a  little  darker  than  the  wing-covers,  with  one  spot  each  side; 
the  abdomen  beneath,  and  legs,  are  of  a  bronzed-green.  It  is  easily 
kept  in  check  by  hand-picking. 

Pelidnota  PUNCTATA,  Linn. — Larva  (Fig.  .3i,  o)— Length  2  inches;  clumsy,  moving  on  the 
side.  Head,  bright  chestnut-brown,  smooth,  rounded,  with  a  short,  impressed,  longitudinal  line 
on  the  top,  and  three  shallow  impressions  in  front ;  epistoma  trapezoidal  and  darker ;  labrum 
rough,  irregularly  punctate,  and  t^eset  on  the  margin  with  a  few  stiff  rufous  hairs  ;  antennte  (Fig. 
34,  c;  as  long  as  epistoma  and  lubrum  together,  4-jointed  exclusive  of  bulbus  or  tubercle  in  which 
they  are  inserted;  joints  cylindrical,  proportioned  in  length  as  2,  6,  4,  1,  the  terminal  joint  being 
often  a  mere  bud  ;  mandibles  strong  and  black,  with  three  denticulations  at  tip,  and  a  very  slight 
toe  th  at  inner  basal  portion  ;  maxillaa  brown  and  subcylindrical  on  outside,  angulated  on  inside, 
bearing   two  lobes,  each   terminating  in  an   inwardly-curved  corbeous  tooth,  and  each  furnished 

*  See  American  Entomologist  and  Botanist,  Vol.  I,  p.  295. 


THE   STATE   EKTOMOLOGIST. 


19 


on  their  Inner  narrow  edge  with  stiff  bristles,  the  outside  one  arising  close  by  base  of  palpus,  the 
insid»  one  extending  lower  down,  and  recalling  by  its  form,  the  terminal  joint  of  the  front  leg  of 
a  scorpion  ;  maxillary  palpi  4-jointod,  joints  cylindrical,  short,  very  gradually  longer  and  longer 
from  1  to  4,  the  terminal  joint  more  pointed  and  narrower  than  the  others  ;  labium  quadrangular, 
labial  palpi  2-jointed,  the  palpigerous  piece  strongly  beset  with  bristles.  Body,  smooth  with  but  a 
few  wrinkles  at  thorax  ;  polished  translucent  white,  with  faint  bluish  marblings  on  all  but  thoracic 
joints  which  are  slightly  narrower  than  the  rest ;  a  narrow  vascular  dorsal  line,  and  a  very  slight 
yellowisli  liorny  plate  in  a  depression  on  joint  1  ;  a  very  slight  pubescence  observable,  and  a  trans- 
Terse  tergal  row  of  sparse  but  tolerably  long  hairs  on  posterior  part  of  each  joint ;  more  dense  and 
conspicuous  hairs  on  lower  fides  of  anal  joint,  which  joint  is  short,  cut  offstjuarely,  with  a  heart- 
shaped  swelling  [Pig.  34,  d)  sunk  into  a  circular  depression,  each  lobe  of  the-  heart  with  a  darker 
oval  corneous  elevation;  spiracles  sub-elliptical,  dark  Chestnut-brown,  placed  on  a  prominent 
swelling-,  the  lateral  openings  all  facing  the  head,  the  Ist  on  joint  1,  the  rest  on  joints  4,  5,  6,  7,  8> 
9,  10  and  11,  gradually  becoming  smaller  and  smaller  from  first  to  last.  Legs  (Fig.  34,  /)  horny, 
light-biuwu  and  covered  sparsely  with  hairs  ;  coxaj  long  and  stout,  with  a  rounded  swelling  at  low- 
er anterior  edge  ;  femora  cylindrical,  sometimes,  distinctly,  at  others  indistinctly,  separated  from 
tibiffi,  sometimes  prolonged  into  a  thorn  below,  with  a  distinct  carina  along  the  inside,  at  others 
not;  tibite  cylindrical,  incrassated  anteriorly,  especially  below;  tarsi  cylindrical  and  terminating 
in  a  distinct  claw. 

Pupa  (Fig.  34,  b)  of  the  form  of  Lochnosternai 

Described  from  12  living  specimens i 


THE  GRAPF  VINfi  FLEA-BEETLE— /ia^^;^ca  chaiyhea,  Illeger. 


(Coleoptera,    Chrysomelidfe.) 


[Fig.  35.] 


entirely  inapplicable. 


Is  there  a  grape-grower  in 
the  State  of  Missouri  who  does 
not  know,  to  his  sorrow,  what 
the  Grape-vine  Flea-beetle  is  ? 
Hardly  one!  Andyethowfew 
ever  connect  it  with  its  dis- 
gusting little  shiny  brown  lar- 
v£e,  which  generally  prove  still 
more  injurious  than  tne  beetle, 
by  riddling  the  leaves  in  the 
middle  of  the  summer. 

The  Grape-vine  Flea-beetle 
(Fig.  35,  d  )tiften  goes  by  the 
cognomon  of  "Steel-blue  Bee- 
le,"  and  is  even  dubbed 
'"Thrips"  by  some  vineyardists. 
The  latter  term,  however,  is 
The  former  name   is  not  sufficiently  charac- 


«■  Tlie  term  Thrips  is  conKned  to  an  anomalous  group  of  insects— mostly  cannibal,  l)Ut  excep- 
tionally \e;etnble  feeding— of  which  Ilalliduy  made  a  separate  Urder  Clhy-siin,  p-ei n).  but  which  are 
to-day  "includt=d  in  the  HomoiJti^rn,  or  Whole-winged  Bugs,  by  most  authors,  though  they  seem  to 
have  close  affinities  to  the  Orlhopltra)  and  to  the  Pseudoneuroptera. 


80  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

teristic,  because  the  color  varies  from  steel-blue  to  metallic-green  and 
purple,  and  because  there  are  many  other  flea  beetles  to  which  it 
would  equally  apply. 

The  Grape-vine  Flea-beetle  is  found  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States  and  in  the  Canadas,  and  it  habitually  feeds  on  the  Alder  (Al- 
nus  serrulata),  as  well  as  upon  the  wild  and  cultivated  Grape-vine. 
Its  depredations  seem  first  to  have  been  noticed  in  1831,  by  Judge 
Darling,  of  Connecticut,  and  in  1834  Mr.  David  Thomas,  of  New  York, 
published  an  account  of  it  in  the  26th  volume  of  Silliman's  American 
Journal  of  Science.  Its  transformations  were,  however,  unknown  till 
some  time  after  Dr.  Harris  wrote  his  excellent  work  on  Injurious  In- 
sects, and  the  figure  of  the  larva  was  first  published  by  myself  last 
fall. 

The  beetles  hibernate  in  a  torpid  state  under  any  shelter  which 
is  afforded  them  in  the  vineyard,  such  as  the  loose  bark  and  crevices 
of  stakes,  etc.,  etc.,  and  they  are  roused  to  activity  quite  early  in  the 
spring.  The  greatest  damage  is  done  by  them  at  this  early  season, 
for  they  often  bore  into  and  scoop  out  the  unopened  buds,  and  thus 
blight  the  grape-grower's  bright  expectations.  As  the  leaves  expand, 
the  little  jumping  rascals  feed  on  the  leaves,  and  soon  pair  and  de- 
posit their  small  orange  eggs  in  clusters,  very  much  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Colorado  Potato- beetle.  These  eggs  soon  hatch  into  dark-col- 
ored larvae,  which  may  be  found  of  all  sizes  during  the  latter  part  of 
May  and  early  part  of  June.  They  are  generally  found  on  the  upper 
surface  of  the  leaf,  which  they  so  riddle  and  devour  as  to  give  it  the 
appearance  represented  at  Figure  35,  a.  When  very  numerous  they 
devour  all  but  the  very  largest  leaf-ribs,  and  I  have  seen  the  wild 
vines  throughout  whole  strips  of  country  rendered  most  unsightly  by 
the  utter  denudation  which  these  insects  had  wrought.  The  larvae 
feed  for  nearly  a  month,  and  when  full  grown  present  the  appearance 
of  Figure  35,  5,  the  hair  line  at  the  side  showing  the  natural  size. 
They  then  descend  from  the  vine  and  bury  themselves  a  short  dis- 
tance in  the  earth,  where,  after  each  forming  a  little  earthen  cell  (Fig. 
35,  c),  they  change  to  pupae  of  a  deep  dull  yellow  color,  and  in  about 
three  weeks  more  issue  as  beetles.  These  beetles  leave  the  ground 
from  the  middle  of  June  to  the  middle  of  July,  and,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  do  not  breed  again  till  the  following  spring — there  being  but 
one  brood  each  year.  They  subsist  on  the  leaves  during  the  fall,  but 
the  damage  they  inflict  is  trifling  compared  to  that  which  they  cause 
in  spring. 
[Fig.  36.]  Like  all  other  Flea-beetles,  this  species  has  very  stout, 

swollen  hind  thighs,  which,  though  hidden  in  Figure  35,  6?, 
are  well  represented  in  the  accompanying  cut  (Fig.  36).  By 
means  of  these  strong  thighs  they  are  enabled  to  jump 
about  very  energetically,  and  are  consequently  very  diffi- 
cult to  manage  during  the  summer  months.  In  the  winter 
time,  however,  they  can  be  destroyed  in  great  numbers  while  hidden 


THfi  STATE  ENTOMOLOQISl:.  81 

in  a  torpid  state  in  their  retreats,  for  Dr.  E.  S.  Hull,  of  Alton,  Illinois, 
lells  ns*  that  they  were  otice  so  numerous  in  a  small  vineyard  of  his 
that  in  the  spring  of  1867  he  burnt  them  out  by  surrounding  them 
with  fire,  and  letting  the  fire  run  through  the  dry  grass  in  the  vine- 
yard. "It  was  a  rough  remedy,  but  as  his  crop  was  destroyed,  he  let 
the  beetles  follow  suit."  Clean  culture  and  general  cleanliness  in  a 
vineyard  will,  to  a  great  extent,  prevent  this  insect's  increase.  Espe- 
cially should  the  stakes  be  clean  and  free  from  old  bark. 

The  larvae  can  be  more  easily  destroyed  by  an  application  of  dry 
lime,  used  with  a  common  sand-blower  or  bellows.  This  has  been 
found  to  be  more  efi'ectual  than  either  lye  or  soap-suds,  and  is  withal 
the  safest,  as  lye,  if  used  too  s'trong,  will  injure  the  leaves. 

This  insect,  like  so  many  others,  will  one  year  swarm  prodigiously, 
and  then  again  be  scarcely  noticed  ;  and  such  changes  in  its  numbers 
depend  mainly  on  conditions  of  the  weather,  as  no  parasite  is  known 
to  attack  it.  In  the  spring  of  18G8,  though  they  were  at  first  out  in 
full  force,  yet  after  some  subsequent  severe  and  cold  weather,  they 
had  mostly  disappeared.  They  are  apt  to  be  most  troublesome  where 
Alder  abounds  in  the  woods. 

Haltica  chalybea,  in'ig.— Full-grown  Larva.— Length,  0.35  inch.  Head  polished  black. 
Body  livid-brown  above,  paler  beneath  ;  subcylindrical,  the  joints  bulging,  especially  at  sides,  and 
each  divided  superiorly  into  two  transverse  folds  ;  on  each  fold  a  row  of  six  shiny-black  elevated 
spots,  the  dorsal  ones  larger  than  the  others,  and  often  (especially  the  posterior  two)  confluent,  or 
divided  onlj'  by  a  very  narrow  dorsal  line  ;  each  spot  giving  rise  to  a  single  short  stiff  hair  ;  one 
such  substigmatal  black  spot  placed  in  middle  of  joint,  and  more  elongated  than  the  rest,  being 
apparently  composed  of  two  confluent  ones,  as  it  gives  rise  to  two  hairs.  Three  ventral  spots,  one 
anteriorly,  which  is  large,  transversely-elongate,  central,  and  without  hairs ;  and  tw^o  posteriorly 
(one  each  side)  which  are  small  and  piliferous  Six  black  thoracic  legs,  and  one  anal  orange  pro- 
leg. 

Pupa. — Length,  0.14  inch.  Of  the  normal  Chrysomelid  form.  Deep  dull  yellow,  and  covered 
more  or  less  above  with  short  black  bristles  arranged  in  a  transverse  row  across  each  joint,  and  each 
arising  from  a  slight  elevation  :  two  stouter  anal  bristles  or  thorns.  Eyes  brown.  Tips  of  jaws 
browa. 

Described  from  numerous  living  specimens. 


THE  GRAPE-VINE  COL^SFIS—Colaspis  Uvida,  Say. 

(Coleoptera,  Chrysomelidae.) 

There  is  a  little  clay  yellow  beetle  (Fig.  37,     magnified,     natural 

size),  which  does  great  injury   to  the   Grape-vine   by  riddling  the 

[Fig.  37.]        leaves.    It  is   more   or  less  abundant  with  us  every 

year,  butjudging  from  recorded  accounts  is  still  more 

,  injurious  in  the  Eastern  States,  and  especially  in  New 

York.    In  the   Country    G enileman  iov  Kngwst  ZOih.^ 

1^  1866,  occurs  the  following  account  of  it  by  Dr.   Fitch, 

in  answer  to  a  correspondent  who  wrote   that  they 

were  destroying  grape-vines  by  the  wholesale : 

*  Proc.  Alton  Hort.  Soc.  for  May,  1867. 
S  E — 6 


^2  THIRD   ANifUAL   I^^EPORf  (?# 

''The  rascals  alluded  to  are  a  beetle  of  the  Cbrysomela  famify,^ 
and  are  the  Browii  Colaspis,*^  Cblmpis  hrunnea.  Fab.  It  is  an  oval,- 
drab-colored  beetle,  nearly  twice  as  long  a«  broad,  and  nearly  two- 
tenths  of  an  inch  in  I'etigth,  having  the  outer  edge  of  his  wing  covers 
black,  and  also  the  under  side  of  its  body  and  th^'e  tip  of  its  antennae. 
It  is  rather  a  common  insect  througliout'the  United  States,  appearing 
in  the  latter  part  of  June,  each  year,  and  continuing  through  the 
month  of  July.  I  have  frequent^iy  gathered  it  from  the  wild  grape- 
vine, the  Cinquefoil  or  Potentilla,  and  some  other  plants,  but  have 
never  known  it  to  invade  the  cultivated  grape  until  this  year. 

It  has  this  season  been  the  worst  enemy  that  has  attacked  the- 
■yj,n-e  jn  my  neighborhood— riddling  the  leaves  with  small  round  holes. 
intei;^persed  with  large  irregnlar  ones— and  I  hear  of  it  in  several 
£>tlier  pa^'ts  of  the  country.        *        *        ^ 

Wherever  the  Leaf- folder  (Fig.24)  abounds^  this^  beetle  will  almost 
jnvarjably  be  found  in  conjunction  with  it  in  the  fold  of  the  leaf.  Oii' 
finding  it  so  inyariably  in  this  fold,  I  at  first  supposed  that  \i  merely 
took  advantage  of  the  position  for  shelter^,  little  suspecting  that  it 
would  feed  upon  the  worm,  since  the  family  to  which  it  belongs  is 
essentially  herbivorous,  and  the  Leaf  folder  is  so  very  actiye  ;  but  from- 
having  found  numbers  of  the  shrunken  and  half-dead  worms,  I  was^ 
(i  to  conjecture  that  it  does  actually  prey  upon  them  :.  just  as- 
maiiy  true  hw.gQ  {Hemiptera)  though  living  naturally  on  the  juices* 
f)f  piawts,  will  still  appropriate  and  relish  those  of  certain  caterpillars. 
Thus  may  one  great  pest  serve  to  check  another! 

Of  the  natural  history  of  this  beetle  nothing  has  hitherto  been' 
known.  As  the  beetle  was  often  found  upon  and  greedily  devours- 
the  leaves  of  the  Strawberry,  and  as  a  white  worm  was  known  to  in- 
jure the  roots  of  that  plant,  J  inferred  several  years  ago  (Prairie- 
Farmer  Annual  1S68,  p.  56).  that  this  worm  was  the  larva  of  the  Co- 
laspis.  From  the  facts,  however,  that  the  larva  of  the  European  Co- 
laspis  harhara  was  described  as  a  hexapod,  blackish,  glabrous  grub 

®  Dr.  Fitch  rpferred  this  insect  to  brunnca,  Fabr.,  and  Mr.  Walsh  {Practical  Entomologist,  II, 
p.  68)  criticised  hie  course,  and  referred  the  species  to  Jlavida,  Say.  I  adopt  Say's  name  simply 
because  it  best  indirates  the  general  appearance  of  the  insect,  and  not  because  I  thinli  Mr.  Walsh 
was  rio'ht  in  his  strictures.  I  have  kindly  been  allowed  to  examine  Dr.  Fitch's  specimens  ;  have 
examined  specimens  in  other  hirg-e  Eastern  collections,  and  those  in  the  Walsh  collection,  and  am 
convinced  that  the  difficulty  between  the  above  two  authors  arises  from  the  confounding  of  varie- 
ties with  species.  It  is  here,  as  in  almost  every  other  genus  and  Family,  the  closet  systematist 
divides  up  and  arranges  with  insufficient  knowledge  of  the  variation  which  species  are  suliject  to, 
and  this  was  especially  the  case  in  years  gone  by,  when  every  little  colorational  difference  was 
generally  supposed  to  be  immutable.  The  naturalist,  therefore,  who  studies  insects  for  oiher  and 
more  laudable  purposes  than  the  mere  naming  and  classifying  of  them,  though  fully  aware  of  the 
importance  and  necessity  of  good  and  clear  nomenclature,  may  well  despair  of  bringing  order  out 
of  the  confusion  which  often  exists,  and  which  the  miserably  short  and  incomplete  descriptions  of 
older  authors  have  had  much  to  do  in  causing.  The  economist  can  spend  his  time  more  profitably, 
and  so  long  as  he  always  adds  the  authority  to  the  name  he  uses,  there  will  be  no  danger  of  causing 
more  confusion,  and  he  can  coolly  disregard  the  interminable  disputes  between  different  authors  as 
to  the  proper  technical  name  by  which  an  insect  should  be  known.  In  the  present  case,  I  simply  give 
it  as  my  opinion  that  brunneo,  Fabr.,  snilla,  Fabr.,  and  Jlavida,  Say,  are  all  varieties  of  one  species, 
because  specimens  accordingwith  each  are  found  in  the  same  vineyard,  and  because  Say  himself 
gives  a  variation  in  flavida,  which  differs  much  more  from  his  description  than  does  either  biunnea 
tor  suilla.  Mr.  Walsh  gives  the  antenna  of  ^ai-irfa  as  having  the  last  joint  or  two,  and  the  tip  of 
the  last  joint  but  four,  brown -black,  but  there  is  variation  here,  and  the  dark  color  on  the  last  joint 
but  four  is  often  obsolete.  The  exterior  edges  of  the  elytra  are  either  concolorous  or  of  all  shades 
cf  brown  to  black,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  sutural  edges.  There  is  also  a  somewhat 
)arc;er  form,  which  must  certainly  be  referred  to  the  same  species,  which  has  the  punctures  so 
much  less  profound  as  to  give  it  a  much  smoother  and  more  highly  polished  appearance. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


83 


living  unx)roiected  upon  the  leaves  of  hicern  and  clover,*  and  that 
such  was  the  character  of  the  larvjie  of  most  other  insects  b-elonging 
to  the  great  Chrysomela  fcunily,  I  had  little  confidence  tiiat  m^'  ref- 
erence would  prove  the  correct  one.  Yet  it  so  X'roved  to  be,  and^I 
have  bred  the  beetle  from  larviR  infesting  strawberry  roots  that  v/ere 
kindly  sent  to  me  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Miller,  of  Anna,  Ills.  Just  as  in  the 
European  Turnip  'Ple^i-heeilQ  {Phyllotreta  nemorum)^  the  larva  mines 
the  leaves  above  ground,  while  in  our  very  closely  allied  Striped 
Flea-beetle  {Pkyllotretfjt  striolata^  IHig-)^  it  feeds  upon  the  roots  be- 
low ground;  so  there  seems  to  be  the  same  difference  of  habit  in  the 
^enus  Colasp is.  In  this  last  case  the  difference  is  not  only  of  habit, 
but  the  structure  is  modified  in  accordance  with  the  habit,  and  we 
have  in  our  Grave-vine  Colaspis  a  Chrysomelid  larva  bearing  a  very 
<;lose  resemblance  to  that  of  a  Lamellicorn. 

It  is  indeed  a  most  singular  larva,  and  differs  from  all  others  with 
which  I  am  acquainted,  in  having  on  the  underside  of  the  le^-less 
joints  a  pair  of  curious  fleshy  projections  reminding  one  of  legs,  and 
terminating  in  about  two  stiff  hairs  (Fig,  38,  a).  The  office  of  these 
appendages  it  is  di'fficult  to  conjecture,  for  they  seem  to  impede  rather 
than  aid  in  locomotion  on  a  flat  surface,  though, 
when  the  habits  of  the  larva  are  more  critically 
studied,  these  appendages  will  doubtless  be  found  to 
subserve  some  useful  purpose.  The  color  of  this  larva 
is  yellowish  or  grayish-white  with  a  gamboge-yel- 
low head.  The  pupa  is  formed  in  the  ground  and  ex- 
hibits no  unusual  characters. 

We  are  now  only  treating  of  this  insect  as  a 
Grape-vine  pest;  but  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the 
Orown-borer  (Fig,  14)  or  this  root-eater  is  the  most 
injurious  to  the  Strawberry.  The  work  of  the  two  is 
-essentially  different,  the  white  Crown-borer  confining  itself  to  the 
«rown,  and  its  more  dingy  ally  devouring  the  fibrous  roots  and  work- 
ing into  the  more  woody  parts  from  the  outside.  At  this  work  sev- 
eral of  them  may  frequently  be  seen  with  their  heads  stuck  into  differ- 
■ent  parts  of  one  root.  They  may  be  found  upon  the  roots  all  through 
the  fall,  winter  and  spring  months,  and  do  not  begin  to  change  to 
pupoB  in  this  latitude  till  about  the  month  of  June,  the  beetles  ap- 
pearing during  that  month  and  continuing  to  issue  from  the  ground 
till  towards  fail.  As  soon  as  they  issue  from  the  ground  they  com- 
mence to  feed  upon  the  tender  leaves,  and  in  a  measure  injure  the 
plants  by  riddling  them  with  holes.  After  feeding  for  a  v/hile  on 
strawberry  leaves,  and  depositing  their  eggs,  they  spread  on  to  other 
plants  and  are  generally  found  most  numerous  in  the  vineyard  dur- 
ing the  latter  part  of  July  and  during  August,  where,  according  to 
Mr.  Miller,  they  show  a  partiality  for  the  leaves  of  the  Delaware. 


«Notice  sur  les  Devastations  de  la  Larve  du  Colaapis  baibara,  parM.  Leon  Dufour— Annales  de 
aa  Soc.  Ent.  de  France,  1S36,  pp.  371—372. 


81 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 


Such,  in  brief,  is  the  history  of  this  common  beetle,  as  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  trace  it.  It  doubtless  has  natural  enemies,  and  ants  are 
so  fond  of  the  helpless  pupjE  that  the  (Jolaspis  never  occurs  on  the 
roots  where  they  abound.  The  evil  effects  of  its  work  are  more  ap- 
parent on  young  and  newly  set  plants  than  on  older  ones,  and  the 
only  way  to  prevent  the  ravages  of  the  worm,  which  we  yet  know  of^ 
is  to  so  protect  newly  set  plants  that  the  beetles  will  not  get  access 
to  them.  I  have  had  no  opportunity  to  make  experiments,  but  it  may 
turn  out  that  some  application  to  the  ground  or  to  the  plant,  such  as 
ashes,  soot,  lime,  or  salt,  will  ward  off  the  perfect  beetle,  and  I  shall 
be  glad  to  hear  reports  from  those  who  are  troubled  with  the  pest. 
The  same  remedies  used  in  killing  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle  would 
also  kill  this  species. 

CoLAsris  FLAviDA,  Say — Larva,  (Fig.  38) — Color  dingy  yellowish  ;  uniformly  covered  witb 
sparse  stiff  yellowish  hairs.  Having  the  general  appearance  of  a  Laraellicorn  larva.  Slightly 
[irched  but  capable  of  stretching  out  tolerably  straight.  Narrowest  in  middle  of  body,  the  tho- 
racic and  anal  joints  b«ing  slightly  swollen.  The  joints  with  about  three  dorsal  wrinkles  to  each. 
[lead  honey-yellow,  rounded,  flattened  in  front ;  epistoma  and  labrum  of  same  color  ;  jaws  darker. 
Legs  pale,  setous,  and  terminating  in  a  brown  claw.  Spiracles  scarcely  perceptible,  the  first 
mb-ventral  between  joints  1  and  2,  the  others  placed  on  a  lateral  series  of  swellings  commencing 
with  joint  4.  Joints  4-11  inclusive,  each  with  a  pair  of  soft  ventral  leg-liK*  appendages,  ending, 
n  two  or  more  stiff  hairs.  Anal  joint  somewhat  horny  below  (Fig.  38,  b)  but  with  no  trace  of 
)rolegs.     Length  0.25 — 0.30  inch.     Described  from  two  rather  poor  alcoholic  specimens. 


THE  GRAPE-LEAF  GALL-LOUSE— PAyZZor^^m  vitifolim.  Fitch, 

(Homoptera,  Aphida).) 

Here  we  have  an  insect,  the  life-history  of  which  is  as  interesting 
0  the  entomologist  as  its  devastations  are   alarming   to   the   grape- 
[^•s-  -^Q]  grower,    I  have  given  it  consid- 

erable attention  the  past  summer^ 
and  though  it  is  a  difficult  task 
to  present  definite  and  satisfac- 
tory information  from  the  multi- 
tude of  facts  obtained,  yet  I  shall 
endeavor  to  give  a  comprehen- 
Jsive  account  of  this  little  louse,, 
so  far  as  my  present  knowledge 
of  it  will  permit.  In  doing  so  I 
am  made  painfully  aware  that 
there  is  much  room  left  for  fur- 
ther observations,  and  he  who 
will  patiently  and  persistently 
devote  his  time  for  a  few  years  to 
ta  study,  and  will  with  candor  and  accuracy  give  to  the  world  the  re^ 


THE   STATE   EKTOMOLOGI&T.  ^i) 

suits,  will  doubtless  be  rewarded  by  new  and  important  discoveries, 
and  will  render  valuable  service  to  the  cause  of  science  and  of  econ- 
omic entomolog;y. 

The  first  reference  to  this  insect  was  briefly  made  by  Dr.  Fitch,  of 
New  York,  in  the  year  185G,**  and  he  subsequently  described  it  in  a 
very  insufficient  manner,  under  the  name  of  Pewphicjus  vitifolice  /* 
but  though  the  specific  name  must  be  retained,  the  insect  was  wrongly 
referred  to  the  genus  Pemphigus^  as  we  shall  presently  see.  Ten 
years  afterwards  this  louse  was  again  referred  to  by  myself  in  the 
Prairie  Farmer  for  August  8, 1866,  and  during  the  fall  of  the  same 
year  articles  were  written  upon  it  by  Dr.  Shimer,f  and  by  my  late  as- 
sociate, Mr.  WalshJ— the  former  claiming  that  it  was  a  true  Plant- 
louse  (ApJiis  family),  and  the  latter  that  it  was  a  Bark-louse  {Coccus 
family).  In  this  Dr.  Shimer  was  evidently  right,  and  Mr.  Walsh 
wrong.  In  January,  1867,  Dr.  Shimer  proposed  for  this  insect  a  new 
family  (Dactylosph.erid.e),§  which,  in  my  opinion,  cannot  stand. 

But  not  to  weary  the  general  reader  with  purely  scientific  ques- 
tions, I  shall  give  the  reasons  for  my  opinion  on  this  point,  together 
with  some  other  details,  in  smaller  type  at  the  close. 

This  louse  Avas  subsequently  treated  of  by  Mr.  Walsh  in  his  report 
as  Acting  State  Entomologist  of  Illinois  (pp.  21-2f),  where  he  still 
felt  inclined  to  place  it  with  the  Bark-lice,  though  I  have  good  reason 
to  believe  that  he  afterwards  changed  his  mind.  During  all  this  time 
a  serious  disease  of  the  roots  of  the  Grape-vine  began  to  attract  at- 
tention in  the  south  of  France,  audit  finally  caused  such  alarm  that 
the  Minister  of  Agricultuj-e  and  Commerce  in  France  offered  a  prize 
of  20,000  francs  for  the  discovery  of  an  efficacious  and  practical  rem- 
edy. 

A  special  commission  was  also  appointed  to  draw  up  a  programme 
of  conditions,  examine  memoirs  submitted  "to  it,  settle  the  experi- 
ments to  be  made,  collect  evidence  from  local  commissions,  and  if 
they  saw  reason  for  so  doing,  to  award  the  prize  offered  by  govern- 
ment. The  commission  consisted  of  M.  Dumas,  M.  Milne  Edwards 
and  M.  Duchartre,  of  the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences  ;  M.  Gervais,  M. 
Planchon,  M.  Henri  Mares  and  M.  Louis  Vialla,  of  Montpellier;  the 
Comte  de  Vergue,  of  Gironde;  M.  Bedel,  of  Vaucluse,  and  three 
members  of  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture. 

The  disease  is  known  b.s  pourridie,  or  rotting.  It  is  in  the  form 
of  little  cankerous  spots,  which  cut  off  the  supply  of  nourishment 
and  cause  the  roots  to  rot,  and  these  spots  were  ascertained  by 
MM.  Planchon  and  Lichtenstein,  of  Montpellier,  to  be  caused  by  a 
louse  {Pliijlloxera  vastatrix^  Planchon,)  which  bears  a  close  resem- 

»»  N.  Y.  Rep.  I,  p.  158. 

«  Rep.  3,  ?i  117. 

f  Prairie  larmer,  Nov.  3  and  Dec.  8,  1866. 

j  Pract.  Ent.,  Vol.  I,  p.  Ill  ;  Vol.  11,  p.  19  ;  and  Proc.  Ent.  Soc,  Phil.,  VI,  pp.  2S3-4,  notes. 

I  Proc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Phil.,  Jan.  1867. 


S6  THIRD   ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

blance  to  our  gall-insect.  This  is  not  all,  for  a  leaf-gall  absolutely 
identical  with  ours  also  occurs  there,  and  the  identity  of  the  gall-in- 
habiting with  the  root-inhabiting  insect  was  demonstrated  by  "J.  O. 
W.,"  in  the  Gardener'^s  Chronicle^  of  England,  for  January  30,  186^, 
and  M.  J.  Lichtenstein  even  contended  that  their  European  species 
Avas  identical  with  ours,  and  imported  from  this  country,  in  which 
opinion  he  was  supported  by  A.  Combe-Dalmas.* 

Of  course  these  views  expressed  in  Europe  gave  increased  inter- 
est to  our  own  gall-louse,  and  I  determined  to  make  every  effort  to- 
decide  the  question  of  identity,  together  with  some  other  questions 
which  presented  themselves.  To  this  end  I  opened  correspondence 
with  M.  V.  Signoret  and  M.  J.  Lichtenstein,  who  were  making  experi- 
ments in  France  while  I  was  doing  the  same  here.  But  the  blighting^ 
effects  of  the  war  have  not  only  entailed  untold  misery  and  woe  to 
millions  in  France,  but  have  either  paralyzed  or  eflectually  balked 
scientific  investigation  within  her  borders,  so  that  at  last  accounts  M. 
Lichtenstein  was  in  Spain,  and  M.  Signoret  shut  up  in  Paris. f  I  was, 
however,  fortunate  enough  to  receive  from  the  latter  gentleman,  a 
iQ-w  days  previous  to  the  investment  of  Paris,  a  letter  stating  that 
upon  examination  of  specimens  of  our  gall-lice,  which  I  bad  expressed 
to  him,  he  was  convinced  of  their  identity  with  the  European  species. 
This  was  indeed  satisfactory,  and  coupled  with  the  fact  that  I  have 
discovered  that  our  gall-insect  likewise  attacks  the  roots  of  our  vines 
in  precisely  the  same  manner  as  does  the  European  species,  and  that 
the  Avinged  specimens  found  in  this  country  by  Dr.  Shimer  agree  in 
haA^ng  the  characteristic  dusky  band  around  the  middle  of  the  tho- 
rax described  in  the  winged  female  of  Europe,  it  leaves  no  doubt  in 
my  mind  that  the  insects  of  the  two  continents  are  really  identical. 

As  already  stated,  the  war  put  a  stop  to  investigations  in  France, 
and  Ave  do  not  know  that  any  effectual  remedy  was  discovered,  or  that 
the  premium  was  disposed  of.  Carbolic  acid,  and  two  other  sub- 
stances, namely,  sulphuret  of  lime  dissolved  in  water,  and  an  empy- 
I'eumatical  oil,  known  among  veterinary  surgeons  by  the  name  of  "oil 
of  cade,"  dissolved  in  water,  Avere  found  to  be  the  best  specifics  ;  but 
neither  of  them  have  been  tried  on  a  suflSciently  extensive  scale,  and 
1  have  little  faith  in  any  medicinal  remedy. 

The  two  parties  Avho  have  written  most  upon  the  disease,  namely^ 
Mr.  Signoret  and  M.  Lichtenstein,  took  entirely  opposite  grounds  as 
to  its  cause.  The  former  claimed  that  it  had  a  botanical  rather  than 
an  entomological  cause,  that  it  was  principally  due  to  drouth,  bad 
culture  and  poor  soil,  and  that  the  Phylloxera  was  therefore  inci- 
dental; and  acting  upon  this  view,  suggested  that  Avater,  Avith  manure 

*  Imectologie  Agricole,  1869,  p.  189. 

{•  Since  the  above  was  written,  I  have  beard  from  M.  Signoret  through  M.  Lichteristein. 
Nothing  daunted  by  the  siege,  the  former  c.'jrried  on  his  studies  of  this  little  louse,  and  wrote  by 
balloon,  that  though  he  himself  was  reduced  to  cats,  dogs  and  horse-flesh,  the  Phylloxera,  which 
he  had  in  boxes,  kept  well  and  in  good  health.  No  doabt  our  enthiisiastic  friend  finds  much  solace 
in  thus  pursuing  knowledge  under  difficulties. 


ffUE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  157 

and  p;0od  cultivation,  would  do  away  with  it;  while  the  latter  main- 
tained that  the  Phylloxera  was  the  sole  cause  of  the  trouble.  There 
are,  doubtless,  certain  conditions  of  soil  whi«;h  will  prove  favorable  to 
the  increase  of  the  louse,  and  it  may  also  be  influenced  by  the  sea- 
sons and  by  gDod  or  poor  cultivation;  but  that  this  insect  should  be 
found  only  on  such  roots  as  are  already  diseased  is  highly  improbable, 
and  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  M.  Lichtenstein  is  right  in 
attributing  the  disease  directly  to  the  PJajlloxera.  The  appearance 
•of  mites  is  the  almost  inevitable  consequence  of  diseased  and  rotting 
vegetation,  but  Plant-lice  cannot  live  on  such  vegetation,  and  inva- 
riably leave  it  as  soon  as  they  have,  by  their  punctures,  reduced  the 
healthy  tissues  to  such  a  state.  Moreover,  the  history  of  our  louse, 
which  I  shall  now  proceed  to  give,  corroborates  M.  Lichtenstein's 
views. 

In  Missouri  this  insect  has  proved  very  injurious  to  the  Clinton 
vine  for  several  years  past — at  least  as  far  back  as  1864,  when  the  fo- 
liage of  the  Clinton  was  reported,  in  the  proceedings  of  our  State  Hor- 
ticultural Society,  as  "very  bad" — and  Mr.  Geo.  Husmann  informed  me 
that  in  1869,  it  actually  defoliated  three-fourths  of  an  acre  of  Clin- 
tons and  Taylors  on  bottom  land  at  Bluft'ton,  though  it  did  not  appear 
to  do  much  injury  on  the  hills.  It  was  quite  bad  around  Kirkwood 
the  present  year,  and,  judging  from  reports,  of  correspondents  and 
from  my  own  observations,  it  was  more  than  usually  abundant  in  most 
of  the  Eastern  States. 

In  this  latitude  the  first  galls  are  noticed  by  about  the  middle  of 
May,  and  by  the  middle  of  June  they  begin  to  be  quite  common.  It 
occurs  most  abundantly  on  the  Clinton  and  Taylor,  but  is  also  found 
on  the  wild  Frost  Grape(  V.  conllfolia),  and  such  other  cultivated 
varieties  of  it  as  Golden  Clinton  and  Huntington;  also  on  the  Dela- 
aware,  and  early  in  the  year  I  even  found  a  few  large  galls  on  the 
Concord.  According  to  Dr.  Morse  it  also  occurs  on  thelona,  which  is 
a  variety  of  the  Northern  Fox  Grape  (  V.  lahriisca).  The  galls  vary 
somewhat  in  appearance,  accorJing  to  the  vine  upon  which  they 
occur,  those  I  have  noticed  on  the  wild  Frost  Grape  being  more 
hirsute  than  those  on  the  cultivated  Clinton,  and  these  again  rougher 
than  on  the  Taylor. 

The  few  individuals  which  start  the  race  early  in  the  year  station 
themselves  upon  the  upper  side  of  the  leaves,  and  by  constant  suc- 
tion and  irritation  soon  cause  the  leaf  to  swell  irregularly  on  the  op- 
posite side,  while  the  upper  part  of  the  leaf  gradually  becomes  fuzzy 
and  closes,  so  that  the  louse  at  last  sinks  from  view,  and  is  snugly  set- 
tled in  her  gall.  Here  she  commences  depositing,  her  bulk  increasing 
during  pregnancy.  Eventually  she  grows  to  be  very  plump  and 
swollen,  acquires  a  deep  yellow  or  orange  tint,  and  crowds  the  space 
within  the  gall  with  her  small  yellow  egg^^  numbering  from  fifty  to 
four  or  five  hundred,  according  to  the  size  of  the  gall.  The  young 
lice  are  pale  yellow,  and  appear  as  at  Figure  40,  rZ,  e.    As  soon  as 


88  THIRD  ANNUAL  BEPORT   OF 

they  are  hatched  they  escape  from  the  gall  through  the  orifice  on  the 
upper  surface  of  the  leaf,  which  was  never  entirely  closed  ;  and,  ta- 
king up  their  abode  on  the  young  and  tender  leaves,  in  their  turn 
form  galls.  The  mother-louse,  after  completing  her  deposit,  dies,  and 
the  gall  which  she  occupied  dries  up.  There  are  several  generations 
during  the  year,  and  this  process  goes  on  as  long  as  the  vines  put 
forth  fresh  leaves.  As  the  gxlls  multiply  and  the  growth  of  the  vine 
becomes  less  vigorous,  the  young  lice  sometimes  so  completely  cover 
the  upper  surface  of  the  newly  expanded  leaves  as  not  to  leave  room 
for  them  all  to  form  galls.  In  this  event  the  leaf  soon  perishes,  and 
the  lice  perish  with  it.  When  two  or  more  lice  are  stationed  closely 
together  they  often  form  but  one  gall,  which  accounts  for  the  pres- 
ence of  the  several  females  that  are  sometimes  observed  in  a  single 
gall.  Those  leaves  which  have  been  badly  attacked  turn  brown  or 
black,  and  sooner  or  later  fall  to  the  ground,  so  that  the  vine  may  he- 
come  entirely  denuded. 

By  August  the  insects  generally  become  so  prodigiously  multi- 
plied that  they  often  settle  on  the  tendrils,  leaf-stalks,  and  tender 
branches,  where  they  form  excrescences  and  gall-like  growths,  differ- 
ing only  from  those  on  the  leaves  in  such  manner  as  one  would  natu- 
rally expect  from  the  difference  in  the  plant  tissues.  By  this  time 
the  ro.any  natural  enemies  of  the  lice  begin  to  play  sad  havoc  with 
them  ;  and  after  the  vine  has  finished  its  growth,  the  young  lice,  find- 
ing no  more  succulent  and  suitable  leaves,  begin  to  wander  and  to  seek 
the  roots,  so  that  bj^  the  end  of  September  tlie  galls  are  deserted,  and 
those  few  remaining  on  the  vines  generally  become  mildewy,  and 
finally  turn  brown  and  dry  up.  Upon  the  roots  the  lice  attach  them- 
selves singly,  or  in  little  groups,  and  cause  by  their  punctures  little 
swellings  and  knots,  which  eventually  become  rotten.  Where  vines 
have  been  badly  affected  with  the  gall,  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  perfectly 
healthy  [fibrous  root.  Strange  enough,  these  lice  not  only  change 
their  residence  as  winter  approaches,  from  the  leaf  above  ground  to 
the  root  below  ground,  just  like  the  Moor,  who,  having  passed  the 
summer  on  his  roof,  gets  into  his  house  in  the  winter;  but.  Proteus- 
like, they  change  their  appearance  in  shedding  their  skins,  and  at  the 
present  writing  (Nov.  6th)  have  all  become  tubercled,  as  represented 
at  Figure  40,^. 

No  doubt  the  insect  passes  the  winter  on  the  roots  in  this  tuber- 
cled state,  but  whether  in  the  spring  these  tubercled  individuals  pro- 
duce winged  males  and  females,  which  rise  in  the  air,  pair,  and  by  de- 
positing eggs  give  birth  to  the  apterous  females  which  found  the  gall- 
producing  colonies;  or  whether,  as  spring  opens,  they  lay  eggs  on 
the  roots,  and  the  young  hatching  from  these  eggs  crawl  up  on  to  the 
leaves  and  found  those  gall-producing  colonies,  are  questions  yet  to 
be  settled  in  the  life-history  of  our  Grape  leaf-louse.  The  former  hy- 
pothesis is,  however,  by  far  the  most  probable,  for  analogy  would  lead 
us  to  infer  that  winged  males  and  females  must  be  developed  at  some 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  89 

time  during  its  annual  course,  and  winged  males  are  so  rare  in  the 
galls  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  find  them,  though  I  have  opened 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  galls  during  the  summer  and  fall 
months.  Dr.  Shinier,  indeed,  is  the  only  fortunate  individual  who  has 
found  tlie  winged  insect  in  the  galls,  and,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  he 
only  succeeded  in  finding  four  specimens  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  after 
cutting  open  ten  thousand  galls;  and  he  has  really  given  us  no  proof 
that  his  winged  specimens  were  really  males,  and  not  females.  Let 
us  hope,  however,  that  by  pointing  out  the  gaps  in  the  biological  his- 
tory of  this  insecl,  attention  will  be  drawn  to  them,  so  that  they  may 
be  the  more  readily  filled. 

These  discoveries  lead  us  to  some  most  important  practical  con- 
siderations. It  now  becomes  evident  that  this  insect  can  be  trans- 
ported from  one  place  to  another  on  the  roots,  either  upon  trans- 
planted vines  or  in  earth  containing  fibrous  roots.  Doubtless  it  was 
by  some  such  mode  as  this  that  the  insect  was  introduced  into  France 
from  this  country.  It  may  be  in  this  manner  likewise  that  it  has  in 
part  spread  from  one  portion  of  our  country  to  another,  though  as  it 
is  found  indigenously  on  the  -wild  Frost  Grape,  the  greater  probabili- 
ties are  that  it  exists  wiierever  this  wild  grape  is  ibund,  and  has  grad- 
ually spread  from  it  on  to  the  cultivated  varieties.  These  probabili- 
ties are  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  new  grape  wood  is  always  rooted 
in  the  spring,  wlien  the  lice,  according  to  my  views,  are  leaving  the 
roots.  But  the  important  fact  remains,  that  the  insect  winters  on  the 
roots,  and  that  to  exterminate  it  from  a  vineyard  we  have  but  to  root 
up  and  destroy,  late  in  the  fall,  such  vines  as  were  affected  with  the 
galls.  From  the  poor  success  that  has  attended  the  experiments 
made  abroad  to  destroy  the  lice  on  the  roots,  and  from  the  fact  that  it 
is  so  difficult  to  reach  them,  I  have  little  hope  that  any  other  remedy 
will  be  found  than  that  of  extermination  by  the  means  indicated,  or 
by  plucking  and  destroying  the  gall-infested  leaves  as  fast  as  they  ap- 
pear in  the  spring. 

Another  very  important  practical  lesson  may  be  derived  from  the 
facts  here  mentioned,  namely,  that  no  variety  of  the  Frost  Grape 
(  V.  cordifolia)  should  be  cultivated  and  encouraged  Avhere  those  of 
the  Fox  Grape  (  V.  lahrusca)  or  of  the  Summer  Grape  (  V.  cestivalis) 
are  known  to  be  as  good.  Some  of  our  best  grape-growers,  especially 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  already  discard  the  Clinton  and  its  nearest 
relatives  as  worthless,  and,  considering  its  liability  to  this  disease,  we 
heartily  commend  their  conduct. 

At  the  15th  annual  meeting  of  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural 
Society,  at  Galesburg,  the  Clinton  was  highly  recommended  by  Mr. 
D.  B.  Wier,  of  Lacon,  Ills.,  principally  for  its  vinous  and  medicinal 
qualities;  but  in  this  recommendation  he  did  not  meet  with  much 
support  except  from  Dr.  Hull  the  State  Horticulturist,  who  also,  in 
the  course  of  his  remarks  sustained  Mr.  Wier  in  his  recommendation 
of  the  Clinton,  though  in  our  own  State  Horticultural  Report  for  1S64 


90  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

(p.  66.)  he  is  reported  as  being  much  inclined  to  discard  it,  his  objec- 
tion being  thatitis  "troubled  by  the  apple-worm" — by  which  is  doubt- 
less intended,  the  Grape-berry  Moth. 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  among  botanists  and  expe- 
rienced grape-growers  as  to  the  number  of  indigenous  species  of  the 
Grape-vine,  and  as  to  the  true  character  of  some  of  the  cultivated 
varieties.  Some  botanists  are  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  we  have 
but  two,  or  even  but  one,  species;  and  certain  it  is  that  the  fertile 
character  of  the  hybrids  would  lead  to  such  an  opinion,  if  infertility 
of  hybrids  is  to  be  taken  as  a  test  of  specific  character.  But  it  is 
more  generally  accepted  that  we  have  four  distinct  species  (  K  lahnis- 
ca.,  (jBstivalis^  cordifolia  and  vulpina)  and  this  view  is  held  by  most 
western  men,*  and  is  perhaps  warranted  when  we  reflect  that  the 
very  term  species  is  but  arbifrary,  and  that  fertility  of  hybrids  is  not 
valued  so  much  as  an  indication  of  specific  identity  among  plants 
and  some  of  the  lower  animals,  as  it  is  among  more  highly  organized 
beings. 

As  already  stated,  our  Grape  leaf-louse  is  now  principally  con- 
fined to  varieties  of  the  Frost  Grape ;f  but  as  it  has  been  found  in 
limited  numbers  on  lona  and  Concord,  which  are  considered  as  varie- 
ties of  the  Northern  Fox,  and  on  the  Delaware,  which  is  considered 
either  as  a  Summer  Grape  or  as  a  hybrid  between  the  Summer  and 
the  Northern  Fox,  I  fear  it  may  yet  spread  and  become  injurious  to 
these  species.  Morever,  now  that  we  know  that  our  insect  is  identi- 
cal with  that  of  Europe,  there  is  also  great  danger  that  it  will  attack 
all  hybrids  with  the  European  Vlnifera,  some  of  which,  as  the 
"Goethe,"  now  promise  well.  Thus  the  reasons  for  discarding  the 
Clinton  and  other  Frost  grapes  become  multiplied,  for  their  cultiva- 
tion ma}'  endanger  the  whole  grape-growing  interest  of  the  country. 
On  entomological  grounds,  I  say  emphatically  to  western  men,  do  not 
plant  any  more  Clintons,  and  get  rid  Of  those  you  now  have  as  quickly 
as  possible. 

At  the  recent  meeting  of  our  State  Horticultural  Society  at  St. 
Joseph,  some  little  discussion  followed  a  paper  which  I  read  on  this 
gall-louse  and  I  was  pleased  to  find  that  Dr.  C.  W.  Spaulding,  well 
known  as  a  successful  and  experienced  grape-grower,  together  with 
many  other  members,  fully  concurred  in  the  advice  here  given.  He 
had  examined  many  of  his  vines,  after  his  attention  had  been  called 
to  the  matter,  and  found  that  the  lice  were  found  principally  on  the 
roots  of  old  vines,  and  not  on  those  of  young  ones.  At  this  meet- 
ing it  was  almost  unanimously  agreed  that  the  Clinton  was  compara- 
tively worthless  and  should  be  done  away  with,  but  a  few  of  the  more 

*  See  Husmann,  "Grapes  and  Wine";  Flagg-,  Hearthand  Home,  Sept.  3,  1870;  Spaulding,  Lec- 
ture delivered  at  tlie  Illinois  State  Fair,  1870. 

t  Tlioug'h   Gra3'   considers   the  Clinton  a  variety  of  the  ^ICstivalis,  it  is   more  generally  cou- 
sidered  as  belonging-  to  Cordifolia,  which  its  great  liability  to  the  gall-louse  would  indicate. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  01 

conservative  members,  hesitated  about  discarding  it  for  fear  that  such 
action  would  bring  about  the  very  result  which  it  was  intended  to 
avoid,  /  (^.,  the  spread  of  the  insect  on  toother  and  more  valuable 
varieties.  In  other  words  they  feared  that  by  taking  away  the  Clin- 
ton, tiie  lice  which  now  prefer  this  variety  and  flourish  and  multiply 
upon  it,  would  be  forced  to  attack  other  varieties.  They  looked  upon 
the  Clinton,  as  a  protector  to  the  better  kinds,  by  drawing  the  lice 
away  from  them,  arguing,  to  parady  the  words  of  Shakespeare,  that 

"  'Tis  better  far,  to  bear  those  ills  we  have 
Than  fly  to  others  that  we  know  not  of." 

Now  while  I  admire  the  cautious  spirit  manifested  in  such  an 
argument  and  admit  that  it  seems  plausible,  I  cannot  believe  there 
is  any  logic  in  it.  The  argument  presupposes  that  the  louse,  as  a  species, 
can  suddenly  change  its  habits  and  tastes  when  forced  to  do  so  ;but 
to  my  mind,  a  new  habit  is  not  generally  acquired  in  a  species  by  the 
simultaneous  change  of  all  the  individuals  composing  it,  but  by  some 
aberrant  individual  first  taking  on  the  new  habit,  and  transmitting 
that  habit  to  its  descendants  until  a  new  race  is  in  time  produced,  A 
single  Clinton  vine  may  stand  in  the  midst  of  a  vineyard  of  Concords 
for  years,  and,  as  we  know  to  be  the  case,  may  be  badly  infested  with 
this  louse  without  its  spreading  on  to  the  surrounding  Concords.  The 
lice  may,  and  perhaps  do,  year  after  year  spread  on  to  and  settle  on 
the  comparatively  tougher  leaves  of  such  Concords,  but  year  after 
year  they  perish  from  incapacity  to  sustain  themselves.  Some  day, 
liowever,  one  or  more  aberrant  individuals,  may,  by  some  slight  consti- 
tutional difference  from  the  normal  type,  be  enabled  to  sustain  them- 
selves on  the  Concord  leaves,  and,  by  the  laws  of  inheritance,  trans- 
mit their  characteristics  to  their  descendants  until,  by  the  survival  of 
those  from  each  generation  best  fitted  to  llourish  on  these  leaves,  a 
new  Concord-feeding  race  will  be  produced.  Therefore,  as  already 
stated,  I  believe  that  there  is  danger  of  this  louse  spreading  on  to 
other  varieties,  and  especially  onto  such  as  are  more  closely  allied  to 
the  Cordifolia,  or,  to  use  a  common  but  inexact  expression,  that  have 
Cordlfolia  "blood"  in  them.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  we  are 
here  only  supposing,  from  analogy,  whsLimay  occur,  because  we  know 
not  positively  that  it  loill  occur,  and  it  is  very  obvious  that  even  if 
there  is  this  danger  the  chances  of  such  an  occurrence  will  be  far 
greater  as  long  as  the  Clinton  is  allowed  to  grow  in  the  vineyard,  than 
when  it  is  uprooted  and  banished  ;  and  so  far  as  all  experience  goes, 
we  can  safely  conclude  that  to  destroy  all  those  vines  in  a  vineyard 
that  are  infested  with  this  louse,  is  to  banish  it  from  such  a  vineyard 
so  that  it  will  in  future  confine  its  attacks  to  the  wild  frost,  as  it  did  in 
the  beginning. 

The  Apple-maggot  {Trypeta  pomoneUa^  Walsh),  as  Mr.  Walsh  has 
demonstrated,*  is  an  indigenous  American  insect  and  breeds  in  our 

"•■•lleport  as  Acting  State  Entomologist  of  Illinois,  pp.  29-30. 


93  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

wild  hawP,occiirring  abundantly  in  the  West,  as  well  as  in  the  East.  Of 
late  years  it  has  acquired  an  appetite  for  the  cultivated  apples  in 
some  of  the  Eastern  States,  where  it  already  does  much  damage  to  (he 
apple  crop.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  it  has  not  yet,  and  may  never  attack 
the  cultivated  apples  in  the  West,  and  there  is  more  danger  that  in 
process  of  time  the  more  civilized  Apple  maggots  of  the  East  will 
spread  to  the  West,  than  that  our  haw-feeding  maggots  which  are  now 
among  us,  will  acquire  that  habit,  as  a  race  of  them  once  did  in  the 
East.  Now  no  one  will  argue  that  if  the  Apple-maggots  of  the  East 
were  to  be  exterminated,  the  maggots  in  the  wild  haws  would  any  the 
sooner  attack  our  cultivated  apples  ;  and  in  like  manner  the  exter- 
mination of  the  lice  on  our  Clinton  vines  will  not  cause  those  on  the 
Wild  Frost  to  any  the  sooner  attack  our  Concords. 

To  give  another  illustration  : — Our  White  pines  have  for  years 
been  greatly  injured  by  the  Pine-leaf  Scale  {AspidiotuslMytilaspis] 
pinifolice^  Fitchi)  and  I  know  that  this  same  scale  occurs  to  a  slight 
extent  on  several  other  species  of  the  genus,  and  have  good  reason 
to  believe  that  it  (or  a  race  of  it)  is  becoming  more  and  more  numer- 
ous on  the  Scotch  pine  around  St.  Louis.  Yet  to  get  rid  of  this  scale 
I  would  not  hesitate  to  destroy  such  White  pines  as  were  infested  with 
it,  for  fear  that  by  such  a  procedure  I  should  drive  the  scales  on  to 
any  other  pines ;  because  I  believe  that  the  scales  on  the  Scotch  pine 
for  instance,  multiply  among  themselves  rather  than  by  the  annual 
transportation  of  individuals  from  the  White  pine,  and  because  the 
experience  of  the  past  teaches  that  the  latter  is  the  only  pine  which 
has  really  suffered  injury  from  this  scale. 

Other  similar  illustrations  might  be  given,  but  I  close  by  reiter- 
ating the  opinion  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  past  history  of  the  Grape- 
leaf  Gall-louse  to  warrant  the  belief  that  by  destroying  the  Clinton 
we  shall  force  it  on  to  those  more  valuable  varieties  which  it  has  not 
hitlierto  attacked,  and  that  whenever,  as  is  admitted  to  be  the  case  in 
the  central  portion  of  our  State,  the  Clinton  can  be  replaced  by  other 
and  better  varieties,  it  will  be  most  wise  and  judicious  to  discard  it. 
I  have  no  idea  that  we  shall  ever  exterminate  this  louse  from  our 
vineyards,  because  we  can  never  obtain  concert  of  action  all  over  the 
country,  and  because  it  will  flourish  in  a  measure  on  other  cultivated 
varieties  of  the  Cordifolia  group.  But  let  each  individual  act  for 
himself,  and  I  feel  satisfied  that  so  far  as  he  follows  the  advice  here 
given,  just  so  far  will  he  be  benefited. 

Tliere  are  several  cannibal  and  parasitic  insects  which  attack 
this  Gall-louse,  but  for  lack  of  time  to  make  the  proper  illustrations,  I 
shall  have  to  leave  their  consideration  to  a  future  Report. 

Figure  39,  at  the  head  of  this  article,  represents  a  leaf  covered  with 
galls.  Figure  40,  {a)  represents  the  winged  female;  (J)  her  foot  or 
tarsus — after  Signoret;  (c)  an  enlarged  egg;(fZ)  the  newly  hatched 
gall-inhabiting    type,    ventral    view  ;    (<?)    same,  dorsal    view ;     (f) 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


is 


a  section  of  a  gall;  (^)  the 
tubercJed  root -inhabiting 
form ;  (A)  the  mother  gall- 
louse  at  the  heighth  of  her 
fertility,  ventral  view  ;  (i) 
same,  dorsal  view — all  from 
nature  ;  (j  and  /i)  differently 
veined  wings  of  the  Oak 
Pliyllouiera  of  Europe.  All 
these  figures  are  greatly 
enlarged,  and  the  natural 
size  is  approximately  shown 
by  hair-lines. 

The  following  discus- 
sion of  this  insect's  proper 
place  in  our  classification, 
and  of  its  characters,  may 
be  passed  over  by  the 
practical  reader,  as  it  is  in- 
tended for  those  only  who 
take  an  interest  in  such 
questions.  lappenditwith 
but  very  slight  alteration,  as 
I  wrote  it  for  the  last  num- 
ber of  the  second  volume 
of  the  American  Entomol- 
ogist : 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  what  was  said  about  this  insect  on  page  248  of  our  first  volume 
ive  criticized  the  founding  of  the  Family  Dactylospharidm  by  Dr.  Shimer.  In  an  essay  read  before 
;he  Illiaois  State  Horticultural  Society,  at  0tta\7a,  last  winter,  Dr.  Shimer  took  exception  to  our 
■emarks,  and  called  upon  us  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us.  Not  considering  a  horti- 
uiltural  meeting  the  proper  place  to  enter  into  the  discussion  of  purely  entomological  questions, 
ive  declined  to  waste  the  precious  time  of  the  members,  but  intimated  that  we  should  be  glad  to 
anrswer  the  Doctor  whenever  a  favorable  occasion  presented.  The  opportunity  did  not  offer  till 
low,  as  the  Transactions  of  the  Society,  containing  the  essay  in  question,  have  butrecently  been 
)ubli3hed,  but  as  we  ourselves  wrote  the  strictures,  we  will  briefly  give  our  reasons  for  so  doing. 
[n  order  to  lay  the  question  clearly  before  those  interested,  it  will  be  necessary  to  quote  that  por- 
ion  of  our  former  article  which  so  exercised  friend  Shimer.     It  runs  as  follows  : 

The  louse  which  forms  the  gall  was  first  describe:!  as  Pemphigus  vitifoUcc  by  Dr.  Fitch,  of  New 
fork,  though  it  does  not  belong  to  that  genus,  Dr.  Shimer,  of  Mt.  Carroll,  made  some  luterest- 
ng  observations  on  the  habits  of  this  insect,  and  made  it  the  type  of  a  new  family  {Dacylof^ph^z- 
■idcB)  and  of  a  new  genus  {Dactylosphmra.)  The  distinguishing  features  of  this  supposed  family 
u-e  certain  appendages  attached  to  the  legs  which  Dr.  Shimer  calls  riigituli,  though  tlie  characters 
)f  the  wings  point  unmistakably  to  the  genus  Phylloxera  o£  ihe  true  Plant-lice.  ^Ve  shall  not  now 
liscuss  the  validity  or  propriety  of  this  new  family,  as  we  intend  to  give  a  more  complete  account 
)f  this  louse  in  our  future  articles  on  Grape  insects  ;  but  we  will  say  here  tliat  Dr.  Shimer  is  un- 
ortunate  in  grinding  out  new  genera  and  new  families,  for  he  has  proposed  a  new  family  and 
;enus  (Lepidosaphcs)  for  the  common  Apple-tree  Bark-louse  {Aspidiotns)  [Mytilaspis]  conchiforinis, 
iinel.)  based  upon  similar  appendages,  which  he  found  on  its  legs  ;  whereas,  if  he  had  been  better 
losted  he  would  have  known  that  these  appendages  are  characteristic  of  almost  all  Bark-lice. 

And  here  is  Dr.  Shiiner's  appeal : 

Here  they  would  like  to  make  the  public  belive  that  these  appendages,  digituli,  are  the  charac- 
ters out  of  which  I  have  proposed  two  families  in  Entomology  ;  whereas,  the  leading  cliaracter 
ipon  which  I  propose  my  family  Dactylospht^rida,  is  two  claws  on  a  one-jointed  tarsus,  and  the 
fading  characters  in  Lepidosaphidcs.  are  a  tarsus  without  a  claw,  and  a  scale-making,  not  a  scale- 
like insect.    The  dtfrj<;(/t  froTi  their  g-lobe-ended  extremities  I  consider  of  some  importance,  but 


94  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

fey  no  means  of  primary  weight  in  the  first  named  family,  and  in  the  second  family  I  give  them  no 
more  than  secondary  importance.  What  reasons  the  junior  editor,  for  he  alone  now  becomes  res- 
ponsible, can  assign  for  so  gross  a  misrepresentation  I  am  not  able  to  anticipate.  He  certainly, 
however,  will  be  able  to  give  some  reason  for  the  faith  within  him.  *  *  *  ■•=^  *  "* 
I  have  not  the  slightest  personal  feeling  in  the  matter,  and  I  hope  that  my  much  respected  friend, 
Mr.  Riley,  State  Entomologist  of  Missouri,  will  be  free  to  defend  the  position  he  has  taken  against 
me. 

Now,  we  believe  Dr.  Shiiner  is  sincere  in  stating  that  he  has  no  personal  feeling  in  the  matter, 
else  \re  should  not  even  notice  his  request.  We  hope,  therefore,  that  he  will  believe  us  when  we 
state  that  in  the  few  words  we  are  about  to  pen  we  are  governed  by  no  personal  considerations 
whatever,  but  by  a  love  of  truth  for  truth's  sake.  As  Dr.  Shimer  becomes  more  familiar  (and  we 
hope  he  will  so  become)  with  the  minute  and  interesting  insects  to  which  he  has  more  especially 
turned  his  attention,  he  will  no  doubt  regret  that  he  ever  proposed  those  two  families  without  lon- 
ger pondering  and  considering. 

Regarding  the  Bark-louse,  we  will  dismiss  the  subject  in  a  few  words,  as  it  is  foreign  to  the 
topic  under  consideration.  Dr,  Shimer,  it  is  true,  deserves  severe  handling  for  the  cool  and  skep- 
tical manner  in  which  he  refers  to  the  work  of  all  preceding  entomologists,  and  the  laughable  way 
in  which  he  arrogates  to  himself  the  power  of  correct  observation;*-'''  but  at  present  we  will  simply 
accede  to  his  request,  as  follows  : 

We  confess  that  in  stating  that  Dr.  Sliimer  had  based  his  new  family,  Lepidosaphid.k,  upon 
the  occurrence  of  digitali,  we  should  have  qualified  our  language  by  inserting  "partly"  before 
*'upon,"  since  the  characters  as  given  by  him  are,  "Four  digituU  terminated  by  pulvilU  or  arolia, 
and  no  claw,  and  the  female  living  beneath  a  scale  or  shelMike  habitation  of  hir  own  construct- 
ing.'"'^ But  we  insist  that  the  proposition  of  a  family  on  such  grounds  was  not  only  unfortunate, 
but  unwarranted,  for  the  following  reasons  ;  First,  the  so-called  digitull  are  not  even  of  generic, 
much  less  of  family  value,  as  they  are  nothing  but  modified  hairs,  and  occur  in  a  more  or  less  per- 
fect form  in  all  young  Coccidde  and  Aphida;  which  we  have  examined,  and  are  acknowledged  by  the 
best  authorities  to  be  common  to  both  these  families.  Secondly,  the  insect  in  question  really  has  a 
more  or  less  perfect  claw,  as  we  have  abundantly  demonstrated  the  present  year.  Thirdly,  the  as- 
sumptionf  that  the  scale  in  all  Coccid.k  should  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  insect  itself,  is  a  purely 
gratuitous  one,  since  there  are  many  other  species  which  live  separate  from  their  scales,  and  since 
the  genus  Aspidiotus  was  especially  erected  by  Bouche  for  those  species  which  thus  live  under  and 
seperate  from  them.  Consequently  there  remains  not  a  single  character  mentioned  by  our 
author  but  what  is  well  known  to  belong  to  the  Cocuid.e,  and  there  is  not  even  the  slightest  excuse 
imaginable  for  seperating  it  from  Costa's  genus  Diaspis,  to  which  it  is  now  correctly  referred  by 
Signoret — our  highest  authority  on  this  family. 

Now  let  us  return  to  our  Grape-leaf  louse.  We  have  no  trouble  in  proving  by  Dr.  Khimer's 
own  words  that  we  were  perfectly  justified  in  saying  that  the  "  digituli  "  were  the  "  distinguishing 
features  "  of  his  supposed  family  Dactyfosphceridcc.  The  very  meaning  of  the  Word  (globe-fingered) 
given  to  the  family  indicates  such  to  have  been  the  case,  and  he  himself  expressly  says  :+  "The 
wing  neuration  of  Dactylofphara  is  synonymous  with  that  of  Phylloxera;  it  is,  therefore,  upon  the 
other  characters  that  I  found  this  genus."  Now  what  are  the  other' characters  ?  Turning  to  the 
family  characters  given,  we  find  :  "Wings  four,  carried  flat  on  the  back  in  repose.  Antenniv  few- 
jointed.  Tarsi  composed  of  one  joint  terminated  by  two  claws,  and  from  two  to  six  digituli- 
Honey  tubes  none  ;  otherwise  resembling  Aphidce.."'ji^  The  only  other  character  given  which  is  not 
Aphidian  is  the  one-jointed  tarsus,  which,  as  we  shall  presently  show,  cannot,  strictly  speaking,  be 
considered  a  character  of  our  Gall-louse,  and  which,  even  if  it  were,  would  scarcely  warrant  the 
making  of  a  new  family.  Every  other  character,  including  the  "digituli,"  is  common  to  dozens  of 
plant-lice,  and  the  neuration  of  the  insect's  wing!|  places  it  beyond  any  doubt  in  the  genus    Pyllox- 

**Trans.  Am.  Ent.  Soc.  I,  pp.  371-2. 
»  Trans.  Am.  Ent.  Soc,  I,  p.  372. 
t  Ibid,  p.  371. 

X  Ckai-actcrs  for  a  supposed  neio family,  yi.  5,  note;  from  the  Proc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Phil,, 
Jan.,  1867. 

y/.  Ibid,  p.  1. 

II  The  neuration  of  the  wing  differs  slightly  from  the  typical  European  Phylloxera  qucrcus,  in 
the  two  discoidal  veins  of  the  front  wing  uniting  in  a  fork  instead  of  being  perfectly  separated. 
On  this  account  Mr.  Walsh  proposed  for  our  insect,  and  for  certain  other  species  found  in  hickory 
galls,  which  have  the  same  neuration,  the  generic  name  of  Xerophylla.  But  it  seems  to  us  that  the 
polvmorphism  of  Aimiio.k  has  not  yet  been  sulficiently  investigated  to  allow  of  inakingeven  differ- 
ent species,  much  less  different  genera,  upon  a  forked  or  unforked  nervure,  for  there  is  frequently 
much  greater  difference  in  specimens  coming  from  the  same  parents  ;  and,  as  we  are  informed  by 
M.  Lichtenstein,  the  European  P.'ylloxcra  of  the  Oak  actually  presents  both   kinds    of   neuration  ; 


THE  STATE  E^•TOMOLOGIST.  9o 

Ird,  ^v^lic{l  lias  long  been  ready  to  receive  it,  and  -which,  with  the  genera  Vacuna  and  Chermes, 
form  the  sixth  Tribe,  Chcrmesintv,  of  the  ArmD.B,  according  to  Passerini's  latest  revision  of  thia 
family. 

We  can  commend  the  carefulness  with  wliich  Dr-  Shimer  made  the  interesting  observations 
tvhich  he  has  given  us  on  this  insect,  but  no  man  should  undertake  to  found  new  families  without 
first  informing  himself  more  thoroughly  of  what  has  already  been  done  by  others. 

It  was  by  no  very  easy  means  that  we  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  our  Gall-'louse  is  identica\ 
Avith  the  European  species,  but  now  that  the  fact  seems  sufficiently  proved,  Planchon's  specific  nama 
iHistatrix  will  have  to  give  way  to  Fitch's  vitifoUcC,'^'  or  at  the  most  be  retained  as  a  variety. 

At  first  there  seemed  to  be  many  reasons  for  considering  the  two  insects  distinct.  First,  the 
Enrope.an  root-louse  was  exceedingly  destructive,  and  their  gall-louse  of  only  exceptional  occur- 
rence ;  while  our  gall-louse  was  very  common  and  destructive,  and  no  root-lice  were  known  to  exist 
here  at  all.  Secondly,  the  insect  found  in  the  galls  was  smooth,  while  that  on  the  roots  was  dis- 
tinctly ornamented  with  piliferous  tubercles,  and  the  two  were  suflBciently  unlike  to  cause  M. 
Lichtenstein,  who  believed  in  their  identity,  to  propose  the  term  gall-inhabiting  {gaUicole)  for  the 
One  race,  and  root-inhabiting  {radiciole)  for  the  other.  Thirdly,  our  insect  was  described  as  having 
a  one-jointed  tarsus,  whereas  M.  Signoret  described  and  figured  the  tarsus  of  the  winged  root- 
inhabiting  form  as  two-jointed.  Fourthly,  there  seemed  to  be  a  difference  even  in  the  form  of 
our  gall-inhabiting  louse  and  theirs,  as  ours  appeared  much  more  obese  and  globular  than  tlieirs,  as 
represented  in  their  figures.  All  these  apparent  differences  were  rather  calculated  to  give  rise  to 
doubts  as  to  the  identity  of  the  tvro  insects  ;  but  by  careful  observation  and  persistency  we  have 
been  enabled  to  dispel  them  all. 

First,  we  might  naturally  expect — and  those  who  believe  in  the  Darwinian  hj^pothesis  certainly 
iTould — that,  presuming  our  insect  to  have  been  imported  into  Europe,  it  would  undergo  some 
modification  in  its  habits,  not  only  because  of  change  of  climate,  but  because  of  its  having  to  live 
On  another  species  of  the  Grape-vine — all  the  European  species  belongs  to  Vitis  vinifcra.  Hence 
its  normal  habits  there,  of  feeding  on  the  roots,  may  have  been  gradually  acquired.  We  believe 
a  parallel  case  presents  itself  in  our  Apple  Root-louse  {Eriosoma  pyri,  Fitch)  and  the  Wool}'  Aphis, 
or  so-called  "American  Blight*'  {Eriosoma  lanigcra,  Ilausm).  It  is  conceded  on  almost  all  sidest 
that  the  last  insect  was  imported  into  Europe  from  this  country,  and  there  is  now  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  two  insects  are  identical,  or  that  at  furthest  they  can  only  be  considered  as  varieties 
of  one  species.  Yet  while  in  this  countrj'  our  root-'louse  is  very  injvirious  in  the  West,  and  only 
exceptionally  found  on  the  limbs  above  ground  (though  more  often  so  found  in  the  Eastern  States); 
all  authors  that  we  are  acquainted  with  have  spoken  of  it  as  occurring  solely  on  the  limbs  in  Europe; 
though  M.  Lichtenstein  informs  us  that  he  has  found  it  on  the  roots  also,  and  that  in  those  cases  it 
caused  just  such  swellings  of  the  roots  as  our  root^louse  does  here.  We  know  in  St.  Louis  of  an  old 
apple-tree,  standing  in  a  yard  where  the  ground  is  trodden  hard,  the  limbs  of  which  have  been  for 
the  past  three  years  more  or  less  affected  with  this  insect,  though  none  can  be  found  on  the  roots. 
But  where  the  ground  is  more  porous,  and  not  so  closely  pressed  to  the  roots,  it  seldom  occurs  on 
the  branches,  but  often  on  the  roots,  even  in  the  immediate  neighborhood.  Upon  the  closest 
examination  we  cannot  find  the  slightest  difference  between  the   root   and   branch-inhabiting  lice, 


there  being  red  specimens  with  unforked  nerves  (Fig  40,  j)  and  yellow  specimens  with  forked  nerves 
(Fig.  40,  k).  1  have  in  my  possession  the  very  drawing  made  by  Mr.  Cresson  from  Dr.  Shimer's 
specimen  of  viliJoUcC,  which  Mr.  Walsh  refers  to  in  his  Report,  and  which  led  Mr  W.  erroneously 
to  place  our  louse  with  the  Coccids.  The  drawing  is  rough,  evidently  imperfect,  and  well  calcu- 
lated to  mislead,  for  the  discoidal  nerve  of  the  front  wing  is  represented  more  as  a  fold,  the  fork? 
are  omitted,  and  the  costa  of  hind  wing  is  represented  perfectly  straight.  The  drawing  is  also  ac- 
companied by  Mr.  Crosson's  statement  that  he  could  not  give  any  decided  opinion  as  to  the  neura- 
tion,  as  the  wings  on  the  speciaien  were  not  spread  out. 

*  M.  .1.  Lichtenstein  has  objected  to  Fitch's  specific  name  "vitifolice"  on  the  score  of  its  bein"- 
ungrammatical,  and  has  substituted  the  term  "vi/is-foHi"  in  his  published  reports.  Now  Dr.  Fitch 
has  given  the  termination  "folia"  to  a  number  of  his  specific  names,  and  though  "folii"  would  of 
course  be  more  grammatically  correct,  one  would  suppose  the  Doctor  had  some  reason  for  his  con- 
duct. At  all  events  I  believe  it  is  perfectly  proper  to  drop  the  middle  s  in  compoundine;  llie  two 
words,  and  certain  it  is  that  Fitch's  term  has  been  adopted  by  all  subsequent  writers  in  spealun"-of 
the  insect.  Irregularities  in  entomological  nomenclature  seem  to  be  allowable,  or  at  least  are 
very  frequently  and  purposely  ])erpetrat3d  for  the  srke  of  euphon}'.  "Whatever  is,  is  right  " 
is  as  true  in  language  as  it  is  in  religion,  and  if  we  alter  citifolia:  we  must  alter  a  thousand  other 
entomological  names  that  are  not,  strictly  speaking-,  grammatically  correct.  It  is  quite  proper  to 
correct  a  faulty  name,  but  after  showing  that  it  is  faulty  it  seems  best,  to  prevent  endless  confu- 
sion, to  adopt  the  faulty  name,  and  thus  make  its  author  shoulder  the  blame,  until  he  himself  cor- 
rects it. 

f  M.  Eudes-Deslongchamps  and  M.  Blot  are  the  only  authors,  according  to  Amyot  and  Serville. 
who  believe  it  is  indigenous  to  Europe. 


^6  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

and  no  doubt  their  habitat  is  governed  somewhat  by  the  character  of  the  soil,  though  in  this  country 
their  normal  habit  is  to  attack   the  roots,  and  to  appear  above   ground  onlj^occasionly  in  the  fall. 

Secondly,  we  have  proved,  by  transferring  on  to  roots  the  young  grape-lice  hatched  from  galls, 
and  by  successfully  feeding  them  on  those  roots,  that  our  smooth  gall-iuhabiting  tj'pe  gives  birth 
to  the  tubercled  root- inhabiting  type;  and  we  have  discovered  that  our  gall  insects  take  to  the  roots 
in  the  fall,  on  which  thej' cause  the  same  cankerous  spots  and  swellings  as  does  the  vaslatrix  ot 
Europe,  and  on  which  they  evidently  hibernate  just  as  vastatrixis  known  to  do. 

Thirdly,  although  in  the  gall-inhabiting  type,  in  both  countries,  the  tarsus  seems  to  he  one- 
iointed,  yet  in  the  root  inhabiting  type  it  is  really  two-jointed  ;  for  though  the  basal  joint  is  small, 
and  not  visible  from  above,  it  is  plainly  visible  from  the  side  or  from  below  (See  Fig.  40,  b).  We 
have  here  what  certain  speculative  entomologists-- would  consider  an  excellent  illustration  of  the 
inferiority  of  Coccida?  compared  with  the  Aphida;,  namely,  a  true  Aphidian,  exhibiting  in  its  larval 
and  agamic  stage  the  one-jointed  tarsus  of  a  Coccid,  and  only  showing  the  two-jointed  tarsus  of  its 
family  in  the  more  perfected  tubercled  form,  and  in  the  winged  state.  And  this  Coccid-affinity  in 
the  less  perfect  gall-producing  state  is  sometimes  carried  still  farther,  as  we  have  often  been  unable 
to  discern  but  a  single  claw  to  the  tarsi  of  some  of  the  young  gall-inhabiting  individuals. 

Fourthly,  the  fact  that  M.  Signoret,  who  alone  has  compared  actual  specimens  from  both 
countries,  decides  them  to  be  identical,  would  sufficiently  indicate  that  the  difference  noticeable  in 
the  form  depends  on  the  observer,  and  on  the  stage  of  growth  at  which  observations  are  made. 

It  was  the  one-jointed  tarsus  in  the  gall  insect  which  no  doubt  in  part  led  Dr.  Shimer  to  pro- 
pose a  new  family  for  it,  and  it  was  this  character — coupled  with  the  facts  that  it  is  oviparous,  that 
it  does  not  secrete  any  sugary  or  flocculent  substance  (as  do  most  gall-inhabiting  Plant-lice),  and 
that  the  young  forsake  the  gall  and  scatter  over  the  leaves  as  soon  as  hatched — which  led  Mr. 
Walsh  to  consider  it  as  an  anomalous  and  aberrant  Coccid.  The  genus  Phylloxera  seems  also,  ac- 
cording to  Westwood,  to  have  been  doubtingly  introduced  into  this  family  by  Curtis  in  his  Guide. 
We  have  already  shown  that,  in  the  root-inhabiting  form,  the  two  joints  of  the  tarsus  are  plainly 
to  be  seen  ;  and  Dr.  Shimer  himself  admits*  that,  in  the  winged  insect  which  he  found  in  galls,  he 
noticed  a  constriction  on  the  under  side  of  the  tarsus,  though  he  is  unwilling  to  allow  that  it  was 
a  joint,  because  there  was  no  motion.  But  even  if  the  2-jointed  character  of  the  more  perfect 
louse  were  not  demonstrated,  all  the  other  characters  are  so  unmistakably  Aphidian  that  there  is, 
we  think,  no  warrant  in  making  a  new  family.  In  such  degraded  insects,  where  the  antennal 
joints  are  so  variable,  we  might  naturally  expect  to  find  variation  in  the  joints  of  the  legs.  The 
more  familiar  we  become  with  the  biological  secrets  of  Nature,  the  more  di)  we  find,  not  only  spe- 
cies but  genera,  and  even  families,  approaching  each  other  through  modifications  found  in  indi- 
viduals;  and  these  aberrant  gall-lice  only  help  to  give  us  a  better  idea  of  the  close  connection  be- 
tween tlie  CoccidcB  and  Aphida.  Our  Phylloxera  brings  the  two  families  close  together,  by  its  affin- 
ities on  the  one  side  with  Chennes  of  Linnseus,  which,  though  looked  upon  as  a  Coccid  by  Katze- 
burg,  is  generally  considered  an  Aphidian,  and  on  the  other  with  the  Coccidan  genus  Dac.'yl  ipius 
which  contains  Linna;us's  Cocctn  adonidum.  The  oviparous  nature  of  these  gall-lice  will  also  have 
less  significance  when  v?e  reflect  that  there  is  a  sort  of  gradation  in  this  process,  and  that  many 
Plant-lice  which  are  considered  viviparous  or  ovoviparous  do  in  reality  bring  forth  their  young 
enveloped  in  a  more  or  le.ss  distinct  egg-like  film  or  covering,  from  which  they  have  to  free  them- 
selves by  a  process  analogous  to  that  of  hatching.  This  has  not  only  been  observed  by  Curtis,  in 
the  case  of  an  Aphis  found  on  the  turnip, f  but  by  Dr.  Wm.  Manlius  Smith,  of  Manlius,  N.  Y.,X  in 
the  case  of  Pemphigus ;  but  we  have,  the  present  year,  assured  ourselves  of  the  accuracy  of  Dr. 
Manlius's  observation  as  to  Pemphigus,  and  witnessed  the  same  thing  in  Eiiosomo,  namely  in  E. 
pyri,  Fitch.  In  this  last  case  the  newly  deposited  louse  (or  egg)  remains  motionless  for  a  conside- 
rable time ;  and  the  covering,  after  the  young  louse  has  extricated  itself  from  it,  may  be  as  dis- 
tinctly seen  attached  to  the  end  of  its  body  as  the  covering  or  egg-shell  of  our  Grape  gall-louse, 
and  was  figured  by  Fitch,  who  mistook  it  for  the  »;otton-liko  matter,  which,  however,  is  not  secre- 
ted till  the  louse  fastens  itself  and  begins  to  grow.f  Moreover  those  Aphidians  which  are  vivipa- 
rous through  the  spring  and  aummer  months,  generally  lay  eggs  in  the  fall;  and  though  agnmous 
and  viviparous  multiplication  can  be  prolonged  by  submitting  the  lice  to  a  continued  artificially 
warm  tempi=rature,  there  is  doubtless  a  limit  to  this  prolongation  ;  and  it  may  bs  laid  down  as  a 
rule  that,  with  most  Aphidians,  tlie  (^  element  and  the  production  \)i  eggs  are,  at  some  time  or 
other,  indispensable  to  the  continuance  of  the  species. 

*Characters  of  a  Supposed  New  Family,  p.  3. 
tFarm  Insects,  p.  66> 

Lvuctore  Walsh,  P.  E.  S.  P.  VI,  p.  SS2,  nots. 
|N.  W  Rep.  I,  p.  9. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  97 

THE  COLORADO  POTATO  BEETLE  AGAIN. 

THE   BEST  MEANS  OF  FIGHTING  IT — A  WOKD  TO    OUR  CANADIAN   NEIGHBORS. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  onward  march  of  this  destructive  insect, 
and  to  lay  before  the  reader  the  experience  that  has  been  gained  since 
the  publication  of  my  first  Report,  I  transmit  the  following  article 
from  the  American  Entomologist  of  last  September. 

Last  July,  while  spending  a  few  days  in  Ontario,  we  ascertained 
that  this  most  destructive  insect  had  just  invaded  the  Dominion  at 
two  different  points,  namely,  near  Point  Edward,  at  the  extreme  south 
of  Lake  Huron,  and  opposite  Detroit,  near  Windsor,  at  the  south- 
western corner  of  Lake  St.  Clair.  These  are  precisely  the  two  points 
at  which  we  should  naturally  expect  to  first  meet  with  it  on  the  Can- 
adian border;  for  all  such  beetles  as  fly  into  either  of  the  lakes  from 
the  Michigan  side  would  naturally  be  drifted  to  these  points.  As  we 
know  from  experience,  many  insects  that  are  either  quite  rare,  or  en- 
tirely unknown  on  the  western  side  of  Lake  Michigan,  are  frequently 
washed  up  along  the  Lake  shore  at  Chicago;  and  these  are  so  often 
alive  and  in  good  condition,  and  so  often  in  great  numbers,  that  the 
Lake  shore  is  considered  excellent  collecting  ground  by  entomol- 
ogists. In  like  manner  grasshoppers  are  often  washed  up  on  the 
shores  of  Salt  Lake,  in  Utah,  in  such  countless  numbers  that  the  stench 
from  their  decomposing  bodies  pollutes  the  atmosphere  for  miles 
around.  We  have  not  the  least  doubt,  therefore,  in  view  of  these 
facts,  that  the  Colorado  Potato  Beetle  could  survive  a  sufficient 
length  of  time  to  be  drifted  alive  to  Point  Edward,  if  driven  into  Lake 
Huron  anywhere  within  twenty  or  thirty  miles  of  that  place,  or  if 
beaten  down  anywhere  within  the  same  distance  while  attempting  to 
cross  the  lake.* 

How  truly  is  Mr.  Walsh's  prophecy  being  fulfilled,  that  the  north- 
ern columns  of  this  great  army  would  spread  far  more  rapidly  than 
the  lagging  southern  columns. f 

Now,  what  will  our  Canadian  brethren  do  ?  Will  they  stand  by 
and  listlessly  see  this  pernicious  insect  spread  over  their  territory 
like  a  devouring  flame,  as  it  has  done  over  the  Western  and  Central 
States  ;  or  will  they  make  some  determined  and  united  effort  to  pre- 
vent such  a  catastrophe  ?  Of  one  thing  our  friends  across  the  border 
may  re&t  assured — they  have  not  here  a  sham  and  braggart  Fenian 
army  to  deal  with,  but   an  army  which  knows  no  retreat,  and  whose 

*The  following  item  which  was  clipped  from  the  St.  Joseph  (Mich.)  Herald,  after  the  above 
was  written,  attests  the  accuracy  of  the  inference  : — "Whoever  has  walked  on  this  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  has  observed  large  numbers  of  the  Colorado  potato  beetle,  crawling  from  the  water. 
Many  have  doubted  the  source  whence  they  came.  It  would  seem  from  the  following  that  they  fly, 
and  swim  from  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  Capt.  John  Boyne  of  the  Lizzie  Doak,  re- 
ports finding  his  deck  and  sails  infested  with  potato  bugs  when  half  way  from  Chicago  toSt. . 
Joseph  at  night.    Not  a  bug  was  on  deck  when  the  schooner  left  Chicago." 

f Practical  Entomologist,  1,  p.  14. 

S  E— 7 


98  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

embers,  though  of  small  and  insignificant  stature,  will  fully  make 
up  in  number  what  they  lack  in  size. 

When  we  calculate  the  immense  loss,  amounting  to  millions  of 
dollars,  which  this  insect  has  cost  the  Western  States  during  the  past 
nine  or  ten  years — when  we  contrast  the  healthful  and  thrifty  aspect 
of  the  potato  fields  in  Ontario  and  in  those  States  to  which  this  potato 
plague  has  not  yet  spread,  with  the  sickly,  denuded,  or  Paris-green- 
besmeared  fields  at  home — but  above  all  when  we  reflect  that,  noth- 
ing preventing,  it  will  infest  the  whole  of  Ontario  within,  perhaps,  the 
next  two,  and  at  farthest  within  the  next  three  years — we  feel  that  it 
is  high  time  to  make  some  effort  to  prevent  its  onward  march  through 
Ontario,  if  ever  such  an  effort  is  to  be  made.  The  warnings  and  in- 
structions given  by  the  Agricultural  press,  and  through  our  own  col- 
umns, will  avail  but  little,  as  they  reach  the  few  only.  It  may  be,  and 
doubtless  is,  true  that  successful  culture,  as  our  country  becomes 
more  thickly  settled,  will  be  confined  to  the  intelligent  and  well-in- 
formed; yet  the  fact  nevertheless  remains,  that  the  masses  will  do 
nothing  to  ward  off  an  evil  until  they  are  forced  to  it  from  necessity. 
The  plodding,  non-reading  farmer  will  take  no  notice  of  the  few  bugs 
he  first  sees  in  his  potato  field,  because  they  do  him  no  material  in- 
jury ;  but  when  the  bugs  have  increased  so  as  to  make  it  a  question  of 
"potatoes  or  no  potatoes  ''  with  him,  then  his  energies  will  be  aroused. 
But  alas!  his  best  efforts,  at  this  time,  often  prove  unavailing,  and  he 
has  to  spend  days  to  accomplish  that  which  a  few  minutes  would  have 
accomplished  before.  We  therefore  fully  expect  to  see  this  great 
army  of  bugs  continue  its  eastward  march  without  hindrance,  unless 
other  preventive  measures  are  taken  than  those  already  employed. 
A  standing  premium  offered  by  the  Minister  of  Agriculture,  Mr. 
Carding,  for  a  given  number  of  beetles,  or  for  the  greatest  number 
collected  and  killed  in  o«e  season,  or  for  the  cleanest  and  best  field 
•of  potatoes,  of  a  given  number  of  acres,  within  the  infested  districts 
along  the  eastern  shores  of  the  lakes  mentioned  and  those  of  the  St. 
Clair  river;  might,  and  undoubtedly  would,  be  the  best  means  of 
stamping  it  out,  and  of  keeping  it  out  of  the  Dominion.* 

No  doubt  that,  in  suggesting  any  expenditure  of  money  for  such 
purposes,  our  Canadian  brethren  will  deem  us  over-enthusiastic  about 
"•small  things,"  and  over-anxious  for  their  welfare.  Well,  be  that  as 
it  may,  we  don't  forget  that  there  is  considerable  of  Uncle  Sam's  ter- 
ritory beyond  Niagara.  It  is  a  mere  matter  of  dollars  and  cents,  and 
we  venture  to  say  that,  when  once  this  insect  shall  have  spread  over 
Ontario,  a  million  dollars  would  be  freely  spent  to  accomplish  that 
which  will  then  be  almost  impossible,  and  which  a  very  few  thou- 
sands would  effectually  accomplish  now — namely,  its  extermination 
from  the  Dominion. 

An  excellent  chance  is  now  afforded  in  Ontario — almost  sur- 
rounded as  it  is  by  lakes — to  keep  this  destructive  enemy  at  bay.  In 
the  summer  of  1869,  reports  of  this  insect's  ravages,  and  of  its  prog- 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST,  99 

S'ess  eastward,  came  thick  from  Wisconsin  and  Indiana;  but  no  or- 
ganized effort  was  made  to  cliecl?;  it,  and  indeed  there  was  very  little 
chance  of  doing  so.  )!t  is  fast  spreading  through  Ohio  ;  and  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Trimble  of  New  Jersey,  has  already  reached  Pennsylvania. 
Uncle  Sam  cannot  well  prevent  its  spread  around  the  southern  shore 
t)f  Lake  Erie,  through  Pennsylvania  and  eastward;  but,  if  it  can  be 
eifGctuaJly  resisted  between  Point  Edward  and  the  Detroit  river, 
there  will  be  little  difficulty  in  preventing  its  crossing  at  Niagara. 
A  victory  would  indeed  be  gained  if,  by  intelligent  effort,  this  griev- 
ous pest  could  be  kept  out  of  Upper  Canada,  while  it  is  devastating 
the  potato  fields  on  all  sides  in  the  iStates;  and  Minister  Carding 
would  add  to  his  well-deserved  popularity  by  making  the  effort, 
whether  it  succeeds  or  not. 

PARIS   GREEN  A  REMEDY. 

While  on  this  subject  it  may  be  well  to  say  a  few  words  about  the 
\ise  of  Paris  green.  This  substance  lias  now  become  THE  remedy 
for  the  Colorado  Potato  Beetle,  and  it  is  the  best  yet  discovered. 
Having  thoroughly  tested  it  ourselves,  and  having  seen  it  exten- 
sively used,  we  can  freely  say  that,  when  applied  judiciously,  it  is  effi- 
cient and  harmless.  If  used  pure  and  too  abundantly,  it  will  kill  the 
vines  as  effectually  as  would  the  bugs,  for  it  is  nothing  but  arseniteof 
copper  (often  called  '^Scheele's  green"  by  druggists),  and  contains  a 
varied  proportion  of  arsenious  acid,  according  to  its  quality — often  as 
much  as  fifty-nine  per  cent.,  according  to  Erande  &  Taylor.  But  when 
used  with  six  to  twelve  parts,  either  of  flour,  ashes,  plaster  or  slacked 
lime,  it  causes  no  serious  injury  to  the  foliage,  and  just  as  effectually 
■kills  the  bugs.  Tlie  varied  success  attending  its  use,  as  reported 
through  our  many  agricultural  papers,  must  be  attributed  to  the  dif- 
ference in  the  quality  of  the  drug. 

We  hear  many  fears  expressed  that  this  poison  may  be  washed 
into  the  soil,  absorbed  by  the  rootlets,  and  thus  poison  the  tubers; 
but  persons  who  entertain  such  fears  forget  that  they  themselves 
often  apply  to  the  ground,  as  nourishment  for  the  vines,  either  ani- 
mal, vegetable  or  mineral  substances  that  are  nauseous,  or  even  poi- 
sonous to  us.  Animal  and  vegetable  substances,  of  whatsoever  na- 
ture, must  be  essentially  changed  in  character  and  rendered  harmless 
before  they  can  be  converted  into  healthy  tubers,  and  a  mineral  poi- 
son could  only  do  harm  by  being  taken  with  the  potatoes  to  the  ta- 
ble. That  any  substance,  sprinkled  either  on  the  vines  or  on  the 
ground,  would  ever  accompany  to  the  table  a  vegetable  which  de- 
velops underground,  and  which  is  always  well  cooked  before  use,  Ib 

®  The  Rev.  C.  J.  S.  Bethune,  in  the  Canada  Farmer  for  October  15th,  1S70,  also  recommended 
the  marking;  o£F  of  a  tract  of  country  about  ten  mile?  in  width,  all  along  the  border  line  betnten 
the  Joot  of  Lake  Huron  and  the  ht-ad  of  Lake  Erie,  with  the  exception,  possibly,  of  a  portion  of 
the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  8t.  Clair,  and  stopping  the  culture  of  tlie  jjolato  throughout  that  wI;ole 
%ract  during  the  prevalence  of  the  pest  ia  the  ueighboring  State  of  Michigan. 


loo  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

rendered  highly  improbable.  There  can  be  no  danger  in  the  use  of 
sound  tubers.  But  the  wise  and  well-informed  cultivator  will  seldom 
need  to  have  recourse  to  Paris  green,  as  he  will  find  it  more  profitable 
to  use  the  dift'erent  preventive  measures  that  have  from  time  to  time 
been  recommended  in  these  colums. 

The  poison  may  do  harm,  however,  by  being  carelessly  used,  and 
it  is  most  safely  applied  when  attached  to  the  end  of  a  stick  several 
feet  long,  and  should  not  be  used  where  children  are  likely  to  play. 

NATURAL   CHECKS    INCREASING. 

In  many  parts  of  the  West  this  insect  is  being  kept  in  due  check  by 
_[Fig.  41.]  ^its  cannibal  and  parasitic  enemies,  which  are  still  increasing. 
Thus  we  learn  from  many  sources  that  in  Iowa  and  Kansas  it 
is  not  nearly  so  injurious  as  it  formerly  was,  while  in  some 
parts  of  Illinois  and  Missouri  it  has  also  become  less  trou- 
"^^.blesome.  Last  year  Mr.  T.  Glover  published  the  fact  that 
the  Great  Lebia  {Lehia  grandis-,  Hentz,  Fig,  41)  was  found 
devouring  its  larvae,*  and  though  hitherto  considered  rare  this  Lebia 
has  suddely  fallen  upon  it  the  present  year  in  many  parts  of  Missouri. 
During  a  recent  trip  along  the  Missouri  Bottom  we  found  this  canni- 
bal very  abundant  in  some  potato  fields  belonging  to  Mr.  Wm.  Cole- 
man, where  it  was  actively  engaged  in  destroying  both  the  eggs  and 
larvEB  of  the  Potato  Beetles.  The  head,  thorax  and  legs  of  this  canni- 
bal are  yellowish-brown,  in  high  contrast  with  its  dark-blue  wing- 
covers. 

This  makes  fourteen  conspicuous  enemies  of  our  Colorado  Potato 
Beetle  which  we  have  figured,  and  a  dozen  more,  mostly  of  small  size 
and  inconspicuous  markings,  might  easily  be  added  to  the  list.  More- 
over, chickens  have  learned  to  relish  the  eggs,  and  have  even 
acquired  a  taste  for  the  young  larvas.  So  we  need  not  wonder  that 
the  army  is  being  decimated  in  those  States  first  invaded  by  it. 

BOGUS    EXPERIMENTS. 

It  was  recently  reported  to  us  that  a  neighbor  had  succeeded  in 
driving  away  all  his  Potato  bugs  by  strewing  Elder  branches  among 
the  vines.  We  went  to  examine  the  field  and  found  our  friend  enthu- 
siastic over  his  discovery;  and  indeed  though  the  vines  were  nearly 
devoured,  there  were  but  a  few  full  grown  larvee  to  be  found.  But,  as 
he  could  not  tell  us  what  had  become  of  the  "slugs,"  we  undertook  to 
show  him  where  they  had  gone,  and  after  digging  a  few  moments  with 
a  trowel,  unearthed  dozens  of  them,  the  majority  in  the  pupa,  but  a 
few  yet  in  the  larva  state.  Our  neighbor  had,  in  fact,  been  misled  by 
appearances,  for  want  of  better  knowledge  of  his  enemy.  The  larvae 
as  they  acquired  their  growth  suddenly  became  so  destructive,  that 
to  save  his  vines  he  was  obliged  to  try  some  means  of  killing  them, 

*  Dept.  of  Agr.  Rep.  1868,  p.  81. 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  101 

a^d  as  an  experiment  he  tried  the  Elder.  The  larvae  were  just  ready 
to  disappear  of  their  own  accord,  and  as  the  great  bulk  of  them  did 
really  disappear  in  two  or  three  days  after  the  application,  the  appar- 
ently logical  inference  was  made  that  they  had  been  driven  away  by 
the  smell  of  the  Elder. 

How  many  of  the  published  remedies  that  flood  the  country  owe 
their  origin  to  just  such  defective  proof  !  The  sun-scorching  remedy, 
which  consists  of  knocking  the  bugs  off  the  vines  on  to  the  heated 
ground  between  the  rows,  and  which  has  been  so  often  recommended 
the  present  year,  partakes  a  good  deal  of  this  character;  for  it  can 
only  be  of  benefit  in  a  very  dry  season,  and  at  a  time  of  year  when 
the  bugs  have  done  most  of  their  damage.  A  goodly  proportion  of 
the  larvae  that  are  thus  knocked  off  will  always  manage  to  burrow 
into  the  ground  and  transform,  or  to  get  back  upon  the  vines  j.  and 

TIIE   TRUE   REMEDY 

consists  in  preventing  them  from  becoming  numerous  so  late  in  the 
season.  Watch  for  the  beetles  in  early  spring,  when  the  vines  are 
just  peeping  out  of  the  ground.  Ensnare  as  many  of  them  as  you  can 
before  they  get  a  chance  to  pair,  by  making  a  few  small  heaps  of  po- 
tatoes in  the  field  planted  :  to  these  the  beetles  will  be  attracted  for 
food,  and  you  can  easily  kill  them  in  the  morning.  Keep  an  eagle 
ej'^e  for  the  eggs  which  are  first  deposited.  Cultivate  well,  by  fre- 
quently stirring  the  soil.  Plant  early  varieties  in  preference  to  late 
ones  because  the  bugs  are  always  more  numerous  late  in  the  season 
than  they  are  during  the  spring  and  early  summer.  Give  the  prefer- 
ence to  the  Peach  Blow,  Early  Rose  and  such  other  varieties  as  have 
been  found  most  exempt  from  attack,*  and  surround  your  fields  on 
the  outside  by  rows  of  such  tender-leaved  varieties  as  the  Mercen 
Shaker,  Kusset,  Pink-eye  and  Early  Goodrich  ;  but,  above  all,  isolate 
your  potato  field  as  much  as  possible,  either  by  using  land  surrounded 
with  timber,  or  by  planting  in  the  centre  of  a  cornfield.  Carry  out 
these  suggestions  thoroughly  and  you  will  not  have  much  use  for 
Paris  green  -and  still  less  for  the  scorching  remedy. 


THE  CODLING  MOTH  AQAm.—  Carpocapsapomonella.Unn, 

HAY-BANDS  VS.  RAGfS — ALWAYS   TWO-DROODED    IN  MISSOURI. 

After  a  series  of  experiments,  instituted  the  past  summer,  I  have 
proved  that,  after  all,  the  hay-band  around  the  trunk  of  the  tree  is  a 

••- After  experimenting-  last  summer  with  eighty-one  varieties  of  potatoes,  the  Superintendent 
of  the  garden  of  the  Iowa  Agricultural  College  reports  the  varieties  of  the  Peach  Blow,  the 
Peerless  and  Chili  No.  2,  as  most  exempt  from  the  xarag-es  of  this  insect,  the  last  named  variety 
i3iot  being  vyorked  upon  at  all. 


102  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

more  effectual  trap  for  the  Apple-worm  than  the  rags  placed  in  the 
forli,  of  the  tree.  Tliere  is  no.  superiority  in  the  rags  over  the  hay- 
band,  unless  the  former  are  made  to  encxircle  the  tree  as  thoroutzhly 
as  the  latter.  Where  rags  are  placed  simply  in  the  forks,  many  or' the 
worms  pass  down  the  tree  from  the  outside  of  the  branches.  If  the 
rag  is  tied  around  the  trunk,  it  will  impede  almost  every  worm  tliat 
crawls  down  the  tree  from  the  fruit  which  hangs  on,  or  that  crawls  up 
the  trunk  from  the  fruit  which  alls;  and  it  then  has  a  decided  advan- 
tage over  the  hay  band,  because  it  can  either  be  passed  through  a 
roller  or  scalded,  and  used  again. 

It  has  been  very  generally  accepted  in  this  country  that  the  Cod- 
ling Moth  is  double-brooded,  and  in  all  my  writings  on  the  subject  I 
have  stated  it  to  be  so,  though  no  one,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  ever 
proved  such  to  be  the  case  beyond  a  doubt.  Mr.  P.  0.  Zeller,  of  Stet- 
tin, Prussia,  informed  me  last  winter  that  it  is  only  single-brooded  in 
that  part  of  the  world,  and  Harris  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  it  is 
mostly  so  in  Massachusetts.  Now,  such  may  not  improbably  be  th& 
case  in  northern  Prussia,  and  the  more  northern  of  the  United  States,. 
though  I  incline  to  believe  otherwise.  At  all  events,  this  insect  is- 
invariably  double-brooded  in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  and  its  natural 
history  may  be  briefly  told  as  follows:  The  first  moths  appear,  and 
begin  to  lay  their  eggs,  soon  after  the  young  apples  begin  to  form. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  worms  which  hatch  from  these  eggs  leave  the^ 
fruit  from  the  middle  of  May  to  the  middle  of  June.  These  spin  up,, 
and  in  from  two  to  three  weeks  produce  moths,  which  pair  and  in  their 
turn  commence,  in  a  few  days,  to  lay  eggs  again.  The  worms  (second 
brood)  from  these  eggs  leave  the  fruit,  some  of  them  as  early  as  the 
first  of  September,  others  as  late  as  Christmas.  In  either  case  they 
spin  their  cocoons  as  soon  as  they  have  left  the  apples,  but  do  not  as- 
sume the  pupa  state  till  towards  spring — the  moths  from  the  late  ma- 
tured worms  appearing  almost  as  early  as  those  from  the  earlier  ma- 
tured ones.  The  two  broods  interloc  so  thafc  in  July  worms  of  both 
maybe  found  in  the  fruit  of  one  and  the  same  tree.  1  have  repeat' 
edly  taken  worms  of  the  first  brood,  bred  the  moths  from  them,  and 
obtained  from  these  m  ths  the  second  brood  of  worms  ;  and  I  have 
done  this  both  on  enclosed  fruit  hanging  on  the  tree  in  the  open  air,, 
and  on  plucked  fruit  in-doors.  In  the  latter  experiments  the  moths 
would  often  cover  an  apple  with  eggs,  so  that  when  the  worms 
hatched  they  would  enter  from  all  sides,  and  soon  so  thoroughly  per- 
forate and  devour  the  fruit  as  to  die  of  starvation.  This  is  a  clear 
case  of  misdirected  instinct  in  the  parent,  caused  doubtless  by  con- 
finement. 

Prom  the  foregoing  facts,  it  becomes  obvious  that  the  rags  or  the- 
hay-band  should  be  kept  around  the  tree,  say  from  the  first  of  May 
till  the  fruit  is  all  off;  and  to  be  thoroughly  effectual,  the  insects  col- 
lected in  or  under  them  should  be  destroyed  regularly  every  fortnight, 
during  that  time. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  103 

There  is  a  fact  connected  with  the  Codling  Moth  which,  though  of 
interest  to  entomologists  is  not  generally  known,  and  has  never  been 
published  in  this  country.  It  has  always  been  difficult  to  distinguish 
the  sexes  of  this  moth,  but  there  is  an  infallible  index  recently  pointed 
out  by  Mr.  Zeller  inhis  "Lepidopterologische  BeobachLungen  im  jahre 
1S70."  It  consists  of  a  black  pencil  or  tuft  of  hairs  of  considerable 
length  on  the  upper  surface  of  the  hind  wings.  It  springs  from  a 
point  close  to  the  base  of  the  wing  and  by  the  side  of  the  median 
nervure,  and  lies  in  a  groove  running  alongside  ot  that  nervure  to 
about  half  the  width  of  the  wing,  the  groove  forming  a  distinct  carina 
on  the  under  surface.  The  tuft  when  closely  fitted  into  this  groove  is 
not  easily  noticed,  but  since  my  attention  has  been  drawn  to  it,  I 
have  readily  detected  it  on  all  ray  cabinet  specimens,  and  it  can  easily 
be  raised  by  the  point  of  a  needle. 

Thus  we  find  that  important  features  are  often  revealed  upon 
close  scrutiny  of  our  commonest  insects,  and  the  fact  that  this  fea- 
ture was  so  long  overlooked  in  our  Codling  Moth  should  teach  us  to 
be  all  the  more  careful  and  cautious  in  our  examinations  and  descrip- 
tions. Two  similar  instances  of  general  oversight  of  common  features 
in  common  insects  were  pointed  out  to  me  last  fall  by  that  excellent 
observer,  Mr.  J.  A.  Lintner,  of  the  Agricultural  [looms,  Albany,  N.Y.> 
"who  ascertained  the  facts  that  in  the  Butterfly  genus  Argynnis  the 
males  have  invariably  a  beautiful  fringe  of  hair  on  the  sub-costa  of 
the  hind  wings,  while  the  females  have  not;  and  that  in  the  genus 
Grapta  the  males  have  hairy  front  legs  while  the  females  have  not.* 

In  my  first  Report  (p.  65)  I  mentioned  as  an  excepLional  occur- 
rence that  this  insect  had  been  found  quite  injurious  to  plums  around 
London,  Ontario ;  but  it  has  not  hitherto  been  recorded  as  infesting 
peaches.  Mr.  Huron  Burt,  of  Williamsburg,  Callaway  county,  in- 
forms me,  however,  that  three-fourths  of  the  peaches  in  his  vicinity 
were  infested  with  this  worm,  and  that  it  was  more  abundant  in  this 
stone-fruit  than  in  apples,  though  its  gnawings  in  the  former  are  not 
followed  by  the  same  serious  consequences  as  they  are  in  the  latter. 
In  the  peach  the  worm  always  lives  near  the  stone,  and  bores  no 
other  holes  through  the  flesh  than  the  one  required  for  egress,  and 
the  excrement  is  packed  close  to  the  stone,  so  that  the  fruit  is  gener- 
ally but  little  injured  for  eating,  cooking,  drying  or  other  purposes. 
Mr.  Burt  did  not  actually  breed  the  moths  from  these  peach-inhabit- 
ing worms,  but  as  he  is  one  of  my  most  valued  correspondents  and  an 
excellent  observer  and  has  paid  considerable  attention  to  insectss,  I 
have  little  doubt  but  that  he  is  correct  in  concluding  that  they  were 
the  larvae  of  the  Coddling  Moth,  the  more  especially  as  he   lia^^  fiir- 

*  The  first  mentioned  feature,  ns  a  secondary  sexual  character,  has  \'tf\%  since  been  pointed 
out,  and  according  to  Mr.  H.  W.  Bates  (Trans.  Linn.  Ent.  -Soc  ,  Vol.  XXIII,  p.  602,  1861)  is  com- 
mon to  all  rlie  tropical  genera  but  two  (Lycoiea  and  Iluno)  composing  the  lianoid  Helicotndm.  Yet 
Mr,  Lintner's  observation  is  certainly  original  in  this  country,  lor,  striking  and  us'fnl  as  the 
feature  is  as  a  sexual  characteristic,  it  is  never  given  in  the  beautil'ul  plates  of  Mr.  Edwards's 
"Butterflies  of  North  America." 


104  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

nished  me,  in  detail,  his  reasons  for  this  conclusion  ;  but  until  the 
matter  is  settled  beyond  all  doubt  it  would  be  premature  to  speculate 
farther  on  such  a  new  and  remarkable  habit  in  such  a  common  and 
well  known  insect. 


THE  CORN- WORM,  «?^6^s  BOLL-W ORM—Beliothis  armigera,  Hub- 

ner. 

(Lepicloptera^  Noctuidoa.) 

This  is  a  worm  which  is  every  year  more  or  less  destructive  to  our 
corn  in  the  ear,  and  which  was  this  year  very  injurious  in  many  sec- 
tions. 

It  has  a  very  wide  range,  and  a  Mr.  Bond,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
London  (England)  Entomological  Society,  on  March  1st,  ISGJ,  exhib- 
ited specimens  of  the  moth  from  the  Isle  of  Wight;  from  Japan,  and 
from  Australia;  and,  as  might  be  expected  from  its  extended  habitat, 
ihe  insect  is  a  very  general  feeder.  The  "  Boll- worm"  has  become  a 
by-word  in  all  the  Southern  cotton-grov/ing  States,  and  the  "  Corn- 
worm  "  is  a  like  familiar  term  in  those  States,  as  well  as  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  Union  ;  but  few  persons  suspect  that  these  two  Avorras — 
the  one  feeding  on  the  corn,  the  other  on  the  cotton-boil — are  identi- 
cally the  same  insect,  producing  exactly  the  same  species  of  moth. 
But  such  is  the  fact,  as  I  myself  first  experimentally  proved  in  1864. 
It  attacks  corn  in  the  ear,  at  first  feeding  on  the  "silk,"  but  afterwards 
devouring  the  kernels  at  the  terminal  end  ;  being  securely  sheltered 
the  while  within  the  husk.  I  have  seen  whole  fields  of  corn  nearly 
ruined  in  this  way,  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  but  nowhere  have  I 
known  it  to  be  so  destructive  as  in  Southern  Illinois.  Here,  as  in  our 
own  State,  there  are  two  broods  of  the  worms  during  the  year,  and  very 
early  and  very  late  corn  fare  the  worst;  moderately  late  and  moder- 
ately early  varieties  usually  escaping.  I  was  formerly  of  the  opinion 
that  this  worm*  could  not  live  on  hard  corn,  and  it  certainly  does 
generally  disappear  before  the  corn  fully  ripens,  but  last  fall  Mr. 
James  Harkness,  of  St.  Louis,  brought  me,  as  late  as  the  latter  part  of 
October,  from  a  corn  field  on  the  Illinois  bottom,  a  number  of  large 
and  well  ripened  ears,  each  containing  from  one  to  five  worms  of  dif- 
ferent sizes,  subsisting  and  flourishing  on  the  hard  kernels.  This  is, 
however,  an  exceptional  occurrence,  brought  about,  no  doubt,  by  the 
long  protracted  warm  weather  which  we  had,  and  the  worms  were  in 
all  probability  a  third  brood. 

«  Am.  Ent.  T,  p.  212. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


105 


This  glutton  is  not  even  satisfied  with  ravaging  these  two  great 
stai)les  of  the  country — cotton  and  corn — but,  as  I  discovered  in  18G7, 
it  voraciously  attacks  the  tomato  in  South  Illinois,  eating  into  the 
green  fruit,  (Fig.  42),  and  thereby  causing  such  fruit  to  rot.    In  this 

manner  it  often  causes 
serious  loss  to  the  tomato- 
grower,  and  it  may  justly 
be  considered  the  worst 
enemy  to  the  tomato  in 
that  section  of  the  country. 
Mr.  Glover  also  found  it 
^feeding  in.a  young  pump- 
kin, and  it  has  been  ascer- 
tained by  Mrs.  Mary  Treat 
of  Vineland,  New  Jersey, 
---.^^L^mi.,,;       .    ,E^g^gggg_^  not  only  to  feed  upon  the 

■  "="?^^  _7^;r-^^^  "  undeveloped     tassels     of 

corn  and  upon  green  peas,  but  to  bore  into  the  stems  of  the  garden  flower 
known  as  Gladiolus,  and  in  confinement  to  eat  ripe  tomatoes.  Last 
summer  it  was  also  found  by  Miss  M.  E.  Murtfeldt  in  common  string 
beans,  around  Kirkwood,  and  in  Europe  it  is  recorded  by  M.  Ch.  Gou- 
reau*  as  not  only  infesting  the  ears  of  Indian  corn,  but  as  devouring 
the  heads  of  hemp,  and  leaves  of  tobacco,  and  of  lucern.  The  fact  of 
its  attacking  a  kind  of  pea,  namely,  the  chick-pea  or  coifee-pea  ( Cicer 
arietimnn)  has  also  been  recorded  by  M.  J.  Fallou  (See  Insectologie 
^^/ ^V6>^(?,  1869,  p.  205)  in  certain  parts  of  France,  the  young  worms 
feeding  on  the  leaves  but  the  larger  individuals  boring  through  the 
pods  and  devouring  the  peas. 

Thus  it  seems  to  be  almost  as  promiscuous  in  its  tastes  as  the 
Stalk-borer  {Goriyna  nitela^  Guen.),  which  burrows  in  the  stalks  of 
the  Potato,  of  the  Tomato,  of  the  Dahlia,  of  the  Aster  and  other  garden 
flowers,  of  the  common  Oocklebur  and  of  Indian  corn,  besides  boring 
into  green  corn-cobs  and  eating  into  green  tomatoes  and  ripe  straw- 
berries, and  in  a  single  instance  in  Missouri  eating  into  peach  twigs, 
and  in  Illinois  inhabiting  the  twigs  of  the  Black  Currant. f 

But  for  the  present  we  will  consider  this  insect  only  in  the  two 
roles  of  Boll-worm  and  Corn-worm,  because  it  is  as  such  that  it  inter- 
ests the  practical  man  most  deeply. 

The  egg  from  which  the  worm  hatches  (Fig.  43,  a  side  view;  5, 
top  view  magnified)  is  ribbed  in  a  somewhat  similar  manner  to  that 
of  the  Cotton-worni;  figured  in  my  Second  Report  (p.  38)  but  may 
readily  be  distinguished  by  being  less  flattened,  and  of  a  pale  straw 
color   instead  of  green.   It  is  usually  deposited  singly  on  the  outside 


*  Imectes  Nuisibles,  2ncl  supplement,  ISfio,  p.  132. 
t  See  Am.  Ent.  I.  p.  2CG  ;  11.  p.  13, 


106 


THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


of  the  involucel  or  outer  calj^x  of  the  flower  or  young  boll,  and  each 
'^^'^•^^''•^  female  moth    is    capable    of 

thus  consigning  to  their 
proper  places,  upwards  of  five 
hundred  eggs.  Mr.  Glover,  in 
his  account  of  the  Boll-worm, 
published  in  the  Monthly  Re- 
port of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  for  July,  1866, 
says  :  "  Some  eggs  of  the 
Boll-worm  moth  hatched  in 
three  or  four  days  after  being 
brought  in  from  the  field,  the 
enclosed  worms  gnawing  a 
hole  through  the  shell  of 
the  egg  and  then  escaping. 
I'hey  soon  commenced  feed- 
ing upon  the  tender  fleshy 
substance  of  the  calyx,  near 
the  place  where  the  egg;  had  been  deposited.  When  they  had 
gained  strength,  some  of  the  worms  pierced  through  the  calyx, 
and  others  tiiroiigh  the  petals  of  the  closed  flower-bud,  or  even  pene- 
trated into  the  young  and  tender  boll  itself.  The  pistils  and  stamens 
of  the  open  flower,  are  frequently  found  to  be  distorted  and  injured 
without  any  apparent  cause.  This  has  been  done  by  the  young  Boll- 
worm  ;  when  hidden  in  the  unopened  bud,  it  has  eaten  one  side  only  of 
the  pistils  ;>nil  stamens,  so  that  when  the  flower  is  open  the  parts  in- 
jured are  distf)rted  and  maimed,  and  very  frequently  the  flower  falls 
without  forming  any  boll  whatever.  In  many  cases,  however,  the 
yonng  worm  bores  through  the  bottom  of  the  flower  into  the  imma- 
ture boll  before  the  old  flower  falls,  thus  leaving  the  boll  and  involu- 
cel or  envelope  still  adhering  to  the  foot-stalk,  with  the  w^orm  safely 
lodiied  in  the  growing  boll.  The  number  of  buds  destroyed  by  this 
worm  is  very  great,  as  they  fall  off  when  quite  small,  and  are  scarcely 
observed  as  they  lie  brown  and  withering  on  the  ground  beneath  the 
plant.  The  instinct  of  the  Boll-worm,  however,  teaches  it  to  forsake 
a  bud  or  boll  about  to  fall,  and  either  to  seek  another  healthy  boll,  or 
to  fasten  itself  to  a  leaf,  on  which  it  remains  until  at  length  it  ac- 
quires size  and  strength  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  bore  into  the  nearly 
matured  bolls,  the  interior  of  which  is  nearly  destroyed  by  its  at- 
tacks, as,  should  it  not  be  completely  devoured,  rain  penetrates 
tlirough  the  hole  made  by  the  worm,  and  the  cotton  soon  becomes 
rotten  and  will  not  ripen.  ******** 

One  thing  is  worthy  of  observation,  and  that  is,  whenever  a  young 
boil  or  bud  is  seen  with  the  involucre  spread  open,  and  of  a  sickly 
yellow  color,  it  may  be  safely  concluded  that  it  has  been  attacked  by 
the  Boll-worm,  and  will  soon  perish  and  fall  to  the  ground.      *      *      * 


TUB   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  1(7 

The  budsinjured  hj  the  wormmay  be  readily  distinguished  by  a  minute 
hole  where  it  has  entered,  and  which,  when  cut  open,  will  bo  found 
partially  filled  with  small  black  grains,  something  like  coarse  gun 
powder,  which  is  nothing  but  the  digested  food  after  having  passed 
through  the  body  of  the  worm." 

This  insect  is  very  variable  in  the  larva  state,  the  young  worms 
varying  in  color  from  pale  green  to  dark  brown.  When  full  grown 
there  is  more  uniformity  in  this  respect,  though  the  difference  is  often 
sufficiently  great  to  cause  them  to  look  like  distinct  insects.  Yet  the 
same  pattern  is  observable,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  general 
color;  the  body  being  marked  as  in  the  above  figures  with  longitudinal 
light  and  dark  lines,  and  covered  with  black  spots  which  give  rise  to 
soft  hairs.  Those  worms  which  Mrs.  Treat  found  in  green  peas  and 
upon  corn  tassels  had  these  lines  and  dots  so  obscurely  represented 
that  they  seemed  to  be  of  a  uniform  green  or  brown  color,  and  the  spe- 
cimens wiiich  I  saw  last  summer  in  string  beans  were  also  of  a  dark 
glass  green  color  with  the  spots  inconspicuous,  but  with  the  stripe  be- 
low the  breathing  pores  quite  conspicuous  and  yellow.  The  head,  how- 
ever, remains  quite  constant  and  characteristic.  Figure  42  may  be 
taken  as  a  specimen  of  the  light  variety,  and  Figure  43,  c,  as  illustra- 
ting the  dark  variety.  When  full  grown,  the  worm  descends  into  the 
ground,  and  there  forms  an  oval  cocoon  of  earth  interwoven  with  silk, 
wherein  it  changes  to  a  bright  chestnut-brown  chrysalis  (Fig.  43,  cl)^ 
with  four  thorns  at  the  extremity  of  its  body,  the  two  middle  ones 
being  stouter  than  the  others.  After  remaining  in  the  chrysalis  state 
from  three  to  four  weeks,  the  moth  makes  it  escape.  In  this  last  and 
perfect  stage,  the  insect  is  also  quite  variable  in  depth  of  shading, 
but  tlie  more  common  color  of  the  front  wings  is  pale  clay-yellow, 
with  a  iaint  greenish  tint,  and  they  are  marked  and  varigated  with 
pale  olive  and  rufous,  as  in  Figure  43,  (e  showing  the  wings  expanded, 
and  f  representing  them  closed),  a  dark  spot  near  the  middle  of  each 
wing  being  very  conspicuous.  The  hind  wings  are  paler  than  the 
front  wings,  and  invariably  have  along  the  outer  margin  a  dark  brown 
band,  interrupted  about  the  middle  by  a  large  pale  spot. 

Mr.  Grlover  says  that  there  are  at  least  three  broods  each  year  in 
Georgia,  the  last  brood  issuing  as  moths  as  late  as  November.  With 
us  there  are  usually  but  two,  though,  as  already  hinted,  there  may  be 
exceptionally  three.  Most  of  the  moths  issue  in  the  fall,  and  hiber- 
nate as  such,  but  some  of  them  pass  the  winter  in  the  chrysalis 
state  and  do  not  issue  till  the  following  spring.  I  have  known  them 
tois>ue,  in  this  latitude,  after  the  1st  of  November,  when  no  frost  had 
previously  occurred. 

lu  1860 — the  year  of  the  great  drought  in  Kansas — the  corn  crop 
in  that  State  was  almost  entirely  ruined  by  the  Corn-worm.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Prairie  J^armer,  of  JannaYy  31,  1881,  one  county  there 
which  raised  436,01)0  bushels  of  corn  iu  1859^  only  produced  5,000  bush- 
els of  poor  wormy  stuff  in  1860;  and  this,  we  are  told,  was  a  fair  sample 


103  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OP 

of  most  of  the  counties  in  Kansas.  The  damage  done  was  not  by  any 
means  confined  to  the  grain  actually  eaten  by  the  worm;  but  '*  the 
ends  of  the  ears  of  corn,  when  partially  devoured  and  left  by  this 
worm,  afforded  a  'secure  retreat  for  hundreds  of  small  insects,  which, 
under  cover  of  the  husk,  finished  the  work  of  destruction  commenced 
by  the  worm  eating  holes  in  the  grain  or  loosening  them  from  the 
cob.  A  species  of  greenish-brown  mould  or  fungus  grew  likewise  in 
such  situations,  it  appearing  that  the  dampness  from  the  exuded  sap 
favored  such  a  growth.  Thus  decay  and  destruction  rapidly  pro- 
gressed, hidden  by  the  husk  from  the  eye  of  the  unsuspecting  farmer." 
It  appears  also  that  many  horses  in  Kansas  subsequently  died  from 
disease,  occasioned  by  having  this  half-rotten  wormy  corn  fed  out  to 
them. 

Remedies. — It  is  the  general  experience  that  this  worm  does  more 
injury  to  very  early  and  very  late  corn  than  to  that  which  ripens  in- 
termediately, for  though  the  broods  connect  by  late  individuals  of  the 
first  and  early  individuals  of  the  second,  there  is  nevertheless  a  pe- 
riod about  the  time  the  bulk  of  our  corn  is  ripening,  when  the  worms 
are  quite  scarce.  I  have  never  yet  observed  their  work  on  the  green 
tassel,  as  it  has  been  observed  in  New  Jersey,  and  do  not  believe 
that  they  do  so  work  with  us.  Consequently  it  would  avail  nothing 
as  a  preventive  measure,  to  break  off  and  destroy  the  tassel,  and  the 
only  remedy  when  they  infest  corn  is  to  kill  them  by  hand.  By 
going  over  a  field  when  the  ears  are  in  silk,  the  presence  of  the 
worms  can  be  detected  by  the  silk  being  prematurely  dry  or  by  its 
being  partially  eaten. 

In  the  South  various  plans  have  been  adopted  to  head  off  the 
Boll-worm,  but  I  believe  none  have  proved  very  successful.  The 
following  experiment  with  vinegar  and  molasses,  was  made  by  B.  A. 
Sorsby,  of  Columbus,  Ga.,  as  quoted  by  Mr.  Glover: 

"  We  procured  eighteen  common-sized  dinner  plates,  into  each 
of  which  we  put  half  a  gill  of  vinegar  and  molasses,  previously  pre- 
pared in  the  proportion  of  four  parts  of  the  former  to  one  of  the  lat- 
ter. These  plates  were  set  on  small  stakes  or  poles  driven  into  the 
ground  into  the  cotton  field,  one  to  about  each  three  acres,  and 
reaching  a  little  above  the  cotton  plant,  with  a  six-inch  square  board 
tacked  on  the  top  to  receive  the  plate.  These  arrangements  were 
made  in  the  evening,  soon  after  the  flies  had  made  their  appearance ; 
the  next  morning  we  found  eighteen  to  thirty-five  moths  .to  each 
plate.  The  experiment  was  continued  for  five  or  six  days,  distribu- 
ting the  plates  over  the  entire  field;  each  day's  success  increasing 
until  the  numbers  were  reduced  to  two  or  three  moths  to  each  plate, 
when  it  was  abandoned  as  being  no  longer  worthy  of  the  trouble. 
TliM  crop  that  year  was  but  very  little  injured  by  the  Boll-worm.  The 
flios  were  caught  in  their  eagerness  to  feed  upon  the  mixture  by 
ali.^hting  into  it  and  being  unable  to  escape.  They  were  probably 
attracted  by  the  odor  of  the  preparation,  the  vinegar  probably  being 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  109 

an  important  agent  in  the  matter.  As  the  flies  feed  only  at  night,  the 
plates  should  be  visited  late  every  evening,  the  insects  taken  out,  and 
the  vessels  replenished  as  circumstances  may  require.  I  have  tried 
the  experiment  with  results  equally  satisfactory,  and  shall  con- 
tinue it  until  abetter  one  is  adopted." 

Mr.  J.  M.  Heard,  of  Monroe  county,  Wisconsin,  patented  in  18G0, 
a  device  for  trapping  the  moth,  which  consists  of  a  tin  plate  placed 
on  a  funnel,  which  is  connected  with  a  bait-pan  made  of  the  same 
material,  and  which  is  to  be  partially  filled  with  molasses  mixed  with 
a  little  anise,  fennel  or  other  essential  oil.  From  one  summer's  test 
of  the  trap,  I  do  not  think  much  of  it  as  a  decoy  for  the  moth,  and  it 
would  be  altogether  too  expensive,  when  the  great  number  required 
to  properly  protect  a  large  cotton  field  is  taken  into  consideration. 


THE  FALL  ARMY-y^OUli—Proclenia  antumnalis,  Kiley. 

[Lepidoptera,  Noctuidre.] 

In  1868  the  true  Army-worm  appeared  in  certain  portions  of  the 
State  and  I  gave  a  full  account  of  it  in  my  second  Report.  Last  fall 
another  worm  very  generally  mistaken  for  thatinsect  made  its  appear- 
ance very  generally  over  the  State,  and  caused  considerable  alarm. 
Specimens  were  sent  to  me  from  Moniteau,  Jefferson,  Pulaski  and 
Cole  counties,  while  it  was  common  throughout  the  greater  portion  of 
the  county  of  St.  Louis. 

The  first  notice  I  received  of  it  was  from  the  following  item  which 
appeared  in  the  Journal  of  Agriculture  of  St.  Louis  : 

Army- WORM. — Editors  Journal  Agriculture:  Since  Friday  (26th 
August),  the  Army-worm  has  made  its  appearance  in  distressingly 
large  numbers  almost  everywhere  in  this  ((^ole)  county.  They  have 
destroyed  for  me  more  than  an  acre  of  turnips,  a  good  deal  of  my  late 
soiling  com,  and  are  still  on  the  march  for  more.  Farther  in  the 
country  they  have  eaten  up  the  buckwheat,  which  is  just  coming  into 
bloom.  Could  our  esteemed  friend  Riley  give  us  an  article  in  the 
ne:s.t  Journal  ? — F.  A.  Nitcliy. 

JtFFERSON  City,  Mo.,  August  2l)th,  1870. 

The  following  published  paragraphs,  which  all  refer  to  this  same 
worm,  and  which  chanced  to  meet  my  eye,  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
extent  of  country  through  which  it  ranged. 

Fall  Army-w^orm. — We  have  received  specimens  of  the  Fall 
Army- worm  from  several  persons.  The  complaints  of  its  ravages  are 
quite  numerous  almost  all  over  the  State  ;  they  are  very  bad  in  north- 
east Missouri.  Threatening  at  Tipton,  from  which  place  we  have 
samples,  and  in  St.  Louis  and  Jefferson  counties  they  are  quite  bad. 
This  pest  only  returns  at  intervals,  perhaps  on    account  of  parasitic 


110  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 

and  other  enemies  gaining  the  ascendancy  over  them. — Rural  World., 
Sept.  2nd,  1870. 

Army-worm  in  Callav^ ay  Oountit.—- I  have  found  that  the  Army* 
worm  has  been  more  or  less  on  almost  every  farm,  and  have  been  ex- 
amining some  of  the  meadows  over  which  they  have  passed,  and  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  they  are  about  ruined.  From  my  examina- 
tion I  think  that  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  grass  is  entirely  killed  t 
at  least  there  is  not  more  than  one  bulb  in  twenty  that  shows  any 
signs  of  vitality.  Why  should  this  insect  make  its  appearance  at  this 
season?  Mr.  Kiley,  I  believe  claims  that  it  makes  its  advent  in  the 
spring.  But  now  we  have  it  appearing  at  the  end  of  summer  and  be* 
ginning  of  fall,  and  in  numbers  as  great  and  as  destructive  as  ever  it 
did  in  spring.  Could  it  be  that  the  extreme  heat  of  this  season,  with 
favorable  conditions  of  moisture,  has  brought  them  forth  prematurely  ? 
1  noticed  that  some  plum  trees,  cherry  trees,  smoke  trees,  summer 
roses  and  strawberries  are  blossoming  freely  from  premature  develop- 
ment.— //.  ^.,  Journal  of  Agriculture^   Oct.  loth,  1870. 

The  Army-worm,  on  the  28th  of  August,  appeared  in  force  in  my 
neighbor's  wheat  stuuble,  moving  south  towards  a  piece  of  land  that 
I  had  planted  in  corn,  and  then  sown  in  rye  tiiat  was  up  nicely.  When 
they  reached  the  fence  (which  they  did  on  the  28th  of  August),  I  scat- 
tered salt  thickly  on  the  rich  blue  grass  on  my  side  of  the  fence,  all 
along  it,  while  the  dew  was  on.  They  came  no  further.  As  I  v/as 
obliged  to  be  away  i'rom  home,  I  cannot  say  whether  the  salt  checked 
them  or  not — at  any  rate,  it  caused  the  grass  to  wilt  and  die. 

A  very  small  dark  worm  about  half  an  inch  long,  has  been  doing 
some  damage  to  the  young  grain  of  late. — J.  L.  Erioin.,  Fulton,  Cal- 
laway County^  Mo. 

The  Army-wokm — A  Slander  on  the  Birds — Editor  Farmer  : 
Feeling  it  a  duty,  as  well  as  a  privilege,  to  contribute  all  good,  or 
even  really  bad  news  for  the  farmers,  through  your  truly  valuable 
and  very  much  improved  and  highly  esteemed  Farmers'  journal,  en- 
closed (in  a  small  phial)  please  find  some  specimens  of  Army-worm, 
many  millions  of  which  infest  our  county.  They  are  everywhere.  It 
is  said  they  are  brought  by  a  small,  yellow  bird,  which  goes  in  covies 
of  twenty-five  to  two  hundred — that  wherever  they  alight,  the  worms 
first  appear.  It  is  said  that  eacii  petaled  portion  of  the  feathers  is 
covered  with  nits,  and  their  number  is  legion. 

¥/e  would  be  pleased  to  hear  from  some  of  our  scientific  men  on 
the  subject,  as  we  are  very  much  interested.  They  take  a  twenty- 
acre  wheat  field  in  two  days. 

These  pestiferous  little  pests  are  rapidly  arriving  at  maturity.  In 
traveling,  their  course  seems  westward.  They  last  appeared  here  in 
1866,  but  too  late  in  the  season  to  do  any  great  damage,  as  a  cold  rain 
sent  them  the  v;ay  of  all  tiie  earth.  That  being  in  October,  nothing 
ofthe  kind  can  be  expected  at  this  time ;  and  if  they  are  to  remain 
here  until  October,  woe  to  our  wheat  fields  in  this  vicinity! 

JMiNERAL  Point,  Kansas,  Aug.  29th,  1870. 

[The  above  letter  came  to  us  too  late  for  insertion  last  month. 
Our  friends  are  doing  great  injustice  to  our  little  harmless  "•'Prairie- 
birds,'^  in  supposing  that  they  have  anything  to  do  with  bringing  the 
Army-worm — Editor]. — Kansas  Farmer,  Octohe?%  1870. 

Army  woHM. — Late  rains  are  keeping  corn  too  green.  Too  muddy 
to  plow  for  wheat.  The  Hessian-fly  and  Army-v/orm  are  too  numer- 
ous to  allow  farmers  to  seed  much  this  fall.    The   early   sown  wheat 


THK   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  Ill 

and  much  of  the  meadows  are  eaten  up  bv  the   Army- worm.    Dr.  C' 
W.  Tliornton,  of  Warrensburg,  Kansas,  in  Kansas  Farmer. 

ARMr-woRM. — We  have  received  from  S.  S.  Tipton,  of  Mineral 
Point,  a  specimen  of  the  above  genius,  but  a  little  the  worst  demora- 
lized specimen  we  ever  saw.  The  bottle  v/as  broken,  and,  as  well  as  we 
can  determine,  by  the  aid  of  a  powerful  magnifying  glass,  the  worm 
is  in  about  sixty  thousand  pieces.  We  shall  refer  to  the  subject  in 
our  next ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  we  advise  our  i'riends  to  plow  and 
scrape  out  ditches,  in  which  to  spread  dry  straw.  Then  muster  your 
force  armed  with  brushes,  drive  them  into  the  ditches,  and  set  fire 
to  the  straw.  We  have  seen  them  very  successfully  treated  in  this 
way.     JuiJisas  Farmer. 

Thus  in  all  the  above  accounts  this  worm  was  supposed  to  be  a 
fall  brood  of  the  true  Army-worm,  and  in  the  following  letter,  we 
shall  see  that  it  was  also  mistaken  for  the  Corn-worm  treated  in  the 
last  article — a  mistake  not  at  all  surprising  considering  the  close 
resemblance  between  the  two  worms, 

C.  V.  Riley.,  Dear  Sir. — I  herewith  send  you  a  box  of  what  I 
believe  to  be  the  Boll-worm  although  its  actions  here  were  similar 
to  the  true  Army-worm.  At  my  father's  and  in  the  neighborhood  they 
complain  too  o^  the  Army-worm  eating  up  the  young  oats  and  timo- 
th}^  With  me  they  commenced  about  two  weeks  ago  in  afield  of  young 
oats,  or  rather  oat  stubble  which  had  been  plowed  under  and  sown  to 
buck-wheat.  The  oats  had  got  to  be  about  six  inches  high  and  were 
eaten  first,  next  the  worm  took  what  little  crab  grass  they  could  find 
and  they  are  now  scattered,  eating  grass,  corn  silks,  soft  corn,  luta- 
baga  leaves  and  whatever  in  the  grass  line  comes  before  them.  They 
have  not  entered  ray  meadow  yet,  nor  a  piece  of  wheat  stubble  which 
is  plowed  under.  G.  Pauls. 

Eureka,  Mo.,  Sep.,  7,  1870. 

On  the  farm  of  Jno.  J.  Squires  atDeSoto,  this  worm  at  first  ate  ofT 
all  the  grass,  then  comijletely  stripped  the  leaves  from  some  corn- 
fodder,  injured  his  corn,  ate  into  his  tomatoes  and  ruined  his  turnips 
— injuring  his  crops  to  the  amount  of  nearly  fil,000. 

In  some  cases  the  worm  acted  strangely,  and  I  have  know  it  to 
take  a  whole  field  of  rye  in  preference  to  wheat.  Judge  Wielandy,  of 
Cole  coujity  informs  me  that  it  was  abundant  on  his  potatoes,  cutting 
ofi"  the  lateral  stems.  It  invaded  a  large  cucumber  field  and  entirely 
cleaned  out  the  crab  grass,  and  would  have  injured  his  cucumbers 
had  he  not  applied  slacked  lime.  In  some  parts  of  Jefferson  count}^ 
it  was  ver^y  abundant  and  destructive,  and  Senator  J.  H.  Morse,  of 
Morse's  Mills  had  twenty  acres  badly  injured  by  it.  I  have  also  been 
iniormed  that  in  some  vineyards  it  did  great  damage  by  gnawing 
around  the  stems  and  causing  the  bunches  to  drop  off  and  fall  to 
pieces  so  that  the  grapes  would  scatter  on  the  ground.  But  I  cannot 
vouch  for  the  correctness  of  the  observation.  With  me  it  did  more 
injury  to  corn  than  to  anything  else.  It  not  only  greedily  devours  the 
leaves  and  stems,  but  bores  large  holes  through  the  ears,  burrowing  in 
them  in  all  directions.  On  late  corn  it  is  frequently  found  in  the  same 
ear  with  the  Corn-worm,  «Z?'a5  Cotton  Boll-worm.    The  Boll-worm  ie,. 


112 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


however;  rougher,  generally  paler,  striped  differently  (see  Figs.  42  and 
43,  c,),  and  always  readily  distinguished  b}^  having  a  larger  gamboge- 
yellow  or  reddish  head,  which  invariably  lacks  the  distinct  white  in- 
verted Y-shaped  mark,  and  the  darker  shadings  of  the  head  of  the 
Fall  Army-worm. 

Now,  until  the  present  year  nothing  was  absolutely  known  of  the 
natural  history  of  this  worm,  and  though  I  knew  that  it  was  not  the 
true  Army-worm,  and  suspected,  from  comparing  it  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  certain  corn-feeding  worms  received  in  1868  from  Mr.  E. 
Daggy,  of  Tuscola,  Illinois,  that  it  would  produce  a  certain  moth 
which  I  bred  from  Mr.  Daggy's  worms — yet  I  could  not  feel  positive 
without  breeding  the  Fall  Army-worm  to  the  perfect  state.  This  I 
very  luckily  did,  and  I  am  therefore  able  to  give  its  complete  history. 

In  the  fall  of  1868  I  received  a  few  specimens  from  Mr.  T.  R. 
Allen,  of  Allenton,  with  an  account  of  their  injuring  newly  sown 
wheat  on  oat  stubble,  and  on  page  S8  of  my  first  Report  it  was  briefly 
described  by  the  name  of  Wheat  Cut-worm.  The  popular  term  of 
''Fall  Army- worm"  is,  however,  altogether  more  indicative  than  that 
of  ''Wheat  Out- worm,"  since  the  species  does  not  confine  its  attacks 
to  wheat,  and  not  only  very  closely  resembles  the  Army-worm  in 
appearance  but  has  many  habits  in  common. 

HOW  IT  DIFFERS  FROM  THE   TRUE  ARMY-WORM. 


The  two  insects  need  never  be  confounded,  however.    The   true 
Army-worm  never  appears  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  but  always  about 
the  time  when  wheat  is  getting  i^^s-  45.] 

j'jbeyond  the  milk  state;  and  it 
generally  disappears,  in  thelat- 
(jitude  of  St.  Louis,  by  the  first 
of  June.  It  confines  its  attacks 
'  entirely  to  the  grasses  and  ce- 
reals, whereas  the  species  under  | 
consideration  is  a  much  more 
general  feeder,  devouring  with 
equal  relish  most  succulent 
plants,  such  as  wheat,  oats, 
corn,  barley,  grasses,  purslane, 
turnips,  and,  as  Mr.  J.  M.  Jor- 
dan of  St.  Louis  informs  me,  even  spruces.  Moreover,  when  critically 
examined,  the  two  worms  show  many  characteristic  differences,  as 
will  be  seen  by  comparing  Figure  44,  which  represents  the  true 
Army-worm,  Avith  Figure  45,  which  represents  at  a  the  Fall  Army- 
worm  natural^  size,  at  h  its  head  magnified,  at  <?  a  magnified  dorsal 
view  of  one  of  the  joints,  and  at  d  a  magnified  side  view  of  same. 
Our  Fall  Army-worm  moth  is  a  most  variable  one — so  variable, 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


113 


indeed,  that  at  least  three  species  mi^lit  easily  be  fabricated  by  any 

species-grinder  who  happened  to  capture  at 
large  the  three  most  distinct  varieties,  without 
knowing  anything  of  their  transformations. 
I  have  bred  31  specimens,  all  from  larvae  found 
on  corn,  and  have  others  which  were  captured 
at  large,  and  though  half  a  dozen  sufficiently 
distinct  varieties  might  easily  be  picked  out 
from  among  them,  and  though  scarcely  any 
two  are  precisely  alike,  yet  they  may  all  be 
divided  into  three  distinct  sets  or  varieties. 
The  first  of  these,  which  is  the  more  common, 
J  is  represented  at  Figure  46,  «,  the  second  at  J, 
and  the  third  at  c.  For  those  who  are  more  curious  in  such  matters 
I  append,  at  the  end  of  this  article,  a  more  elaborate  description  of 
this  new  moth.  Not  only  do  I  find  this  great  variation  in  this  particu- 
lar species,  but  all  the  species  of  the  genus  to  which  it  belongs  are 
variable;  and  Guen^e  has  truly  remarked  that  they  resemble  each 
other  so  closely,  and  their  modifications  are  so  complicated,  that  it  is 
next  to  impossible  to  properly  separate  them.  By  comparing  the 
annexed  Figures  46  a,  h  and  c,  with  that  of  the  true  Army-worm  moth 
(Fig.  47)  the  two  insects  will  be  found  to  differ  widely. 

We  have  in  this  country  a  very  common  moth  {Prodenia  comme- 
ince,   Abb.)   which  may  be  popularly  called  the  Spiderwort  Owlet 
C^'s-  ^''O  moth,  some  of  the  varieties   of  which  ap- 

proach so  nearly  to  some  of  the  more 
strongly  marked  varieties  of  our  Fall  Ar- 
my-worm moth  that  it  is  necessary  to 
show  the  very  great  difference  which 
really  exists  between  them,  in  order  that 
the  cultivator  may  not  be  unnecessarily 
alarmed  when  he  observes  the  former, 
by  confounding  it  with  the  latter,  and  erroneously  inferring  that  he 
will  be  overrun  with  Fall  Army-worms  when  there  is  no  real  danger. 

The  Spiderwort  Owlet  moth,  (Fig. 48,  b  and 
c)  is  a  handsomer  and  more  distinctly 
marked  species,  the  front  wings  inclining 
more  to  vinous-gray,  or  purplish-gray,  and 
the  ordinary  lines  being  more  clearly  de- 
fined by  very  deep  brown,  than  in  the  Fall 
Army-worm  moth.  But,  however  much 
these  characters  may  vary — and  they  are 
quite  variable — there  are  yet  two  others 
which  will  be  readily  noticed  upon  com- 
paring the  figures  of  the  two  species,  and 
by  which  the  Spiderwort  moth  may  always 


.ni.\ 


S  E— E 


114  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

'be  distinguisTied  from  its  close  ally,  namely,  by  the  tip  of  tlie  wing 
being  more  prolonged  and  acuminate,  and  by  the  three-forked  nerve  in 
the  middle  of  the  wing  being  much  more  conspicuous.  Its  larva  never 
congregates  in  multitudes  as  does  the  Fall  Army-worm,  and  differs  so 
materially  from  that  worm,  and  is'withal  so  characteristically  marked, 
that  it  may  be  recognized  at  once  by  the  above  illustration  (Fig.  48, «). 
Contrary  to  what  its  name  would  indicate,  it  is  a  very  general  feed- 
er, as  I  have  found  it  on  all  sorts  of  succulent  plants,  both  wild  and 
cultivated.  This  insect  is  more  or  less  numerous  every  year,  but  has 
never  been  known  to  multiply  so  prodigiously  as  the  Fall  Army-worm, 
which  we  have  under  consideration.  It  passes  the  winter  either  in 
the  larva,  pupa  or  perfect  state,  but  more  generally  in  the  former. 

REMEDIES. 

Now  that  I  have  sufficiently  dwelt  on  the  characteristics  of  the 
Fall  Army-worm  to  enable  any  one  to  distinguish  it,  even  from  its 
nearest  relative,  let  us  consider  for  a  moment  what  can  be  done  to 
prevent  its  great  injuries  to  grains  and  to  vegetables.  I  have  proved 
that  there  are  at  least  two,  and  probably  as  many  as  three  or  even 
four  broods  during  the  course  of  the  year;  for  those  worms  which 
appeared  in  such  multitudes  in  August  and  the  forepart  of  Septem- 
ber, in  due  time  produced  moths,  and  these  gave  birth  to  a  new  gen- 
eration of  worms,  which  began  to  make  their  presence  manifest 
towards  the  end  of  October.  In  1868,  also,  I  bred  the  moth  as  early 
as  July,  from  worms  received  from  Mr.  Daggy.  In  this  prolificacy  the 
Fall  Army-worm  differs  remarkably  from  the  true  Army-worm,  as 
well  as  from  most  of  its  close  allies,  which  generally  produce  but  one, 
and  seldom  more  than  two,  broods  each  year. 

The  moths  were  so  numerons  during  the  latter  part  of  September 
and  the  forepart  of  October,  that  I  not  only  found  them  common  at 
Decatur,  Vandalia  and  other  parts  of  Central  Illinois,  and  wherever  I 
traveled  in  our  own  State,  but  I  captured  a  goodly  number  in  the 
very  heart  of  St.  Louis,  and  even  caught  some  while  riding  by  rail. 

The  eggs  are  deposited  in  small  clusters,  often  in  two  or  three  la}'- 

.  ers  one  above  the  other,  and  the  whole   cluster  is   covered  sparsely 

with  the  yellowish  hairs  from  the  ?  abdomen.    Each  egg  is   nearly 

spherical,  of  a  pale  fulvous   color,  and   differs  only  from  that  of  the 

Unarmed  Rustic   {Agrotis  inerm/is,  Fig.  49,  «,  showing  one   magni- 

■fied,  and    5,    a    batch  of   natural    size,)  in  being  less   compressed 

and  less  distinctly  ribbed.    The  clusters  were  found  abundantly,  not 

only  on  the  under  side  of  peach  and  apple  leaves,  which  the  worms 

■readily  devour,  but  on  the  leaves  of  such  trees  as  sycamore,  which, 

so  far  as  we  at  present  know,  they  do  not  feed  upon.    Under  these 

last  circumstances  the  young  worms,  upon  hatching,    would  soon 

descend  the  tree  to  feed  upon  the  more  succulent  herbage   below ; 

and  the  more  I  learn  of  the  habits   of  our  different  Owlet  moths, 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


115 


the  more  1  become  convinced  that  the  long-accepted 
theory  of  their  eggs  being  deposited  on  the  ground 
is  a  false  one,  and  that  most  of  our  cut-worms 
though  fat,  lazy  and  groveling  in  the  ground  when 
we  find  them,  have  been  born  in  more  elevated  and 
exalted  positions. 

In  the  fall  of  1868  this  worm  proved  very  des- 
tructive to  the  newly  sown  wheat  in  many  parts  of 
Franklin  and  St.  Louis  counties.  Mo.,  and  seemed  to 
be  confined  to  such  wheat  as  Vv^as  sown  on  oats  stub- 
ble. I  then  accounted  for  this  singular  state  of  things 
by  supposing  that  the  scattering  oats  which  were  left 
after  harvest  had  sprouted  before  the  wheat,  and  had 
thus  attracted  the  parent  moths* ;  and,  acting 
upon  this  supposition,  I  suggested  that  the  attacks  of  the  worm  might 
effectually  be  prevented  by  plownng  the  land  early  and  keeping  the 
ground  clear  of  all  vegetation  until  the  w^heat  w^as  planted.  This 
inference  proves  to  be  well  warranted  by  the  facts;  and  in  future, 
when  the  Tall  Army-worm  is  heard  of  during  the  months  of  August 
or  September,  as  it  was  the  present  year,  it  wall  be  wise  for  those  who 
live  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  either  to  sow  no  fall  grain  at  all 
or  to  endeavor,  in  doing  so,  to  carry  out  the  above  suggestions.  The 
last  brood  of  worms,  wdiich  at  this  writing  (Nov.  7th)  are  not  yet  quite 
full  grown,  must  evidently  pass  the  winter  in  the  ground,  either  in 
the  larva  or  the  pupa  state.  In  either  case  a  great  many  of  them 
would  be  killed  by  late  fall  plowing  which  should  be  used,  when  prac- 
ticable, as  a  remedial  measure  in  fields  where  this  insect  has  been 
numerous.  When  the  worms  are  overrunning  a  field  of  fall  grain 
most  of  them  could  be  destroyed  by  means  of  a  heavy  roller,  with- 
out injury  to  the  grain. 

The  question  has  been  repeatedly  asked :  '^  Will  this  worm  be  as 
numerous  next  year  as  it  has  been  this;  or  will  it  go  on  increasing  in 
geometrical  ratio,  and  be  still  more  numerous  ?"  jNow,  although  I 
greatly  dislike  to  weaken  the  confidence  that  some  people  seem  to 
place  in  the  oracular  power  of  an  entomologist  to  peer  into  the  future 
yet  I  must  meekly  confess  my  inability  to  give  any  definite  answer  to 
such  questions. 

Byron  has  truly  said  that,  '"^the  best  of  prophets  of  the  future  is 
the  past;"  and  we  may  reasonably  draw  the  inference  that  this  worm 
w^ill  not  be  so  abundant  next  year,  because  in  the  past  it  has  only 
occasionally  been  so  troublesome,  and  never,  so  far  as  the  record 
shows,  during  two  consecutive  years.  And  we  may  rest  tolerably 
well  assured  that  it  will  not  increase  in  geometrical  ratio,  because 
most  vegetable  feeding  insects  are  preyed  upon  by  more  predaceous 


^Keport  I,  p.  83. 


116  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

species  and  by  parasites,*  and  because  such  continued  increase  of  one 
species  is  inconsistent  with  the  harmony  we  find  everywhere  in  Na- 
ture. But  we  may  not  venture  beyond  the  inference,  as  the  happen- 
ings of  the  future  are  not  for  mortals  to  know.  Some  persons  may 
also  be  curious  to  learn  why  this  worm  increases  so  much  more  in 
late  summer  and  fall  than  in  spring,  since  there  are  so  many  broods 
during  the  year;  or  why  it  is  only  noticed  in  certain  years?  Such  ques- 
tions, likewise,  can  receive  no  definite  answer. 


"  Till  old  experience  do  attain 
To  something-  like  prophetic  strain. 


For  though,  to  meet  the  first,  we  may  assume  that  the  winter  decim- 
ates their  numbers,  or  that  the  spring  weather  is  not  favorable  to  their 
increase;  and  to  meet  the  last  we  may  conjure  up  a  hundred  reasons, 
yet  assuming  is  not  knowing,  and  we  m.ust  content  ourselves  with  the 
facts  as  they  occur. 

In  conclusion,  it  will  afi"ord  a  grain  of  comfort  to  those  who  have 
had  wheat  fields  cleaned  off  bj'-  this  worm,  to  know  that  their  wheat 
is  not  necessarily  ruined ;  for,  as  I  personally  ascertained,  wheat  that 
had  been  thus  cutofl!"in  the  fall  of  1868  made  a  good  stand  the  follow- 
ing spring;  and  in  one  instance,  where  part  of  a  field  had  been  in- 
vaded and  the  rest  left  untouched,  it  really  appeared  that  the  part 
which  had  been  eaten  off  yielded  the  heaviest.  Mr.  Huron  Burt,  of 
Callaway  county.  Mo.,  also  informs  me  that  this  insect  always  leaves 
blue-grass  untouched. 

Prodenia  AUTUiiNALis,  Riley. — Imago  (Fig.  46,  a,  b  and  c.) — Fro7it  winr/s  narrow  with  the 
apex  usually  well  rounded,  and  with  the  middle  of  the  hind  margin  sometimes,  but  not  often,  ex- 
tending beyond  apex :  general  color  mouse-gray  variegated  with  smoky-brown,  fulvous  and  pearly 
or  bluiih-white  :  apical  patch  bluish-white  and  never  extending  beyond  nerve  5  :  the  subterminal 
line — which  is  pale  and  bends  like  a  bow,  approaching  nearest  the  terminal  line  between  nerves  3 
and  4 — generally  blends  wich  this  patch  so  as  to  appear  to  start  from  its  lower  edge,  but  is  some- 
times well  separated  from  it  so  as  to  be  traced  further  towards  apex :  dark  space  preceding  subter- 
minal line,  confined  between  nerves  3  and  5,  blending  gradually  with  the  rest  of  the  wing,  barely 
showing  two  darker  sagittate  spots  :  transverse  anterior  and  transverse  posterior  either  subobsolete 
or  tolerably  well  defined,  each  by  a  geminate  dark  line  :  basal  area  divided  longitudinally  by  an 
irregular  dark  line,  the  wing  below  it  quite  light-colored  :  orbicular  spot  large  and  elongated,  a 
little  lighter  than  surrounding  surface,  and  well  defined  by  a  fulvous  annulation,  the  pale  oblique 
shade  which  generally  encloses  it  in  this  genus  confined  to  a  fulvous  shade  above,  and  either  a  more 
distinct  fulvous  line  behind  or  none  at  all :  reniform  spot  generally  dark,  but  sometimes  lighter 
than  space  preceding ;  not  well  defined,  the  small  pale  spot  at  top  being  generally  distinct,  and 
either  partaking  of  the  same  form,  or  resembling  the  small  letter  e  [left  wing] ;  the  lower  edge  oc- 
cupied by  a  distinct  white  dash,  which  however  never  extends  beyond  it  and  but  seldom  shows  any 
tendency  to  furcate  with  the  nerves  :  four  tolerably  distinct  equidistant  pale  costal  spots  from 
reniform  spot  to  apical  patch  :  terminal  line  pale,  even,  parallel  with  posterior  margin  :  terminal 
space  dark,  except  near  apex  and  anal  angle,  divided  into  subquadrate  spots  by  the  pale  nerves  : 
fringe  either  broad  or  narrow,  of  same  color  as  wing,  with  a  narrow  darker  inner  line,  relieved  by 
two  very  fine  paler  ones  which  are  barely  distinguishable  :  under  surface  smoky,  but  paler  inte- 

*  Many  of  the  Fall  Army-worms  had  the  thoracic  joints  of  the  body  more  or  less  covered  with 
the  eggs  of  a  Tachina  fly,  and  I  have  bred  from  the  worms  the  same  parasite  (Exorisla  leucanice, 
Kirk;  2d  Rep.  Fig.  17)  which  infests  the  true  Army-worm,  and  still  another  allied  species  {Tachina 
archippivora)  which  infests  the  larvaa  of  the  Archippus  butterfly,  and  will  be  referred  to  on  a  fu- 
ture page. 


*IHE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  117 

riorly  and  terminally,  and  fulvous  alonp;  costa  ;  the  whole  with  a  nacreous  lustre  and  more  or  less- 
irrorate  with  brown,  and  often  with  a  flesh-colored  tint  near  apex  ;  fring-es  dark.  Hind  wings  white 
with  a  faint  fulvous  tint;  serai-transparent  and  slightly  irridescent,  with  extremities  of  nerves  and 
borders,  especially  above,  brown  ;  fring-es  duskj',  especially  at  apex,  and  with  a  paler  inner  line; 
under  surface  similar.  Thorax,  abdomen  and  legs  of  same  general  color  as  front  wings,  being 
paler  below  ;  the  longer  lateral  and  anal  abdominal  hairs  more  fulvous.  Sexes  with  difficulty  dis- 
tinguished, the  size  and  shape  of  the  abdomen  not  even  being  a  safe  criterion.  Maximum  expanse 
1.40  :  minimum  expanse  1.05  inches.  Described  from  18  specimens,  bred  Sept.  20th — Oct.  10th, 
from  corn-fed  larvic. 

Variety  Fulvosa,  (Fig.  46,  h.) — Front  icings  greatly  suffused  with  fulvous,  especially  in  the- 
lower  median  space,  which  often  inclines  to  ochraceous  ;  apical  space  more  or  less  defined;  oblique 
median  band  distinct  to  median  nerve,  and  orbicular  spot  with  an  ochre-colored  centre.  Described 
from  5  specimens,  bred  Sept.  25th — Oct.  3rd,  from  corn-fed  larvaj. 

Variety  Obscura,  (Fig.  46,  c.) — Front  wings  of  a  much  more  uniform  and  darker  color,  either 
grayish-brown  with  a  slight  vinous  tint,  or  deep  smoky  brown  inclining  to  black,  or  a  deep  warm 
brown  with  but  little  gray;  apical  space  either  entirely  obsolete  or  but  very  faintly  indicated  ;  ob- 
lique fulvous  band  across  upper  middle  of  wing  also  dbsolete ;  the  ordinary  lines  either  entirely 
obsolete  [one  specimen  only]  or  distinctly  marked ;  the  ordinary  spots  sometimes  obsolete,  but 
more  generally  indicated  by  fulvous  lines.  Described  from  8  specimens,  bred  Sept.  21st — Oct.  2d, 
from  corn-fed  larv£B. 

Larva,  (Fig.  45,  a.)— Ground-color  very  variable,  generally  dark  and  pitchy-black  when  young, 
but  varying  after  the  last  moult  from  pale  brown  to  pale  dirty  green,  with  more  or  less  pink  or 
yellow  admixed — all  the  markings  produced  by  fine,  more  or  less  intense,  brown,  crimson  and  yel- 
low mottlings.  Dorsum  brownish  with  a  narrow  line  down  the  middle,  rendered  conspicuous  by  a 
darker  shade  each  side  of  it.  A  dark,  subdorsal  band  one-third  as  wide  as  each  joint  is  long  j 
darkest  at  its  upper  edge,  where  it  is  bordered  and  distinctly  separated  from  dorsum  by  a  yellow 
line  which,  except  on  joint  11  where  it  deflects  a  little  upwards,  is  quite  straight;  paler  in  the  mid- 
dle of  each  joint.  A  pale^  either  buff  or  flesh-colored,  substigmatal  band,  bordered  above  and  be- 
low by  a  narrow,  yellow  and  wavy  line.  Venter  pale.  Head  pale  yellowish-brown,  with  sometimes 
a  tinge  of  green  or  pink ;  the  triangular  piece  yellowish,  the  Y-mark  distinct  and  white,  the  cheeks 
with  four  more  or  less  distinct  lateral  brown  lines  and  with  dark  brown  mottlings  and  nettings, 
which  become  confluent  and  form  a  dark  curved  mark  at  the  submargin  behind  the  prongs  and  each 
side  of  the  stem  of  the  Y.  Stigmata  large,  brown,  with  a  pale  annulation,  and  just  within  the 
lower  edge  of  the  dark  subdorsal  band.  Legs  either  light  or  dark.  Cervical  shield  darker  than 
body,  with  the  narrow  dorsal  and  subdorsal  lines  extending  conspicuously  tlirough  it :  anal  plate 
also  dark,  narrow  and  margined  by  the  pale  subdorsal  lines — both  plates  furnishing  stiff  hairs,  but 
without  tubercles.  Piliferous  tubercles  on  joints  2  and  3,  arranged  in  a  transverse  row,  and  quite 
large,  especially  on  joint  2;  on  joints  4-10  inclusive  the  superior  eight  are  arranged  as  follows  : 
4  in  a  trapezoid  in  dorsal  space,  the  posterior  two  as  far  again  from  each  other  as  the  anterior  two, 
and  two  near  stigmata,  one  above  and  one  behind;  on  joint  11  the  dorsal  4  are  in  a  square,  and  on 
joint  12  in  a  trapezoid,  with  the  posterior  and  not  the  anterior  ones  nearest  together  :  the  thoracic 
joints  have  each  a  large  subventral  tubercle  just  above  the  legs.  Length  1.10-1.50  inch.  Described 
from  numerous  specimens. 

Pupa. — Formed  in  the  ground,  without  cocoon;  of  normal  form,  bright  mahogany-brown,  and 
with  a  distinct  forked  point  at  extremity. 


THE    APPLE-TREE  TENT-CATERPILLAR,   OR  AMERICAN 
LACKEY  MOTH. —  Clisiooamjya  Avierioaiia,  Harr. 

(Lepidoptera,  Bombycidffi.) 

What  orchardist  in  the  older  States  of  the  Union  is  not  familiar 
with  the  white  web-nests  of  this  caterpillar?  As  they  glisten  in  the 
rays  of  the  spring  sun,  before  the  trees  have  put  on  their  full  summer 


lis 


THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OP 


dresS;  these  nests,  which  are  then  small,  speak  volumes  of  the  negli- 
gence and  slovenliness  of  the  owner  of  the  orchard,  and  tell  more 
[Fig-.  50.]  truly  than  almost  anything  else 

why  it  is  that  he  fails  and  has 
bad  luck  with  his  apple  crop. 
Wherever  these  nests  abound 
one  feels  morally  certain  that 
the  borers,  the  Codling-moth, 
and  the  many  other  enemies  of 
the  good  old  apple  tree,  men- 
tioned in  the  beginning  of  this 
Report,  have  full  play  to  do  as 
they  please,  unmolested  and  un- 
noticed by  him  whom  they  are 
ruining ;  and  when  I  pass  through 
an  orchard  with  two,  three  or 
more  "tents"  on  every  tree,  I 
Ij  never  i)ity  the  owner,  because 
ll  there  is  no  insect  more  easily 
kept  in  check. 

The  small,  bright  and  glist- 
ening web,  if  unmolested,  is 
soon  enlarged  until  it  spreads 
over  whole  branches,  and  the 
caterpillars  which  were  the  architects,  in  time  become  moths,  and 
lay  their  eggs  for  an  increased  supply  of  nests  another  year. 

This  insect  is  so  well  known  throughout  the  country,  and  has 
been  so  well  treated  of  b}'^  Harris  and  Fitch,  that  it  is  only  necessary 
to  give  here  the  most  prominent  and  important  points  in  its  history, 
the  more  especially  as  the  figures  alone  which  are  given  herewith 
will  enable  the  novice  to  recognize  it  the  moment  it  appears  in  a 
young  orchard.  Though  some  years  quite  abundant, it  is  not  as  com- 
mon with  us  as  in  some  of  the  Eastern  States. 

The  eggs  (Fig.  50,  c)  from  which  these  caterpillars  hatch  are  de- 
posited mostly  during  the  month  of  June,  in  oval  rings,  upon  the 
smaller  twigs,  and  this  peculiar  mode  of  deposition  renders  them 
conspicuous  objects  during  the  winter  time,  when  by  a  little  practice 
they  can  easily  be  distinguished  from  the  buds,  knots  or  swellings  of 
the  naked  twigs.  Each  cluster  consists  of  from  two  to  three  hundred 
eggs,  and  is  covered  and  protected  from  the  weather  by  a  coating  of 
glutinous  matter,  which  dries  into  a  sort  of  net-work.  The  little  em- 
bryonic larvfe  are  fully  formed  in  the  egg  by  the  commencement  of 
Vv'inter,  and  the  same  temperature  which  causes  the  apple-buds  to 
swell  and  burst,  quickens  the  vital  energies  of  these  larvae  and  causes 
thf  m  to  eat  their  way  out  of  their  eggs.  Very  often  the}^  hatch  dur- 
ing a  prematurely  warm  spell  and  before  there  is  any  green  leaf  for 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  119 

them  to  feed  u|;on,  but  they  are  so  tough  and  hardy  that  they  cau 
fast  for  many  days  with  imx)unity,  and  the  glutinous  substance  on 
the  outside  of  their  eggs  furnishes  good  sustenance  and  gives  them 
strength  at  first.  It  is  even  asserted  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Kaymond.,  of  Coun- 
cil Bluifs,  Iowa,  that  the  eggs  often  hatch  in  the  fall  and  that  in  these 
cases  the  larvee  withstand  the  severity  of  the  winter  with  impunity. 

The  young  caterpillars  commence  spinning  the  moment  they  are 
born,  and  indeed  they  never  move  without  extending  their  thread 
wherever  they  go.  All  the  individuals  hatched  from  the  same  batch 
of  eggs  work  together  in  harmony,  and  each  performs  its  share  of 
building  the  common  ten!',  under  which  they  shelter  when  not  feed- 
ing and  during  inclement  weather.  They  usually  feed  twice  each 
day,  namely,  once  in  the  forenoon  and  once  in  the  afternoon.  After 
feeding  for  five  or  six  weeks,  during  which  time  they  change 
their  skins  four  times,  these  caterpillars  acquire  their  full  growth, 
when  they  appear  as  at  Figure  50  {a  side  view,  l  back  view)  the  col- 
ors being  black,  white,  blue  and  rufous  or  reddish.  They  then  scat- 
ter in  all  directions  in  search  of  some  cozy  and  sheltered  nook,  such 
as  the  crevice  or  angle  of  a  fence,  and  having  finally  decided  on  the 
spot,  each  one  spins  an  oblong-oval  yellow  cocoon  (Fig.  50,  d)  the  silk 
composing  which  is  intermixed  with  a  yellow  fluid  or  paste,  which 
dries  into  a  powder  looking  something  like  sulphur.  A  few  individ- 
uals almost  always  remain  and  spin  up  in  the  tent,  and  these  co- 
coons will  be  found  intermixed  with  the  black  excrement  long  after 
the  old  tent  is  deserted. 

Within  this  cocoon  the  caterpillar  soon  assumes  the  chrysalis 
i^^'  lii  _    state,  and  from  it,  at  the  end  of  about 

^ three  weeks,  the  perfect  insect  issues  as 
a  dull  yellowish-brown  or  reddish-brown 
moth  (Fig.  51),  characterized  chiefly  by 
.,  _  _.  the  front  wings  being  divided  into  three 

'^*  nearly   equal  parts   by   two   transverse 

whitish,  or  pale  yellowish  lines,  and  by  the  middle  space  between 
these  lines  being  paler  than  in  the  rest  of  the  wing  in  the  males, 
though  it  is  more  often  of  the  same  color,  or  even  darker  in  the  fe- 
males.   The  species  is,  however,  very  variable.* 

The  moths  do  not  feed,  and  the  sole  aim  of  their  lives  seems  to  be 
the  perpetuation  of  their  kind ;  for  as  soon  as  they  have  paired  and 
each  female  has  carefully  consigned  her  eggs  to  some  twig,  they  die, 

*  Dr.  Fitch,  in  the  very  exceUent  and  detailed  account  of  this  insect  in  his  second  Report, 
shows  how  very  variable  the  moth  is,  and  from  a  large  series  of  bred  and  captured  specimens,  I 
can  fully  corroborate  the  fact.  I  have  specimens  which  are  of  an  almost  uniform  pale  tawny-yel- 
low, while  others  are  very  dark,  being  what  might  be  termed  a  bay-brown  with  the  pale  markings 
conspicuous,  while  others  have  a  pale  band  across  the  hind  wings  so  conspicuous  as  to  very  closely 
resemble  the  European  neustria.  Dr.  Fitch  in  referring  to  his  figures  must  certainly  have  made  a 
mistake,  for  he  calls  Figure  4  the  female  and  Figure  3  the  male,  while  the  reverse  is  apparent  from 
the  figures  themselves.  My  own  figure  is  intended  to  represent  the  female,  but  the  middle  space  of 
the  upper  wings  seldom  if  ever  appears  so  light  in  this  sex,  as  the  engraver  has  erroneously  repre- 
sfiDted. 


120  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

and  when  the  proper  time  comes  around  again  the  eggs  will  hatch, 
and  the  same  cycle  of  changes  takes  place  each  year. 

This  insect  in  all  probabilit}'-  extends  wherever  the  w^ld  black 
cherry  ( Cerasus  serotina)  is  found,  as  it  prefers  this  tree  to  all  others  ; 
and  this  is  probably  the  reason  why  the  young  so  often  hatch  out  be- 
fore the  apple  bads  burst,  because,  as  is  well  known,  the  cherry  leafs 
out  much  earlier.  Besides  the  Cherry  and  Apple,  both  wild  and  cul- 
tivated, the  Apple-tree  Tent-caterpillar  will  feed  upon  Plum,  Thorn, 
Rose  and  perhaps  on  most  plants  belonging  to  the  Rose  family, 
though  the  Peach  is  not  congenial  to  it,  and  it  never  attacks  the  Pear, 
upon  which,  according  to  Dr.  Trimble,  it  will  starve.  It  does  w^ell  on 
Willow  and  Poplar  and  even  on  White  Oak,  according  to  Fitch,  who 
also  found  it  on  Witch  Hazel  {^HamameUs)  and  Beech. 

REMEDIES. 

Cut  off  and  burn  the  egg-clusters  during  winter,  and  examine  the 
trees  carefully  in  the  spring  for  the  nests  from  such  clusters  that  may 
have  eluded  the  winter  search.  The  eggs  are  best  cut  off  in  the  man- 
ner presently  to  be  described  for  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest. 
Though  to  kill  the  caterpillars  numerous  methods  have  been  resorted 
to,  such  as  burning,  and  swabbing  with  oil,  soap-suds,  lye,  etc.,  they 
are  all  unnecessary,  for  the  nests  should  not  be  allowed  to  get  large, 
and  if  taken  when  small  are  most  easily  and  eiTectually  destroyed  by 
going  over  the  orchard  with  the  fruit-ladder,  and  by  the  use  of  gloved 
hands.  As  the  caterpillars  feed  about  twice  each  day,  once  in  the 
forenoon  and  once  in  the  afternoon,  and  as  they  are  almost  always  in 
their  nests  till  after  9  a.  m.,  and  late  in  the  evening,  the  early  andlate 
hours  of  the  day  are  the  best  in  which  to  perform  the  operation.  As 
a  means  of  facilitating  this  operation,  it  would  be  a  good  plan,  as  Dr. 
Fitch  has  suggested,  to  plant  a  few  wild  cherry  trees  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  orchard,  and  as  the  moths  will  mostly  be  attracted  to  such 
trees  to  deposit  their  eggs,  and  as  a  hundred  clusters  on  a  single  tree 
are  destroyed  more  easily  than  if  they  were  scattered  over  a  hundred 
trees,  these  trees  will  well  repay  the  trouble  wherever  the  Tent-cat- 
erpillar is  known  to  be  a  grievous  pest. 

The  chrysalids  of  this  caterpillar  are  often  found  filled  with  little 
maggots,  which  produce  minute  Chalcididan  4- winged  flies  of  metallic 
green  and  black  colors,*  and  belonging  to  the  very  same  genus  as 
the  celebrated  Hessian-Hy  parasite.  This  parasite,  with  other  canni- 
bal insects,  and  perhaps  more  or  less  favorable  seasons,  tend  to  pro- 
duce a  fluctuation  in  the  numbers  of  these  caterpillars,  so  that  they 
are  more  numerous  some  years  than  others,  and  they  were  more  nu- 
merous in  18GS  than  they  have  been  since.  It  has  also  been  noticed 
that  dry  summers  are  injurious  to  them.     According  to  Dr.  LeBaron, 

■•■  Described  as  Cleonymus  clisiocampce  by  Dr.  Fitch  (Rep.,  vol.  I,   p.    200),    but   subsequently 
more  properly  referred  to  the  genus  Semietellus  (Rep.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  141. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  121 

the  Baltimore  Oriole  occasionally  pecks  at  the  nests,  but  does  not 
make  a  common  article  of  diet  of  the  caterpillars,  and  the  only  birds 
that  devour  them  greedily  are  the  American  Cuckoos  ( Coccyzus 
Americanus  and  erythrophthalmus). 


THE  TENT-CATERPILLAR  OF  THE  YOn^^H—Clisiocam^pa   syl' 

vaiica,  Harr. 

(Lepidoptera,  Bombycida3.) 

There  is  another  insect  which  in  all  its  stages  so  closely  resem- 
bles the  Apple-tree  Tent-caterpillar  as  to  be  very  generally  confoun- 
ded with  it.  This  insect  was  first  described  by  the  great  Massachu- 
setts entomologist,  Dr.  Harris,  and  very  appropriately  named  the 
Tent-Caterpillar  of  the  Forest,  the  better  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
other  species  which  is  more  common  in  our  orchards.  He,  however, 
unqualifiedl}^  states  that  it  lives  in  communities  under  a  common  web 
or  tent;  but  with  this  exception  gives  a  very  clear  and  truthful  ac- 
count of  it.*  It  has  been  quite  destructive  in  many  parts  of  Missouri 
during  the  past  two  summers,  and  as  I  have  had  good  opportunities 
of  studying  its  habits  I  shall  endeavor  to  dispel  the  confusion  and 
uncertainty  about  them  which  have  hitherto  existed  in  the  minds  of 
most  of  our  farmers. 

ITS  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

The  egg-mass  from  which  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest 
hatches  (Fig.  52,  «,  showing  it  after  the  young  larv^  have  escaped) 
may  at  once  be  distinguished  from  that  of  the  common  Tent-caterpil- 
lar by  its  being  of  a  uniform  diameter,  and  docked  oiF  squarely  at 
each  end.  It  is  usually  composed  of  about  400  eggs,  the  number  in 
five  masses  which  I  counted  ranging  from  3S0  to  -116.  Each  of  the  eggs 
composing  this  mass  is  of  a  cream-white  color,  O.Oi  inch  long  and  0.025 
inch  wide,  narrow  and  rounded  at  the  attached  end  or  base,  gradually 
enlarging  towards  the  top,  where  it  becomes  slighth''  smaller  (Fig.  52 
6?),  and  abruptly  terminates  with  a  prominent  circular  rim  on  the  out- 
side, and  a  sunken  spot  in  the  centre  (c).  These  eggs  are  deposited 
in  circles,  the  female  moth  stationing  herself,  for  this  purpose,  in  a 
transverse  position  across  the  twig.  With  abdomen  curved  she  gradu- 
ally moves  as  the  deposition   goes  on,  and  when  one   circle  is  com- 

*  Inj.  Ins.  p.  376. 


1-22 


THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 


CO 


[Fig.  52.]  pleted,  slie  commences  another — 

and  not  before.    With  each  egg  is 
—-^      :„—-  secreted  a  brown  varnish    which 

-jr'^;^^^'^''^  firmly  fastens  it  to  the  twig  and 
lo  its  neighbor,  and  which,  upon 
becoming  dry,  forms  a  carinated 
net-work  of  brown  over  the  pale 
egg-shell.  These  eggs  are  so  regu- 
larly laid  and  so  closely  glued  to 
each  other,  and  the  sides  are  often 
so  appressed,  that  the  moth  econo- 
mizes space  almost  as  effectually  as  does  the  Honey-bee  in  the  forma- 
tion of  its  hexagonal  cells.  In  confinement  the  moth  very  seldom 
succeeds  in  forming  a  perfect  ring,  but  in  her  abortive  attempts, 
deposits  them  in  different  sized  patches ;  and  as  I  have  found  such 
unfinished  patches  attached  to  an  oak  leaf  out-of-doors,  we  ma}'-  con- 
clude that  either  from  injury  or  debility  of  some  kind,  the  parent's 
instinct  sometimes  fails  it  even  when  all  the  conditions  are  normal 
and  natural. 

The  eggs  are  deposited,  in  the  latitude  of  St,  Louis,  during  the 
latter  part  of  June.  The  embryo  develops  during  the  hot  summer 
weather,  and  the  yet  unborn  larva  is  fully  formed  by  the  time  winter 
comes  on.  The  young  hatch  with  the  first  warm  weather  in  spring — 
generally  from  the  middle  to  the  last  of  March — and  though  the  buds 
of  their  food-plant  may  not  have  opened  at  the  time,  and  though  it  may 
freeze  severely  afterwards,  yet  these  little  creatures  are  wonderfully 
hardy,  and  can  fast  for  three  whole  weeks,  if  need  be,  and  with- 
stand any  amount  of  inclement  weather.  The  very  moment  these 
little  larvae  are  born,  they  commence  spinning  a  web  wherever 
they  go.  At  this  time  they  are  black  with  pale  hairs,  and  are 
always  found  either  huddled  together  or  traveling  in  file  along 
the  silken  paths  which  they  form  when  in  search  of  food.  In  about 
t^'o-  ^^-^  two  weeks  from  the  time  they  commence  feeding  they  go 
through  their  first  moult,  having  first  grown  paler  or  of  a 
light  yellowish  brown,  with  the  extremities  rather  darker 
than  the  middle  of  the  body ,with  the  little  warts  which  give 
rise  to  the  hairs  quite  distinct,  and  a  conspicuous  dark  inter- 
rupted line  each  side  of  the  back.  Mter  the  first  moult, 
they  are  characterized  principally  by  two  pale  j^ellowish 
subdorsal  lines,  which  border  what  was  before,  the  dark 
line  above  described.  After  the  second  moult,  which  takes 
=  place  in  about  a  week  from  the  first,  the  characteristic 
ipale  spots  on  the  back  appear,  the  upper  pale  line  becomes 
yellow,  the  lower  one  white,  and  the  space  between  them 
bluish :  indeed,  the  characters  of  the  mature  larva  are  from 
this  period  apparent.  Yery  soon  they  undergo  a  third  moult, 
after  which  the  colors  all  become  more   distinct  and  fresh 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  123 

the  head  and  anal  plate  have  a  soft  bluish  velvety  appearance,  and 
the  hairs  seem  more  dense.  After  undergoing  a  fourth  moult  with- 
out material  change  in  appearance,  they  acquire  their  full  growth  in 
about  six  weeks  from  the  time  of  first  feeding.  At  this  time  they  ap- 
pear as  at  Figure  53,  and  for  those  who  are  interested  in  such  mat- 
ters, I  quote  below  Dr.  Fitch's  description  of  the  full-grown  larva,  as  it 
is  the  first  accurate  and  detailed  description  ^hat  was  published,  and 
as  I  have  occasion  to  refer  to  it  further  on  : 

"The  caterpillar,  as  seen  after  it  has  forsaken  its  nest  and  is  wandering  about,  is  an 
inch  and  a  half  long  and  0.20  thick.  It  is  cylindrical  and  of  a  pale  blue  color,  tinged  low 
down  on  each  side  with  greenish  gray,  and  is  everywhere  sprinkled  over  with  black  points  and  dots. 
Along  its  back  is  a  row  of  ten  or  eleven  oval  or  diamond-shaped  while  spots  which  are  similarly 
sprinkled  with  black  points  and  dots,  and  are  placed  one  on  the  fore  part  of  each  segment.  Behind 
each  of  these  spots,  is  a  much  smaller  white  spot,  occupying  the  middle  of  each  segment.  The 
intervening  space  is  black,  which  color  also  forms  a  border  surrounding  each  of  the  spots,  and  on 
each  side  is  an  elevated  black  dot  from  which  arises  usually  four  long  black  hairs.  The  hind  part 
of  each  segment  is  occupied  by  three  crinkled  and  more  or  less  interrupted  pale  orange.yellow 
lines,  which  are  edged  with  black.  And  on  each  side  is  a  continuous  and  somewhat  broader  stripe 
of  the  same  yellow  color,  similarly  edged  on  each  of  its  sides  with  black.  Lower  down  upon  each 
side  is  a  paler  yellow  or  cream-colored  stripe,  the  edges  of  which  are  more  jagged  and  irregular 
than  those  of  the  one  above  it,  and  this  stripe  also  is  bordered  with  black,  broadly  and  unevenly  on 
its  upper  side  and  very  narrowly  on  its  lower  side.  The  back  is  clothed  with  numerous  fine  fox- 
colored  hairs,  and  low  down  on  each  side  are  numerous  coarser  whitish  ones.  On  the  under  side  is 
a  large  oval  black  spot  on  each  segment  except  the  anterior  ones.  The  legs  and  prolegs  are  black 
and  clothed  with  short  whitish  hairs.  The  head  is  of  a  dark  bluish  color  freckled  with  numerous 
black  dots  and  clothed  with  short  blackish  and  fox-colored  hairs.  The  second  segment*  or  neck  is 
edged  anteriorly  with  cream  white,  which  color  is  more  broad  upon  the  sides.  The  third  and  fourth 
segments  have  each  a  large  black  spot  on  each  side.  The  instant  it  is  immersed  in  spirits  the  blue 
color  of  this  caterpillar  vanishes  and  it  becomes  black. 

At  this  stage  of  its  growth  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest  may 
be  seen  wandering  singly  over  different  trees,  along  roads,  on  the  tops 
offences,  etc.,  in  search  of  a  suitable  place  to  form  its  cocoon.  It 
usually  contents  itself  with  folding  a  leaf  or  drawing  several  together 

■■■  It  is  necessary  to  remark  here  that  in  the  above  description,  Dr.  Fitch  reckons  the  head  as 
the  first  segment  and  the  first  leg-bearing  segment  of  the  body,  which  he  calls  the  neck,  as  the  sec- 
ond segment.  If  Lepidopterists  could  be  induced  to  adopt  some  uniform  rule  in  describing  Isltwss, 
it  would  prevent  much  confusion  and  error. 

It  is  astonishing  how  loosely  these  segments  are  referred  to  by  most  authors.  Thus  Dr.  Fitch, 
after  calling  the  head  the  first  segment  in  the  above  description,  excludes  it  in  the  descriptions  of 
the  larva;  of  Dryocampa  senatoria  and  Dnjocampa  stigma  which  immediately  follow  (Reports  3,  4 
and  5,  g^  322  and  323),  and  speaks  of  the  long  anterior  horns  as  proceeding  from  the  second  seg- 
ment, whereas,  to  be  consistent,  he  should  have  made  them  proceed  from  the  third  segment,  as  Mr. 
Wm.  Saunders  has  done  with  Dnjocampa  rubicunda  (Can.  Entoinologist  II,  p.  76).  Dr.  Packard 
(Guide  etc,  p.  271)  speaks  of  the  caudal  horn  of  the  larva;  of  SphingidcB  as  proceeding  from  the  lait 
segment,  which  it  certainly  does  not,  whichever  custom  be  adopted.  Westwood  (Intr.,  II,)  though 
his  language  on  page  319  would  lead  one  to  suppose  that  he  included  the  head  as  the  first  segment, 
more  often  adopts  the  other  rule,  as  for  instance  when  he  refers  to  the  11th  segment  in  Mamestra, 
etc.,  (p.  34-1).  Burmeister  in  his  Manual  of  Entomology  evidently  excluded  the  head  as  a  segment, 
for  he  refers  (p.  35)  to  the  "  three  first  segments  of  the  body  following  the  head,"  and  afterwards 
(p.  41)  speaks  in  more  precise  terms  of  the  body  consisting  of  12  segments. 

Strictly  speaking,  the  normal  insect  larva  is  composed  of  13  segments,  and  a  more  or  less  dis- 
tinct terminal  sub-segment ;  but  in  all  those  larvaj  in  which  the  anterior  segment  is  covered  by  a 
horny  case,  so  as  to  form  a  distinct  head,  it  seems  more  appropriate  to  consider  this  as  the  head  in 
contradistinction  to  the  twelve  articulations  of  the  body.  Especially  is  this  the  case  with  Lepidopte- 
rous  larvae,  which  are  so  plainly  marked  with  a  horny  head,  12  soft  joints  and  a  terminal  sub- 
joint;  and  this  plan  has  been  adopted  by  most  of  the  leading  entomologists,  including  Boisduval, 
Guence,  Harris,  etc. 

In  my  own  descriptions  I  have  always  adopted  this  course,  so  that  when  I  speak  of  the  first 
joint  I  mean  that  immediately  following  the  head.  Of  late  I  have  adopted  the  term  joint  because 
it  is  shorter  and  perhaps  more  strictly  accurate  than  segment.  I  also  discard  the  term  feet,  as  often 
applied  to  the  horny  articulate  legs,  for  they  are  not  feet  in  any  sense  of  the  word,  but  are  the 
true  legs  of  the  insect,  and  the  simple  term  legs  or  thoracic  legs  will  at  once  distinguish  them  from 
the  abdominal  an  ana]  prolegs  or  false  legs. 


124  THIRD   ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

for  this  purpose,  though  it  frequently  spins  up  under  fence  boards  and 
in  other  sheltered  situations.  The  cocoon  is  very  much  like  that  of  the 
common  Tent-caterpillar,  being  formed  of  a  loose  exterior  covering  of 
wliite  silk  with  the  hairs  of  the  larva  interwoven,  and  by  a  more  com- 
pact oval  inner  pod  that  is  made  stilf  by  the  meshes  being  filled  wilh 
a  thin  yellowish  paste  from  the  mouth  of  the  larva,  which  paste, 
when  dried,  gives  the  cpcoon  the  appearance  of  being  dusted  with 
powdered  sulphur  exactly  as  in  that  of  the  other  species.  Three  days 
after  the  cocoon  is  completed  the  caterpillar  casts  its  skin  for  the  last 
time  and  becomes  a  chrysalis  of  a  reddish  brown  color,  slightly  dusted 
with  a  pale  powder,  and  densely  clothed  with  short  pale  yellow  hairs, 
which  at  the  blunt  and  rounded  extremity  are  somewhat  larger  and 
darker.  In  a  couple  of  weeks  more,  or  during  the  forepart  of  June, 
the  moths  commence  to  issue,  and  fly  about  at  night.  This  moth  (Fig. 
52,  J?)  bears  a  considerable  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Common  Tent- 
caterpillar  (Fig.  51),  being  of  a  brownish-yellow  or  rusty-brown,  and 
having  two  oblique  transverse  lines  across  the  front  wings.  It 
differs,  however,  in  the  color  being  paler  or  more  yellowish,  especi- 
ally on  the  thorax;  in  the  space  between  the  oblique  line  being,  even 
in  the  males,  usually  darker  instead  of  lighter  than  that  on  either 
side ;  but  principally  in  the  oblique  lines  themselves  being  always 
dark  instead  of  light,  and  in  a  transverse  shade,  often  quite  distinct, 
across  the  hind  wings.  As  in  Americana.,  the  male  is  smaller  than 
the  female,  with  the  wings  shorter  and  cut  off  more  squarely.  Con- 
siderable variation  may  be  found  in  a  given  number  of  moths,  but 
principally  in  the  space  between  the  oblique  lines  on  the  front  wings 
being  either  of  the  same  shade  as  the  rest  of  the  wing,  or  in  its  being 
much  darker;  but  as  I  have  found  these  variations  in  different  indi- 
viduals of  the  same  brood,  bred  either  from  Oak,  Hickory,  Apple  and 
Rose,  they  evidently  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  food-plant.  The 
scales  on  the  wings  are  very  loosely  attached,  and  rub  off  so  readily 
that  good  specimens  of  the  moth  are  seldom  captured  at  large.  So 
much  for  the  natural  history  of  our  Forest  Tent-caterpillar. 

THE  LARVA  SPINS  A  WEB. 

From  the  very  moment  it  is  born  till  after  the  fourth  or  last  moult, 
this  caterpillar  spins  a  web  and  lives  more  or  less  in  company;  but 
from  the  fact  that  this  web  is  always  attached  close  to  the  branches 
and  trunks  of  the  trees  infested,  it  is  often  overlooked,  and  several 
writers  have  falsely  declared  that  it  does  not  spin.  At  each  succes- 
sive moult  all  the  individuals  of  a  batch  collect  and  huddle  together 
upon  a  common  web  for  two  or  three  days,  and  during  these  periods 
— though  more  active  than  most  other  caterpillars  in  this  so-called 
sickness — they  are  quite  sluggish.  During  the  last  or  fourth  moult 
they  very  frequently  come  low  down  on  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  and,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  gregarious  larvae  of  the  Hand-maid  Moth  {Datana 


TUE  STATE  EKTOMOLOQIST.  125 

ininistra)^  which  often  entirely  denude  our  Bhick  Walnuts,  they 
unwittingly  court  destruction  by  collecting  in  such  masses  within 
man's  reach. 

IT  FEEDS  BOTH  ON  ORCHARD  AND  FOREST  TREES. 

In  the  summer  of  1SG7  this  insect  did  great  damage  in  Western 
New  York,  where  it  is  falsely  called  THE  "Army-worm."  From  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Peter  Ferris,  of  Millville,  Orleans  county,  N.  Y.,  w^as 
greatly  troubled  with  it  that  year  in  his  apple  orchard,  and  that  he 
did  not  notice  any  of  the  same  worms  on  the  Oak  and  Walnut  timber 
of  that  section,  he  concluded  that  his  Apple-feeding  worms  must  be 
dilTerent  from  those  feeding  on  forest  trees.  In  an  article  signed  "F., 
Orleans  county,  N.  Y.,"  which  appeared  in  the  Country  Gentleman 
of  July  23d,  1S6S,  the  same  writer  endeavors  to  prove  his  Apple-feed- 
ing worms  distinct  by  sundry  minute  characters,  as  may  be  seen  from 
the  following  extract: 

Now  I  am  not  an  entomologist,  but  still  must  be  allowed  to  be- 
lieve that  there  are  several  points,  if  not  ^'distinctive  characters,"  in 
which  our  caterpillar  differs  from  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest, 
as  described  by  Dr.  Fitch.  His  larva  is  of  a  pale  blue  color,  tinged 
lower  down  on  each  side  with  greenish -gray.  In  ours  the  prevailing 
color  on  the  back  is  black  ;  there  is  a  sky-blue  stripe  on  each  side  but 
no  greenish-gray.  Both  have  the  white  spots  on  the  back  much 
alike,  though  perhaps  ours  are  more  club  shaped,  looking  to  the  naked 
eye  nearly  the  shape  of  ten-pins.  Both  have  these  spots  surrounded 
with  black;  in  ours  there  is  quite  a  broad  black  stripe  on  each  side 
of  the  spots.  This  black  stripe  is  more  or  less  filled  with  fine,  crin- 
kled, bright  orange  lines.  In  some,  these  orange  lines  are  so  plenty 
as  to  be  seen  plainly  without  the  glass;  in  others  the  color  to  the 
naked  eye  is  a  fine  velvet-black.  In  the  larva  described  by  Dr.  Fitch 
there  is  much  less  of  black  and  of  the  fine  crinkled  lines,  which  are 
pale  orange  yellow.  There  is  a  somewhat  broader  stripe  of  the  same 
yellow  color,  in  place  of  a  narrow  orange  one  in  ours.  The  lower 
yellow  stripe  may  be  much  alike  in  both,  but  what  is  sky-blue  in  one 
is  greenish- gray  in  the  other.  In  both,  the  head  is  of  a  dark  bluish 
color,  but  in  his  it  is  freckled  with  numerous  black  dots ;  in  ours,  both 
to  the  naked  eye  and  under  a  glass,  it  is  plain.  In  his  "the  second 
segment  or  neck  is  edged  anteriority  with  cream-white,  which  color  is 
more  broad  on  the  sides.  The  third  and  fourth  segments  have  each  a 
large  black  spot  on  each  side."  Both  the  cream  white  edge  and  black 
spots  are  entirely  wanting  in  our  caterpillars. 

The  habits  of  the  larvre  also  appear  to  be  different.  According 
to  Harris  and  Fitch,  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest  lives  in  large 
societies,  under  a  tent  or  cob-web-like  nest  placed  against  the  side 
of  the  tree,  and  comes  out  to  feed  on  the  leaves.  Others,  as  well  as 
myself,  have  watched  our  caterpillars  and  entirely  fail  to  discover 
that  they  lived  in  communities,  or  in  any  one  place  that  they  went 
from  and  returned  to.  While  small,  they  remain  scattered  over  the 
smaller  branches  and  on  the  leaves,  and  are  first  seen  to  begin  to  get 
together  when  about  half  grown,  on  some  of  the  higher  limbs  in  the 
sun.  They  only  collect  in  large  bunches  on  the  trunk  and  lower 
limbs;  when  nearly  full  grown,  and  the  weather  is  hot,  they  get  in 
the  shade ;  and  then  they  never  have   any  web   or  particular  place 


126  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

they  return  to,  or  show  any  uniformity  in  the  size  of  the  bunches. 
But  tliey  only  manage  in  this  way  while  the  leaves  last.  As  soon  as 
one  tree  is  stripped  they  go  to  another,  and  when  one  orchard  is  used 
up  leave  for  another.  They  are  great  travelers;  on  a  smooth  track, 
like  a  hard  road  or  a  fence  cap  board,  they  get  along  quite  fast.  They 
do  not  try  to  keep  together,  but  each  one  goes  on  his  own  hook. 
There  is  very  little  said  about  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest 
traveling  in  this  way. 

Then  our  larviie  appear  decidedly  to  prefer  the  leaves  of  the  Ap- 
ple-tree, and  only  feed  on  the  leaves  of  other  trees  when  the  former 
are  not  to  be  had.  Though  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  they  will 
not  feed  on  Oak,  Walnut  or  Hickory  trees,  under  any  circumstances, 
I  have  repeatedly  found  these  trees  in  full  leaf  when  not  only  Apple 
trees,  but  Ash  and  Basswood  trees  near  by,  were  entirely  stripped. 
The  eggs  are  sometimes  laid  on  Hard- Maple  shade  trees,  but  the  cat- 
erpillars leave  these  trees  as  soon  as  they  get  much  size,  evidently 
in  search  of  food  more  suitable  to  their  taste.  This  may  be  the  case 
in  regard  lo  Oak  and  Walnut  trees. 

They  also  select  different  places  for  their  cocoons.  Dr.  Fitch  says 
the  Tent-caterpillar  ol  the  Forest  selects  a  sheltered  spot  for  its  co- 
coon, such  as  the  corner  or  angle  formed  by  the  meeting  of  two  or 
three  sides.  In  this  the  cocoon  is  suspended.  Our  larva  selects  one 
or  more  leaves  on  any  tree  that  is  convenient.  The  edges  of  the 
leaves  are  drawn  together,  forming  a  shelter  in  which  there  is  gen- 
erally one  cocoon;  though  when  the  space  is  large,  and  they  are  very 
numerous,  there  are  often  two  or  three  cocoons  together.  The  co- 
coon is  not  suspended,  but  fastened  to  the  leaf.  They  spin  their  co- 
coons in  the  forepart  of  July,  and  the  moths  appear  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  month.  The  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest  spins  its  cocoon 
about  the  20th  of  June,  and  the  moth  appears  in  the  forepart  of  July. 

Now  I  think  enough  has  been  given  to  show  that  two  distinct  in- 
sects are  under  consideration,  but,  being  only  a  farmer,  I  may  be  mis- 
taken. I  would  like  to  see  Dr.  Fitch's  views  on  this  question.  Un- 
doubtedly he  has  read  Dr.  Walsh's  article  on  "The  Three  so-called 
Army-worms,"  in  the  PraGticcd  Entomologists  and  can  tell  whether 
our  caterpillar  is  a  distinct  insect,  or  only  shows  the  variations  that 
may  be  expected  in  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest. 

Now  since  Dr.  Fitch  has  not,  to  my  knowledge,  complied  with 
Mr.  Ferris's  courteous  wish,  the  labor  has  devolved  upon  me.  I  have 
taken  upwards  of  200  specimens  from  the  same  batch  of  Oak-feeding 
worms,  and  upon  critically  examining  them,  find  that  Dr.  Fitch's 
description  is  accurate,  and  that  the  differences  or  variations  men- 
tioned by  Mr.  Ferris  arise  in  every  case,  either  from  a  misapprehen- 
sion of  Dr.  Fitch's  meaning,  or  from  variations  which  may  be  found 
in  the  same  brood.  The  only  real  difference  between  the  two  writers 
lies  in  the  statement  of  Dr.  Fitch  that  the  worms  live  under  a  large 
cob-web-like  nest,  and  that  of  Mr.  Ferris  that  they  do  no  such  thing. 
Both  statements  should  have  been  qualified,  and  were  made  without 
sufficient  observation ;  for  though  the  normal  habit  of  the  worms  is 
to  collect  outside  of  their  nests,  I  have  seen  exceptional  instances  of 
their  collecting  within  or  underneath  it,  especially  when  young. 

Now  it  is  just  barely  possible  that  in  Western  New  York  there 
may  be  a  race  of  these  worms  that  has  taken  to  feeding  on  Apple  and 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  127 

has  lost  all   appetite  or  become  incapacitated  for  feeding  on  forest 
trees  ;  in  other  words,  that  there  is  a  phytophagic  variety,  or  a  phyto- 
phagic  species  in  process  of  formation.      I  could    mention   several 
similar  occurrences  among  insects,*  and  to  those  who  believe  in  the 
immutability   of  species   these    occurrences   are    incomprehensible 
enough ;  but  to  those  who  accept  the  more  modern  Darwinian  views, 
and  believe  that  species  are  slowly  being  formed  to-day,  just  as  they 
have  been  for  long  ages  and  ages  in  the  past,  they  are  most  signifi- 
cant, and  exactly  what  we  should  expect.     But  that  such  a  race  has 
yet  been  formed  is  rendered  highly  improbable  from  the  following 
facts:  1st.    It  is   spoken  of  both  by  Dr.  Fitch  and  Dr.  Harris  as  oc- 
curring on  Oak,  and  by  the   latter   as   also   occurring    on  Walnut, 
Apple   and   Cherry   in   the    New  England  States.      Mr.  George  E. 
Brackett  of    Belfast,    Maine,!    "i    referring    to    its    ravages  in  the 
orchard,  states  that  it  also  ravaged  the  forests  in  the  summer  of  1867^ 
eating  the  leaves  of  most  kinds  of  deciduous  trees,  though  Poplar  and 
Ash  seemed  to  be  their  favorites.    2nd.    I  have,  in  our   own  State^ 
successfully  transferred   them  from  Oak  to  Apple,  and  from  Apple  to 
Oak,  and  now  have  a  suite  of  moths  bred  from  larvae  which  were  fed 
half  the   time  on  the  one    and  half  the   time   on  the   other.     Given 
an   equal    quantity  of    Oak,    Apple,    Plum,     Peach,    Cherry,  Wal- 
nut, Hickory,  Rose,  they  have  invariably  seemed  to  prefer  and  thrive 
best  on  the  Apple. 

IS   IT  EVER  VERY  DESTRUCTIVE  ? 

This  question  is  raised  by  Dr.  Fitch,  who,  on  insufficient  ground?; 
discredited  the  previous  assertion  of  Abbot,  that  it  "is  sometimes  so 
plentiful  in  Virginia  as  to  strip  the  oak  trees  bare."  The  destruction 
it  caused  in  some  of  the  Eastern  States  in  1866  and  in  1867,  is  suffi- 
cient to  decide  this  question  ;  but  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  in  the  South  and  West  its  injuries  are  of  still  vaster  extent.  From 
Mr.  John  H.  Evans  of  Des  Arc,  Ark.,  I  learn  that  it  last  summer  com- 
pletely stripped  the  over-cup  timber  in  the  overflowed  bottoms  of 
that  country,  and  for  the  past  two  years  it  has  been  quite  destructive 
both  to  forest  and  orchard  trees,  in  many  parts  of  Missouri.  In  the 
Oak  timber  these  worms  prefer  trees  of  the  Black  Oak  group,  and  will 
seldom  touch  the  White  Oak  in  bodies,  though  when  scattered  among 
the  other  kinds,  they  attack  it  also. 

*Por  an  account  of  such  insects  as  are  known  to  have  phytophagic  varieties  or  phytophagic 
species  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  Mr.  Walsh's  papers  on  the  subject  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
Entomological  Society  of  Thiladelphia  for  1S64  and  1865.  But,  as  tlie  most  familiar  and  striking 
examples  I  will  mention,  first — tlie  polyphagous  black-pencilled  larva  o£  Halesidota  tassellata, 
Sm.  and  Abb.,  found  feeding  on  Oak,  Hickory,  Elm,  Plum  and  other  trees,  and  the  monophagous 
orange-pencilled  larva  of  H.  Ilarrisii,  Walsh,  found  exclusively  on  Sycamore  ;  the  moths  from  the 
two  being  absolutely  undistinguish.ible.  Second — the  yellow-necked  larva  of  Datana  ministra, 
Drury,  found  on  Apple  and  other  trees,  and  the  black-necked  larva  of  the  same  moth  found  on 
Black-walnut  and  Hickory.  Third— the  large  Butternut  and  AValnut-feeding  form  of  the  common 
Plum  Curculio  {Conotrachclus  nenuphar,  Herbst.) 

■fAmer.  Journal  of  Hort.,  Sept.,  1867.  ,. 


128  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

ARTIFICIAL    REMEDIES. 

From  the  time  they  are  born  till  after  the  third  moult  these  worms 
will  drop  and  suspend  themselves  mid-air,  if  the  branch  upon  which 
they  are  feeding  be  suddenly  jarred.  Therefore  when  they  have  been 
allowed  to  multiply  in  an  orchard  this  habit  will  suggest  various 
modes  of  destroying  them.  Again,  as  already  stated,  they  can  often 
be  slaughtered  en  masse  when  collected  on  the  trunks  during  the  last 
moulting  period.  They  will  more  generally  be  found  on  the  leeward 
side  of  the  tree  if  the  wind  has  been  blowing  in  the  same  direction  for 
a  few  days.  The  cocoons  may  also  be  searched  for,  and  many  of  the 
moths  caught  by  attracting  them  towards  the  light.  But  pre-eminently 
the  most  effective  artificial  mode  of  preventing  this  insect's  injuries 
is  to  search  for  and  destroy  the  egg-masses  in  the  winter  time  when 
the  trees  are  leafless.  Not  only  is  this  course  the  more  efficient  be- 
cause it  is  more  easily  pursued,  and  nips  the  evil  in  the  bud,  but  for 
the  reason  that,  in  destroying  the  eggs  only,  we  in  a  great  measure 
evade  killing,  and  consequently  co-operate  with,  the  natural  parasites 
presently  to  be  mentioned,  which  infest  the  worms  themselves.  A 
pair  of  pruning  shears  attached  to  the  end  of  a  pole,  and  operated  by 
a  cord,  will  be  found  very  useful  in  clipping  off  the  eggs ;  or,  as  recom- 
mended by  Mr.  Ferris,  a  more  simple  instrument  may  be  made  by 
fastening  a  piece  of  an  old  scythe  to  a  pole.  If  the  scythe  is  kept 
sharp,  the  twigs  may  very  handily  be  clipped  with  this  instrument. 
Tarred  bandageS;  or  any  of  the  many  remedies  used  to  prevent  the 
female  Canker  worm  from  ascending  trees,  can  only  be  useful  with 
the  Forest  Tent-caterpillar  when  it  is  intended  to  temporarily  protect 
an  uninfested  tree  from  the  straggling  worms  which  may  travel  from 
surrounding  trees. 

NATURAL  REMEDIES. 

It  is  always  wise  to  co  operate,  whenever  w^e  can,  with  our  little 
friends  among  the  Bugs,  and  it  is  consequently  very  necessary  to  be 
acquainted  with  them.  It  happens,  fortunately,  that  we  have  several 
which  aid  us  in  keeping  the  Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Forest  in  check, 
and  in  the  natural  forest  we  must  trust  entirely  to  these  auxiliaries, 
as  the  mechanical  means  that  can  profitably  be  employed  in  a  moder- 
ate sized  orchard  are  impracticable  in  broad  extents  of  timber.  In- 
deed, these  cannibals  and  parasites  do  their  work  so  effectually  that 
this  caterpillar  is  seldom  exceedingly  numerous  for  more  than  two 
successive  years  in  one  locality,  It  prevails  suddenly  in  great  num- 
bers, and  again  is  scarcely  noticed  for  years,  very  much  as  is  the  case 
with  the  true  Army- worm.  Thus,  after  attracting  such  general  at- 
tention in  lS67in  many  parts  of  the  East,  it  has  scarcely  been  noticed 
since.  This  is  its  history  everywhere,  and  we  may  reasonably  hope 
that  in  those  parts  of  the  West  where  it  has  been  cutting  such  a  figure 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  189 

the  present  summer,  it  will  suddenly  be  so  subdued  as  not  to  be 
noticed  for  some  j'-ears  to  come.  Its  undue  increase  but  combines  the 
assaults  of  its  enemies,  until  they  multiply  so  as  to  gain  the  ascend- 
ency. Then,  from  insufficiency  of  food  these  enemies  suddenly  de- 
crease in  numbers,  and  their  natural  prey  has  a  chance  to  increase 
again.  And  so  it  goes  on  in  the  "Struggle  for  Life,"  and  in  the  great 
complicated  net-work  in  which  every  animal  organism  is  involved: 
a  check  here  and  a  check  there,  and  no  one  of  all  the  myriad 
forms  allowed  to  keep  the  ascendency  beyond  a  limited  time.  The 
most  efficient  cannibal  insects  in  checking  the  increase  of  this  Forest 
Caterpillar,  are  the  larger  Ground-beetles  belonging  to  the  genus 
[Fig.  54.]  Colosoma.     These  beetles  will    pounce 

upon  the  worms  with  astonishing  greed, 
and  are  especially  prone  to  attack  them 
when  helplessly  collected  together  during 
the  moulting  periods.  The  Rummaging 
Ground-beetle  {Colosoma  sorutator^ 
Fabr.),  which  every  one  will  recognize 
from  the  figure  (54),  is  especially  fond  of 
them.  The  most  common  parasite  which 
occurs  abundantly  in  the  West,  as  well 
as  in  the  East,  and  which  I  have  bred 
from  several  other  caterpillars,  is  a  mag- 
got producing  a  Tachina-fly,  which  differs 
only  from  the  Red-tailed  Tachina-fiy  {Exorista  leucanicB,  Kirk.), 
which  infests  the  Army-worm,  in  lacking  the  red  tail.*  The  other 
parasite  which  infests  it  in  the  East,  but  which  I  have  not  yet  met 
with,  is  a  species  of  Pimpla  very  closely  allied  to  P.  melanocephala^ 
Brulle,  but  differing  from  that  species  in  the  head  being  red  and  not 
black. f 

SUMMARY. 

The  Tent  caterpillar  of  the  Forest  differs  from  the  common  Orchard 
Tent-caterpillar  principally  in  its  egg-mass  being  docked  off  squarely 
instead  of  being  rounded  at  each  end;  in  its  larva  having  a  row  of 
spots  along  the  back  instead  of  a  continuous  narrow  line,  and  in  its 
moth  having  the  color  between  the  oblique  lines  on  the  front  wings 
as  dark  or  else  darker,  instead  of  lighter  than  the  rest  of  the  wing.  It 
feeds  on  a  variety  of  both  forest  and  orchard  trees ;  makes  a  web 
which  from  its  being  usually  fastened  close  to  the  tree  is  often  over- 
looked; is  often  very  destructive,  and  is  most  easily  fought  in  the  egg 
state. 

*i:izorfs*ff  iewcowicc,  Kirkpatrick  =  JB.  mt/t/am,  Walsh.  I  have  bred  the  variety  lacking  the 
red  at  tip  of  abdomen  from  larva?  of  Altacwi  cecropia,  Linn.,  Datana  ministra,  Drury,  Agrotis 
inermis,  Riley,  and  of  two  undetermined  Agrotidians. 

■f Practical  Entomologist,  II,  p.  114.    ' 
S  E— 9 


130 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


THE  FALL  y^^B-y^ORU—HypJiantria  textor,  Harris. 

(Lepidoptera,  Arctiidse.) 

With  the  two  preceding  caterpillars  is  often  confounded  a  third 

which  in  reality  has  nothing  in 
common  with  them,  except  that  it 
spins  a  web.  The  insect  I  refer  to 
is  known  by  the  appropriate  name 
of  Fall  Web-worm,  and  whenever 
we  hear  accounts  of  the  Tent-cater- 
pillars taking  possession  of  trees 
and  doing  great  injury  in  the  fall  of 
the  3'ear  (and  we  do  hear  such  ac- 
^  counts  quite  often),  we  may  rest 
assured  that  the  Fall  Web-worm  is 
the  culprit  and  has  been  mistaken  for  the  Tent-caterpillars,  which 
never  appear  at  that  season  of  the  year, 

I  do  not  know  how  injurious  this  insect  is  in  the  more  Southern 
States,  but  he  who  travels  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  with  an  eye  to  the 
beauties  of  the  landscape,  through  any  of  the  Northern  and  Middle 
States,  especially  towards  the  Atlantic  sea-board,  will  find  the  beauty 
fearfully  marred  by  the  innumerable  webs  or  nests  of  this  worm.  If 
they  are  as  common  as  they  were  last  fall,  he  will  very  naturally  de- 
plore the  unsightly  appearance  of  the  forests,  and  feel  amazed  at  the 
number  of  these  signs  of  carelessness  and  slovenliness  which  occur 
in  the  cultivated  orchards  !  The  Web-worm  is  found  on  a  great  many 
kinds  of  trees,  though  on  some  more  abundantly  than  others;  but 
with  the  exception  of  the  different  grape-vines,  the  evergreens,  the 
sumachs  and  the  Ailanthus,  scarcely  any  tree  or  shrub  seems  to  come 
amiss  to  its  voracious  appetite.  This  insect  passes  the  winter  in  the 
pupa  state  under  ground  and  the  moth  emerges  during  the  month  of 
May  or  as  late  as  the  fore  part  of  June.  The  female  deposits  her  eggs 
in  a  cluster  on  a  leaf,  generally  near  the  end  of  a  branch,  and  these 
eggs  hatch  during  the  months  of  June,  July  and  August,  earlier  or 
later,  according  to  the  latitude.  Each  worm  begins  spinning  the 
moment  it  is  born,  and  by  their  united  effort  they  soon  cover  the  leaf 
with  a  web,  under  which  they  feed  in  company,  devouring  only  the 
pulpy  portions  of  the  leaf.  As  they  increase  in  size  they  extend 
their  web,  but  always  remain  and  feed  underneath  it.  When  young 
the  worn  s  are  pale-yellow  with  the  hairs  quite  sparse  and  with  two 
rows  of  black  marks  along  the  body  and  a  black  head.  When  full 
grown  they  generally  appear  pale-yel1owish  or  greenish  with  a  broad 
dusky  stripe  along  the  back  and  a  yellow  stripe  along  the  sides,  and 
they  are  covered  with  whitish  hairs  which  spring  from  black  and 
oriiuge-yellow  warts.  Figure  55,  a,  gives  a  very  good  idea  of  a  full 
grown  worm,  but  the  species  is  very  variable  both  as  to  depth  of  color- 
ing and  markings. 


JCHE  STATE  ,ENTOMOLOG-IST.  131 

Both  Dr,  Harris  and  Dr.  Fitch  state  that  this  worm  spins  its  thin 
cocoon  in  crevices  of  bark  and  similarly  sheltered  places  above 
ground,  but  a  great  many  of  the  specimens  which  I  have  reared  (and 
I  have  bred -specimens  three  different  years)  buried  themselves  and 
formed  their  cocoons  just  under  the  surface  of  the  ground — thus  giv- 
ing evidence  that  the  same  insect  will  sometimes  variously  spin  up 
-above  oi'  below  the  ground.  The  chrysalis  (Fig.  55,  h)  is  of  a  very 
dark  brown  color,  glabrous  and  polished  and  faintly  punctured,  and  is 
characterized  by  swelling  or  bulging  about  the  middle.  The  moth 
{Fig.  55,  c)  is  white  with  a  very  slight  fulvous  shade:  it  has  immacu- 
late wings,  but  the  front  thighs  are  tawny-yellow  and  the  feet  black- 
ish: in  some  the  tawny  thighs  have  a  large  black  spot,  while  the 
shanks  on  the  upper  surface  are  rufous.;  in  many  all  the  thighs  are 
tawny-yellow,  while  in  others  they  have  scarcely  any  color.  One  bred 
specimen  in  my  caljinet  even  has  two  tolerably  distinct  spots  on  each 
front  wing — one  at  base  of  fork  on  the  costal  nerve,  and  one  just 
within  the  second  furcation  of  the  median  nerve. 

Daring  the  summer  and  fall  of  1870  this  worm  was  unprecedently 
numerous,  not  onl}'-  in  our  own  State  but  all  over  the  country,  and,  as 
was  remarked  by  others  as  well  as  m^'^self,  it  hatched  out  much  earlier 
than  usual ;  for  the  first  webs  were  noticed  around  St.  Louis  by  the 
middle  of  June.  It  has  always  been  supposed  to  be  single-brooded, 
and  in  the  New  England  States  it  never  does  perhaps  produce  more 
than  one  brood  each  year;  but  though  such  may  be  its  normal  habit, 
even  in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  yet  there  is  good  evidence  that  it 
sometimes  produces  tv/o  broods  in  that  latitude,  and  in  all  probability 
does  so  constantly  still  further  south.  There  appeared  to  be  two 
broods  with  us  the  present  year,  and  Mr.  J.  R.  Muhleman,  of  Wood- 
burn,  Illinois,  informed  me  that  on  August  5th,  he  had  a  second  brood 
of  worms,  the  first  brood  having  appeared  in  June  on  Pear  and  Osage 
Orange.  He  did  not,  however,  breed  one  generation  from  the  other, 
.ind  until  this  is  done  during  the  same  year,  we  cannot  say  with  abso- 
lute certainty  that  the  species  is  two-brooded,  for  the  disparity,-in 
time  of  appearance  can  be  accounted  for  in  other  ways.  The  climate 
of  the  Central  portion  of  our  State  is  intermediate  between  that  of 
the  more  Northern  and  the  more  Southern  States,  but  the  fauno  par- 
takes more  of  the  character  of  the  latter;  and  our  summers  are  so 
variable  in  their  duration  and  in  their  general  intensity,  that  our  in- 
sects show  a  great  variability  in  their  habits.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  draw  the  rigid  lines  that  many  of  our 
New  England  writers  have  done  when  treating  of  a  particular  insect, 
and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  we  frequently  find  insects,  normally 
single-brooded  there,  often  producing  two  broods  a  year  here. 

With  us  the  Fall  Web-v/orra  appears  to  be  most  partial  to  the 
hickories  and  to  the  Black  walnut,  and  least  so  to  the  oaks;  but  I 
have  found  scarcely  any  tree  or  shrub  exempt  from  its  attacks  except 
those  already  mentioned,  and  it  is  even  said  to  feed  on  the  Hop- 
Plantain,  Bean,  Sunflower,  and  many  other  herbaceous  plants. 


132 


THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


From  the  foregoing  account  it  will  at  once  be  seen  how  widely 
this  Fall  Web-worm  really  diiFers  from  the  Tent-caterpillars.  It  hi- 
bernates in  the  pupa  state,  they  in  the  egg  state  ;  it  appears  mostly 
in  the  fall,  they  mostly  in  the  spring;  its  moth  is  pure  white,  theirs 
reddish  brown ;  its  eggs  are  deposited  on  a  leaf,  and  hatch  before  the 
leaf  falls,  theirs  are  deposited  around  a  twig,  because  they  have  to 
pass  the  winter  and  would  get  lost  with  the  leaves  if  deposited  upon 
them;  it  feeds  solely  on  the  parenchyma  of  the  leaf  under  its  web, 
they  devour  the  whole  leaf  outside  of  their  tent ;  and  on  account  of 
these  differences,  we  cannot  employ  the  preventive  measures  against 
it  which  we  take  against  them. 

REMEDIES. 

As,  therefore,  nothing  can  be  done  to  materially  affect  this  insect 
during  the  winter,  we  must  do  all  the  fighting  when  the  worms  first 
hatch.  Their  web  soon  betrays  them,  and  the  twig  or  branch  con- 
taining it  may  be  pruned  off  in  the  same  manner  described  for  the 
Tent-caterpillars.  As  the  worms  are  always  under  the  tent,  the  ope- 
ration in  this  case  can  be  performed  at  any  time  of  the  day  without 
the  risk  of  missing  any  wanderers. 

IIyphantria  TEXTon — Larva — (Fig.  55,  a)  Ground-color  greenish-yellow.  Dorsum  velvety- 
black,  with  a  narrow  median  pale  line  on  thoracic  joints.  Sides  speckled  with  black,  except  along^ 
subdorsal  and  stigmatal  lines,  where  longitudinal  yellow  patches  are  left  clear.  Venter  dusky  or 
smoky-brown.  Head  shiny  black  with  labrum  and  antennje  white.  Thoracic  legs  black  ;  prolegs 
long  and  narrow,  smoky-black  with  faint  orange  extremities.  Covered  with  long  straight  hairs, 
lonp-est  on  joints  2,  3,  11  and  12.  These  hairs  are  either  dirty  white  with  a  few  blrsck  ones  inter- 
spersed, or  of  a  more  uniform  reddish-brown.  They  spring  in  bundles  from  around  large  warta 
situated  as  follows  on  each  joint ;  4  which  are  black  and  dorsal,  arranged  in  a  trapezoid,  the  ante- 
rior pair  being  the  smaller  ;  and  four  which  are  orange  on  each  side,  and  arranged  in  a  transverse 
row  in  the  middle  of  the  joint.     Stigmata  light  yellow.     Average  length,  1.10  inches. 

Varies  considerably,  in  some  the  black  predominating,  in  others  the  yellow.  Those  found  on 
hickories  are  usually  the  darkest.  When  newly  hatched  it  is  pale  yellow  with  two  longitudinals 
rows  of  black  marks  and  a  black  head. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens. 


THE  BLUE-SPANGLED  PEACH  WORM- 

Clem. 


■Oallimorp/ia  fulvicosia, 


(Lepidoptera,  Arctiidtc.) 

In  examining  apple  trees,  but  more  especially  peach  trees,  dur- 


[Fig.  56.] 


ing  winter  or  early  spring,  we 
often  come  across  little  black 
worms,  covered  with  short, 
stiff,  sprangling  hairs,  and  stud- 
ded with  minute  blue  spots, 
sheltering  under  the  loose 
bark.  As  soon  as  the  leaves 
^put  out,  these  worms  issue 
from  their  winter  retreat  and 
commence     feeding.        They 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  133 

grow  apace  and  by  the  end  of  April  have  usually  acquired  their  full 
size,  when  they  present  the  appearance  of  Figure  56,  a  ;  c  showing 
an  enlarged  side  section  of  one  of  the  principal  joints,  and  d  a  back 
view  of  the  same.  The  color  is  now  velvety  black  above,  and  pale 
bluish,  speckled  with  black  below;  there  is  a  deep  orange  line  along 
the  back,  and  a  more  distinct  wavy  and  broken  one  along  each  side : 
the  warts,  illustrated  in  the  enlarged  sections  are  steel-blue  and  gran- 
ulated, and  their  irregularities,  as  they  catch  and  reflect  the  light, 
look  like  minute  pale  blue  diamonds,  the  whole  body,  upon  casually 
glancing  at  it,  appearing  studded  with  these  blue  points.  This  worm 
spins  a  slight  cocoon  of  white  silk  in  any  sheltered  place  it  can  find, 
and  changes  to  a  chrysalis  of  a  purple-brown  color,  finely  and  thinly 
punctured  an»i  terminating  in  a  horizontally  flattened  plate,  which  is 
furnished  with  numerous  yellowish-brown  curled  bristles.  The  moth 
(Fig.  56,  h)  issues  from  this  chrysalis  during  the  fore  part  of  June.  It 
is  a  very  plainly  marked  species,  being  either  milk-white  or  cream- 
colored,  with  the  head,  collar,  basal  and  apical  joints  of  the  abdomen 
above,  and  the  whole  body,  legs,  and  anterior  margins  of  the  wings 
fulvous  or  dull  orange.*  It  was  described  in  1860  by  Dr.  Brackenridge 
Clemens  under  the  name  of  Hi/percoiiipa  falviGosta\  but  is  now  prop- 
erly referred  to  the  genus  CalUmorpha.  It  may  be  known  in  English  as 
the  Cream  Oallimorpha  as  it  is  disguished  from  all  other  moths  by  its 
unspotted  creamy  appearance.]:  This  worm  is  found  more  commonly  on 

"^^ CalUmorpha  vestalis,  Packard  (Proc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.  Ill,  p.  108),  must  be  considered  as  a  sy- 
nonym oi  fulvicosta ,  for  Dr.  Packard  has  certainly  given  no  characters  that  should  be  considered 
specific.  To  show  on  what  grounds  the  new  species  is  founded  I  will  quote  in  full  the  original  de- 
Ecription  of  fulvicosta  and  afterwards  that  of  the  so-called  vestalis: 

C.  fulvicosta,  Clem. — "White.  Palpi  yellow  orange,  tips  blackish.  Head  prothorax,  the 
anterior  edge  of  the  fore  wings,  esj>ecially  beneath,  yellow-orange  ;  sometimes  the  costa  of  the 
fore  wings  is  dark  brownish.  Breast  and  legs  yellow  orange,  the  middle  and  fore  tibiae  and  tarsi 
blackish.     Abdomen  tipped  with  yellowish  orange. 

"Illinois.     From  Robt.  Konnicott." 

C.  vestalis,  Pack. — "(^  and  5  pure  immaculate  milk-white,  $white.  Tips  of  the  palpi  brown. 
Head  and  prothorax,  basal  half  of  the  patagia  and  eosta  of  both  wings  above  and  beneath  yel- 
lowish. The  legs  are  also  yellow  beneath.  The  abdomen  is  white  and  unspotted.  An tennaj  brown. 
Body  c?  .65,  $  .65.     Exp.  wings  (^  1.70,  §  1.70  inch. 

"  Middle  Atlantic  States  (Coll.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  through  A.  R.  Grote." 

Now,  comparing  the  descriptions,  ves/a/is  differs  in  no  other  respect  from /wZyicos^a,  than  in 
the  legs  being  yellow  beneath  instea,d  of  having  the  middle  and  fore  tibia3  blackish  as  described  by 
■Clemens.  Three  bred  specimens  in  my  possession  differ  in  this  trifling  character,  and  though  Dr. 
Packard  says  that  his  species  differs  remarkably  [.'.']  from  the  other  in  being  pure  white  and  of  small- 
er size,  yet  Dr.  Clemens  gives  no  measurements  and  there  are  specimens  in  my  own  cabinet  and  in 
Mr.  Walsh's  of  all  shades  of  white  to  cream  color  and  some  of  them  fully  as  small  as  the  measure- 
ments  above  quoted.  Moreover  I  have  a  specimen  marked  vestalis,  kindly  sent  me  by  my  friend 
■CreesoQ  of  the  Am.  Entomological  Society,  and  while  in  Philadelphia  last  fall  I  e.Kamined  all  the 
specimens  marked  or  said  to  be  vestalis  without  finding  any  distinguishing  characters  at  all.  If  a 
new  species  is  to  be  made  out  of  such  trifling  characters  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  species 
of  the  genus  CalUmorpha  are  very  prone  to  vary,  and  that  twenty  times  as  much  variation  is  found 
in  hundreds  of  other  species  of  Lepidoptera,  what  is  the  science  of  entomology  to  come  to  ? 

fProc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.  Phil.,  1860,  p.  536. 

:5:The  only  insect  which  very  closely  resembles  it  is  a  pale  variety  of  a  moth  known  as  the  Egle 
{Euchates  egle,  Harr.)  whose  beautiful  larva  is  tolerably  common  on  our  milkweeds.  This  last 
however  may  always  be  distinguished  by  the  feathered  antennas  of  the  male,  the  different  shaped 
orings  and  the  deep  orange  iind  black  spotted  abdomen. 


131  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

the  Peach  than  on  any  other  tree,  and  as  it  appears  very  early  in  iher 
season  and  commences  to  feed  on  the  young  leaves  before  they  are 
fully  expanded,  it  does  considerable  damage  when  numerous.  1  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  worm  for  several  years  past  but  its  natural 
history  was  unknown  till  last  summer  when  Dr.  LeEaron  and  myself 
simultaneously  bred  the  moth  from  peach-leaf  feeding  larvae,  so  that 
its  history  is  now  given  for  the  first  time.  Figures  of  the  larva  were- 
given  in  the  Prairie  banner  last  summer  by  Dr.  LeBaron  who  was 
misled  by  Dr.  Hull  into  the  belief  that  they  were  the  Tent-caterpillar 
of  the  Forest  already  described.  Two  years  ago  I  found  this  Blue- 
spangled  worm  tolerably  common  in  the  peach  orchard  of  Mr.  E.  J- 
Ajre&  of  Villa  Ridge,  Ills.,  and  he  says  that  he  destroyed  over  a  thou- 
sand of  them  last  spring.  In  this  State  I  have  frequently  met  with 
it  but  it  is  by  no  means  common.  Hand  picking  will'  easily  keep  ife 
in  check. 

Calldiorpha  fulvicosta,  Clem. — Larva  (Fig.  56,  a)— Color  velvcty-Blact  above,  pale  bluish-, 
gray  spMkled  with  black  below.  A  deep  orange  medic-dorsal  line  (usually  obsolete  towards  eack 
end)  and  a  more  distinct,  wavy,,  broken,  yellow  stigiuatal  line,  with  a  less  distinct  coincident  pale- 
line  below  it.  Covered  with  large  highly  polished,  roughened,  deep  steel-blue  warts,  the  irregu- 
larities of  which  as  they  catch  and  reflect  the  light,  look  like'  pale  blue  diamonds.  Closely  ex- 
amined these  warts  are  found  to  be  covered  with  small  elevations  each  of  which  furnishes  a  short 
stiff  yellow  hair,  these  hairs  radiating  in  all  directions  around  the  warts,  which  are  placed  as  fol- 
lows :— Joint  1  with  an  anterior  transverse  row  of  8  and  a  posterior  dorsal  row  of  4 ;  joints  2  and 
3  each  witli  a  transverse  row  of  8  across  the  middle  ;  joints  4 — 11  inclusive,  each  with  4  circular- 
ones  anteriorly,  and  2  irregular  ones  posteriorly  on  dorsum  (Fig.  56  d,  each  of  the  last  evidently 
formed  by  the  blending  of  two),  and  2  on  each  side  near  the  middle  of  joint  (Fig.  58  c).  Joint  12 
with  2  that  are  irregular,  on  the  back,  and  1  that  is  circular,  on  each  side.  Anal  shield  formed  of 
one  large  irregular  wart.  In  addition  to  these  there  is  a  narrow  subventral  wart  each  side,  and  2 
small  ventral  ones  on  the  legless  joints.  Head  polished  black  with  a  few  black  hairs.  Thoracic- 
legs  polished  blaclc,  but  pale  at  the  joints  inside  :  prolegs  black  outside,  flesh-colored  within  and 
at  extremities.  Stigmata  not  perceptible.  Largest  in  the  middle  of  body.  Average  length  0.90,, 
greatest  diameter  0.15  incli. 

Described  from  6  peach-feeding  specimens.  Alcoholic  specimens  do  not  reflect  the  pale  blue- 
points. 

The  larva3  of  our  different  Callimorphas  seem  to  'bear  a  very  close  resemblance  to  each  other.  I 
have  bred  C.  clymene,  Ilubner,  from  a  larva  found  full  grown  on  oak  (tho'  w&ether  it  fed  on  oak  I 
did  not  ascertain)  which  sa  resembled  that  of  fulvicosta  that  I  fully  expected  it  would  produce' 
nothing  else.  The  only  difference  noticeable  was  that  it  was  vevj'  bright  colored,  with  the  medio- 
dorsal  line  very  clear  and  distinct.  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders  has  reared  C.  LeContei  from  larvre  feeding 
on  Horse  Gentian  [Tr-iosteum  pnr/oliatum),  and  from  his  description  of  the  ',arva"---  it  differs  prin- 
cipally  from  the  above  in  lacking  the  klue  reflections  and  in  having  a  pale  dotted  subdorsal  liue. 


THE  ASH-GRAY  VmiON—Zj/lina  cinerea,  N.  sp. 

(Lepidoptera,  Xylinidie). 

There  is  a  pale  green  worm  with  cream-colored  spots  and  a  broad 
cream-colored  lateral  band,  which  I  have  for  several  years  known  ice 

*  Canadian  Entomologist  I,  p.  20» 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 


135 


\ 


r 


[t'ig-  57.]  be  common  on  the  Apple, 

Poplar,  Hickory  and  some 
other  trees,  the  leaves  of 
which  it  devour?,  but 
which  last  summer  at- 
t^,racted  unusual  attention 
My  its  being  frequently 
iomid  boiing  into  apples 
at.d  peaches,  and  as  1  also 
commonly  found  it  hiding 
in  and  feeding  upon  one  of  our  large  oak-apples  (the  spongiUca)  we 
may  conclude  that  it  is  a  very  general  feeder  and  that  it  is  foni  of 
boring. 

This  worm  (Fig.  57,  a)  is  found  during  the  months  of  May  and 
June  and  when  full  grown  burrows  beneath  the  surface  of  the  gro.und 
where  it  forms  a  very  thin  cocoon  of  filmy  silk  with  the  earth  adher- 
ing to  it  on  the  outside.  It  changes  to  a  mahogony-brown  chrysalis 
and  generally  issues  as  ;i  moth  during  the  Septemberor  Oct:ober  iol- 
lowing,  though  in  northern  Illinois  I  have  known  it  to  remain  in  the 
chrysalis  state  through  the  winter  and  not  issue  as  a  moth  till  April. 
The  moth  (Fig  57,  a)  varies  considerably  in  its  appearance,  but 
is  characterizL-d  by  the  cold  ash-gray  appearance  of  the  front  wings 
which  are  variegated  with  darker  gray  as  in  the  figure.  It  is  an  un- 
decribed  species  and  belongs  to  a  gernus  {Xt/lina)  which  is  easily 
recognized  by  the  long  narrow  almost  rectangular  wings,  the  very 
square  thorax  which  is  often  furnished  behind  the  collar  with  a  bifid 
crest,  and  the  rectangular  and  flattened  abdom-n.  The  wings  are 
folded  in  repose  and  appear  almost  parallel  and  like  a  flattened  roof- 
giving  the  insect  an  elongate  appearance. 

Xylina  cinerea,  N.  Sp.— Lart-a  (Fig.  57,  a.)  Length  when  fuU  grown  1.20— l.-^O  inches,  color 
shiny  silvery-green  on  the  back,  darker  below.  A  medio-dorsal  cream-colored  stripe  ;  a  subdorsal 
one  represented  by  3  or  4  irregularly  shaped  spots  on  each  joint.  A  broad  deep  cre<im-colored  stig- 
matal  line,  with  a  few  green  dints  in  it,  extending  to  anal  prolegs.  Four  slightly  elevated  cream- 
colored  spots,  encircled  by  a  ring  of  rather  darker  green  than  the  body,  in  the  dorsal  space,  and  in 
the  subdoi-sal  space  there  are  four  or  more  similar  but  smaller  spots.  Venter  glaucous-gray. 
Head  as  large  as  joint  1,  free,  glassy-green  with  white  mottlings  at  sides  and  top,  and  pearly-white 
lips.  Thoracic  legs  whitish.  Prolegs  concolorous  with  venter.  When  young  the  body  is  darker 
and  the  markings  paler. — Described  from  two  living  specimens. 

Imago  (Fig.  57,  b)— Front  wings,  with  the  ground-color  pale  cinereous  shaded  and  marked  either 
with  light  brown,  having  a  faint  purplish  tint,  or  with  darker  brown,  having  a  similar  reflection, 
or  with  a  colder  grayish-brown  with  the  faintest  moss-green  reflection  :  in  the  first  two  cases  the 
dark  color  either  blends  and  suffuses  with  the  ground-color  so  as  to  give  the  wing  a  nearly  uniform 
and  smooth  appearance,  or  else  contrasts  sufficiently  to  bring  out  all  the  marks  distinct;  in  the  lat- 
ter case  (two  specimens)  the  markings  are  very  distinct  and  the  ground  color  is  whiter  and  more 
irrorate.  In  the  well  marked  specimens  the  usual  lines  are  readily  distinguished,  the  basal  half  line, 
transverse  anterior  and  transverse  posterior  being  quite  wavy,  pale,  and  bordered  each  side  with  a 
dark  shade,  the  median  shade  dark  and  well  defined  and  the  subterminal  line,  though  sometimes 
pale  near  costa,  forming  a  series  of  dark  angular  spots  :  in  the  more  uniform  specimens  these  lines 
are  barely  distinguishable  and  perhaps  the  most  constant  is  the  sub  terminal  which  most  often  takes, 
the  form  of  a  series  of  dark  angular  spots  :  the  ordinary  spots  have  a  pale  inner  and  a  more  or 
less  distinct  dark  outer  annulation  ;  the  orbicular  is  larger  than  the  reniform  and  is  suflSciently 
double  to  take  on  the  form  of  an  8,  the  upper  part  of  which  is  always  largest  and  with  the  interior- 


136  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF  THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST. 

space  paler  than  the  general  surface,  while  that  of  the  lower  part  is  either  concolorous  or  darker  ; 
the  form  is,  however,  quite  irregular  and  differs  sometimes  in  the  two  wings  of  the  same  species  : 
the  reniform  spot  is  generally  well  defined,  and  is  either  darker,  or  has  a  tinge  of  reddish-brown, 
interiorly :  at  the  base  of  the  wing  is  a  more  or  less  distinct  pale  space  occupying  the  upper  half, 
and  bordered  below  by  a  brown  line  which  is  straight  about  half  its  length  and  then  extends  up" 
wards  and  outwards  towards  transverse  anterior.  A  tolerably  distinct  terminal  line,  with  the  fringes 
dark.  In  taking  a  general  view  of  the  varying  specimens  this  pale  basal  space,  the  pale  upper 
part  of  the  orbicular  and  the  dark  subterminal  line,  seem  to  be  the  most  constant  characters  of  the 
species.  Hind  ivings  gray-brown  inclining  to  cinnamon-brown,  with  the  posterior  border  but  slightly 
darker  and  the  fringe  paler.  Under  surface  quite  uniform,  that  of  front  wings  being  nacreous 
gray  with  a  faint  discal  spot  and  with  a  narrow  costal  and  broad  terminal  border  of  pale  fulvous, 
dusted  with  purple-gray;  the  hind  wings  of  this  last  color  with  the  lunule  and  line  distinct.  Head 
nearly  entire,  though  the  quadrifid  arrangement  of  the  hairs  is  traceable  ;  palpi  hairy  throughout. 
Thorax  quite  square,  of  same  color  as  primaries  and  with  the  collar  bordered  behind  with  brown 
and  sometimes  the  edges  of  the  tegulje  similarly  bordered.  Abdomen  of  same  color  as  hind  wings 
with  lateral  tufts,  and  cut  off  squarely  at  apex.  Expanse  1.32 — 1.82  inches. 

Described  "from  3  specimens  fed  on  grape-vine,  2  on  peaches  and  1  on  Cercis  canadensis. 
Other  captured  specimens  examined. 

This  species  is  the  analogue  of,  and  very  closely  resembles  the  European  Xijlina  conformis, 
which  is  known  under  various  synonyms.  A  specimen  sent  to  Mr.  P.  C.  Zelier  of  Stettin,  Prussia, 
was,  however,  pronounced  distinct.  The  well-marked  irrorate  form  still  more  closely  resembles 
Guenbe's  cinerosa  found  in  Switzerland,  and  which  he  himself  thinks  may  prove  to  be  a  variety  of 
conformis.  The  more  I  study  the  species  of  the  Noctoid^  as  they  occur  in  nature,  the  more  I  am 
struck  witli  their  great  variability,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  so-called  species 
will  turn  out  to  be  but  varieties  when  we  better  understand  them.  In  this  large  family  none  but 
the  more  strikingly  marked  species  should  ever  be  described  without  an  accompanying  description  of 
their  preparatory  states  and  of  their  principal  variations.  I  am  unacquainted  with  any  of  Walker's 
species  except  sitbcostalis  which  is  very  different,  and  if  this  should  prove  to  be  a  synonym  of  any 
of  them,  the  fault  must  be  laid  to  the  difficulty  under  which  the  naturalist  in  the  Western  States 
labors  for  want  of  proper  libraries  to  refer  to.  It  differs  essentially  from  Grote's  Bcthunei  and 
capax  as  described  and  illustrated  in  Volume  I  of  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Entomological 
Society.  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  A.  Lintner  of  Albany,  N,  Y.,  that  Dr.  A.  Speyer  of  Rhoden, 
Furtsenthum  Walldeck,  Prussia,  who  gives  much  attention  to  the  Noctuidae,  has  it  marked  Celoena 
obknga  in  his  MS.,  but  the  insect  evidently  does  not  belong  to  that  genus,  and  as  the  German  pro- 
nunciation of  Xijlina  much  resembles  the  English  pronunciation  of  Celcana,  the  reference  to  the  lat- 
ter, is  doubtless  due  to  a  verbal  misunderstanding. 


BENEFICIAL  INSECTS, 


It  is  not  often  that  there  will  be  much  to  say  in  this  Department, 
as  most  of  the  beneficial  insects  are  treated  of  in  connection  with  the 
injurious  species  upon  which  they  prey.  But  the  following  little 
fellow  is  so  important  to  the  grape-grower  that  it  should  be  recognized 
bj"  every  vineyardist  in  the  State,  and  cherished  as  the  very  apple  of 
his  eye : 

THE    GLASSY-WINGED     SOLTHER-BJJQ—Campi/loiieura  vitri- 

2)ennis,  Say. 

A   NEW    FRIEND   TO    THE    GRAr£-GK0V/ER. 

This  is  the  bug ;  and  a  pretty  little  thing  it  is  too  !    Take  a  good 
[Pig.  58.]       look  at  the  figure  and  remember  that  the  hair-line  at 
I    ^  IS.   I      ^^^*^  ^^^®  represents  the  natural  size. 

li^v  There  are  perhaps  no  insects  more  dreaded  by  the 
^^%X  grape-grower  than  the  different  species  of  leaf-hoppers 
^,  '™  1°^  which  sap  up  the  substance  of  the  leaves  of  the  Vine; 
^  ^  "f  J.  j\Vbut  as  they  will  be  treated  of,  in  all  probability,  in  my 
next  Report,  we  will  pass  them  over  for  the  present. 
No  parasitic  or  cannibal  insect  has  ever  been  known 
to  prey  upon  these  leaf-hoppers  before,  but  last  September,  while  in 
the  vineyard  of  Dr.  C.  W.  Spaulding,  at  Rose  Hill,  on  the  Pacific  rail- 
road, I  discovered  that  this  Glassy  winged  Soldier-bug  Avas  preying 
upon  them.  The  leaves  were  actually  covered  on  the  underside  with 
the  dead  carcasses  of  the  leaf-hoppers,  which,  in  their  death-struggle, 
had  firmly  attached  themselves,  and  hung  thickly,  with  wings  ex- 
tended and  body  sucked  dry— dead  proof  of  the  surprising  thorough- 
ness with  which  their  mortal  foe  had  done  its  work  of  slaughter.  On 
a  single  leaf  not  so  large  as  a  man's  hand  a  half  hundred  of  these 
skeleton  leaf-hoppers  could  be  counted,  and  though  this  number  was 
above  the  average,  there  were  few  leaves  that  did  not  show  quite  a 
number.    To  use  Dr.  Spaulding's  language,  "■  the  sight  was  enough  to 


138  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

gladden  the  heart  of  any  grape-grower,  who  had  long  looked  upon  the 
leaf-hopper  as  a  permanent  evil  against  which  he  could  not  success- 
fully contend." 

Moving  about  among  the  leaves  our  little  Soldier-bug*  was  often 
seen  in  its  pretty  full  dress  uniform,  but  far  more  commonly  disguised 
in  its  larval  or  pupal  coat;  for  it  is  only  when  full  grown  and  full 
fledged  that  it  presents  the  appearance  of  the  first  figure.  The  larva  and 
pupa  both  have  an  opaque,  mealy,  bluish-white  appearance,  and  the 
[Fig.  59.]  latter  differs  only  from  the  former  in  the  more  conspicuous 
wing- stubs,  which  project  so  as  to  give  it  a  somewhat 
'diamond  shaped  outline  (Fig.  59.)  It  is  during  these  im- 
mature, and  less  conspicuous  stages  that  this  insect  doubt- 
iy/^^)\V.less  does  most  of  its  work,  for  in  common  with  the  rest  of 
the  true  Bugs  {Iletero'ptera)  it  is  active  and  feeds  during 
its  whole  life,  from  the  time  it  hatches  from  the  Q,g^  till  it 
dies  of  old  age. 

When  I  first  saw  the  hosts  of  leaf-hoppers  so  mercilessly  stabbed, 
I  was  at  considerable  loss  to  understand  Avhat  animal  could  be  so  wary 
and  dexterous  as  to  surprise  insects  so  shy  and  active,  and  with  such 
w^onderl'ul  jumping  powers  as  the  leaf-hoppers  possess,  and  I  could 
not  rest  sure  that  it  was  our  little  Glassy- winged  Soldier-bug  till  I  had 
enclosed  specimens  in  a  bottle  with  living  leaf-hoppers,  and  found 
the  latter  dead  next  day.  Like  many  other  animals  of  prey,  it  can 
move  actively  when  necessary,  but  no  doubt  prefers  to  surprise  its 
victims  hy  stealth,  assisted  perhaps  by  its  colors  which  resemble  those 
of  the  leaf-hoppers  themselves. 

The  more  common  color  of  this  insect  is  pale  greenish-yellow. 
The  antennas  are  brown  with  the  basal  joint  and  sometimes  part  of 
the  second  joint  blood-red.  The  head  and  thorax  are  pale  yellow 
with  a  slight  tinge  of  pink,  and  the  eyes,  neck,  and  front  part  of  the 
thorax,  except  a  pale  line  on  the  back,  are  jet  black  in  high  contrast. 
The  scutel  is  pale  yellow  or  white,  and  black  at  base,  and  the  upper 
wings  (hemelytra)  are  beautifully  transparent  with  a  rose-colored  cross 
band  and  a  dusky  curved  line.  The  species  is  a  very  variable  one, 
however,  being  dichromous  or  double-colored,  some  varieties  pos- 
sessing much  more  brown  than  others,  and  having  no  rose-color  at 
all.  In  a  variety  kindly  sent  me  by  Mr.  P.  R.  Uhler,  of  Baltimore, 
Maryland,  the  antennae  are  pale,  and  there  is  no  black  on  the  thorax 
in  front,  but  a  large  brown  patch  behind;  there  is  also  a  large  brown 
patch  each  side  of  the  scutel,  and  the  rosy  transverse  band  on  the 
wings  is  quite  brown. 

JMow  this  insect  is  commonly  found  by  collectors  in  the  fall  of  the 
year  on  different  kinds  of  Oak,  but  no   one   ever  heard  before  of  its 

•■•"I  have  preferred  to  apply  this  popular  term  to  this  species,  because  its  black,  white  and  red 
marks,  and  its  war-like  propensities  suggest  something  of  the  sort;  and  though  the  term  is  more 
strictly  and  correctly  applied  to  larger  cannibal  bugs  belonging  to  the  genus  Arnia,  yet  it  is  not  in- 
appropriate here,  and  will  appeal  to  the  popular  mind  far  more  readily  than  the  generic  name  Cam- 
pyloneura,  or  the  English  rendition  of  it,  curved-nerve. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  1^ 

attacking^  the  leaf-hoppers  of  the  Grape-vine,  and  it  certainly  could 
not  have  done  so  in  past  years  to  the  extent  that,  it  did  at  Kose  Hill 
last  fall,  ^vithout  its  work  having  been  noticed.  I  have  been  through 
vineyards  by  the  hundred  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  and  never  before 
noticed  such  work.  How  "are  we  then  to  account  for  its  sudden  ap- 
pearance in  such  force  in  the  vineyard  of  Dr.  Spaulding  ?  To  my 
mind  it  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  an  insect  acquiring  a  new  liabit.. 
Some  individual  or  individuals  wandering  from  the  oaks  and  from 
whatever  food  they  there  subsisted  upon,  came  upon  Dr.  Spaulding's 
vineyard  and  found  the  leaf-hoppers  of  tlie  Vine  to  their  taste.  Their 
food  being  abundant,  they  soon  multiplied,  so  as  to  make  their  work 
appreciable,  and  commenced  to  spread  from  one  vineyard  to  another. 
The  facts  in  the  case  would  support  such  a  theory,  for  the  bugs  and 
their  slaughtered  victims  were  found  in  diminishing  numbers  in  the 
vineyards  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  until  at  the  distance  of 
three  miles,  no  sign  of  either  could  be  found.  Consequently,  though 
our  little  cannibal  friend  occurs  sparingly  throughout  the  country  in 
the  native  timber,  it  is  found  in  the  cultivated  vineyard  in  a  limited 
district  only,  so  far  as  we  now  know.  But  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
field  of  its  operations  in  the  vineyard  should  not  in  time  become  co- 
extensive with  that  of  the  troublesome  leaf-hoppers;  and  with  our 
present  mail  facilities  we  can  materially  help  to  make  it  so  by  arti- 
ficially introducing  a  few  dozen  of  the  living  bugs  from  one  vineyard 
to  another. 

This  species  was  first  described  by  Say  as  CapsMS  ■yiinpewreis.  The  Phytocorida,  &s  the  aame- 
indicates,  have  all  been  hitherto  considered  as  plant-feeders,  and  at  first  the  species  above  con-. 
sidered  would  appear  to  be  an  exception  to  the  unity  of  habit  in  the  family.  But  Mr.  Uhler  in- 
forms nie  that  his  investigations  of  the  elongated  forms  of  many  of  the  recently  established  g-enera 
have  taught  him  that  the  affinities  of  many  of  them  are  largely  with  the  Reduviidce  through  An-^ 
thocoridcs ;  for  he  has  often  found  them  in  places  where  small  caterpillars  were  nuaoprous  ;.  among; 
the  larv??  of  Tin^idce,  and  has  even  caught  them  in  the  act  of  sucking  the  juices  of  plant-Uce^ 


INNOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


THE    WHITE-LINED    MORNING    SFRmX—Deilep7dla    Uneata, 

Fabr. 

,  (Lepidoptera,  Sphingidas.) 

[Fig.  60.] 


/  \ 


The  beautiful  moth  which  heads  this  chapter  is  quite  common  in 
the  State  of  Missouri,  and  has  upon  several  occasions  been  sent  to 
me  for  identification.  Almost  every  one  must  have  been  struck 
with  the  great  resemblance  which  it  bears  to  a  humming  bird,  as,  of 
a  summer's  evening,  it  flits  rapidly  from  plant  to  plant  in  the  garden, 
and  ever  and  anon  hovers  noiselessly  over  some  particular  flower, 
and  stretches  forth  its  long  tongue  to  sip  the  sweet  nectar  which  that 
flower  contains. 

Few  persons  are,  however,  aware  what  this  beautiful  moth  looks 
like,  or  what  it  feeds  upon,  in  the  caterpillar  state ;  wherefore  this 
brief  account  of  it. 

The  very  great  diversity  of  form  and  habits  to  be  found  amongst 
the  larvae  of  our  butterflies  and  moths,  has  much  to  do  with  the  inter- 
est which  attaches  to  the  study  of  these  masked  forms.  I  am  moved 
to  admiration  and  wonder  as  thoroughly  to-day  as  in  early  boj^hood, 


THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF  THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  141 

every  time  I  contemplate  that  within  each  of  these  varied  and  fan- 
tastic caterpillars — these  creeping  and  groveling  "worms" — is  locked 
up  the  future  butterfly,  or  moth,  which  is  destined,  fairy-like,  to  ride 
the  air  on  its  gauzy  wings,  so  totally  unlike  its  former  self.  Verily 
the  metamorphoses  of  the  lov/er  animals  must  prove  a  never-failing 
source  of  joy  and  felicity  to  those  who  have  learned  to  open  the  pages 
of  the  great  Book  of  Nature  ! 

But  beyond  the  general  satisfaction  experienced  in  studying 
these  transient  forms,  there  will  be  found  ample  food  for  the  philo- 
sophic mind  in  the  larval  variations  to  be  met  with  in  the  same  species. 
Some  vary  according  to  the  character  of  their  food-plant,  and  the 
study  of  these  variations— of  phytophagic  varieties  and  phytophagic 
species — must  ever  prove  interesting  as  well  as  important,  by  throw- 
ing light  on  the  question  of  the  origin  of  species.  Some  (e.  g.  the 
common  Yellow  Bear,  Fig.  28,  a,  p.  OS)  vary  very  much  without  regard 
to  food-plant.  Our  Sphinx  larvae,  more  particularly,  are  subject  to 
these  variations,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  larval  characters  alone, 
unaccompanied  by  those  of  the  perfect  insect,  are  of  so  little  value 
in  classification. 

The  White-lined  Morning  Sphinx  (Fig.  60)  presents  one  of  the 
most  striking  cases  of  larval  variation,  as  may  be  seen  by  comparing 
the  light  form  of  Figure  61  with  the  dark  form  of  Figure  62.  In  the 
summer  of  1SG3  I  took  both  these  forms  on  the  same  plant,  and  have 
repeatedly  met  with  them  since  ;  but  the  mollis  bred  from  them  show 
no  differences  whatever. 

This  beautiful  moth  is  called  by  Harris  the  ¥/hite-lined  Morning 
Sphinx,  though  its  generic  name  means  "Evening  Friend."  It  is  dis- 
tinguished principally  by  its  roseate  under-wings,  and  by  a  broad, 
pale  band  running  from  the  apex  to  the  base  of  the  dark-olive  front 
wings. 

[Fig.  61.] 


• 

The  larva  feeds  upon  purslane,  turnip,  buckwheat,  watermelon, 
and  even  apple  and  grape  leaves,  upon  any  of  which  it  may  be  found 
in  the  month  of  July.  It  descends  into  the  ground  and,  within  a 
smooth  cavity,  changes  into  a  light  brown  chrysalis,  from  which  the 
moth  emerges  during  the  month  of  September. 

The  most  common  form  of  this  larva  is  that  given  at  Figure  61 ; 
its  color  is  yellowish-green,  with  a  i^rominent  subdorsal  row  of  ellip- 


142  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPOST  Of 

tical  spots,  each  spot  consisting  of  two  curved  black  lines,  inclosing 
superiorly  a  bright  crimson  space,  and  inferiorly  a  pale  yellow  line — 
the  whole  row  of  spots  connected  by  a  pale  yellow  stripe,  edged 
■above  with  black.  In  some  specimens  these  eye-like  spots  are  dis- 
connected, and  the  space  between  the  black  crescents  is  of  a  uniform 
cream-yellow.  The  breathing-holes  are  either  surrounded  with  black, 
or  with  black  edged  with  yellow.  The  other  form  is  black,  and  char- 
acterized chiefly  by  a  yellow  line  along  the  back,  and  a  series  of  pale 
yellow  spots  and  darker  yellow  dots,  as  represented  in  the  illustra- 

[Fig.  62.] 


tion  (Fig.  62).  Even  this  dark  form  is  subject  to  great  variation,  some 
specimens  entirely  lacking  the  line  along  the  back,  and  having  the 
spots  of  different  shape. 

This  insect  has  a  wide  range,  as  it  occurs  in  the  West  Indies,  Mex- 
ico and  Canada,  as  well  as  throughout  the  United  States.  Feeding, 
as  it  does,  j>rincipally  on  plants  of  but  little  value,  and  being  very 
'Commonly  attacked  by  the  larva  of  aTachina-fly,  this  insect  has  never 
become  sufficiently  common  to  be  classed  as  injurious.  The  Tachina- 
fly  which  so  commonly  infests  it,  is  readily  distinguished  from  the 
other  more  common  form  by  the  abdomen,  which  is  bright  rufous  with 
the  exception  of  a  broad  dorsal  stripe  which  is  dark. 


TWO  OF  OUR  COMMOH  BUTTERFLIES. 


MEIR  natural  history  ;    with   some   general   remarks   on   TRANSt'ORM'' 
ATION    AND   PROTECTIVE   IMITATION   AS   ILLUSTRATED   BY  THEM. 

In  the  following  pages  1  propose  to  give  tlie  complete  natural 
history  of  two  of  our  commonest  butterflies,  and  to  close  v/ith  such 
philosophical  thoughts  as  the  subject  warrants.  I  do  so  the  more 
willingly  as  many  of  the  facts  are  published  for  the  first  time  ;  for 
notwithstanding  the  butterflies  are  so  common,  their  complete  natu-^ 
ral  history  has  hitherto  been  unknown. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  143 

THE  ARCHIPPUS  BJJTTERYLY— Dan ais  arc/nppus,''  Fabr. 

(Lepidopteia,  Danaidtc.) 

ITS  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

[Fig.  03.] 


"  What  more  felicitie  can  faU  to  creature 
Than  to  enjoy  delight  with  libertie, 
And  to  be  lord  of  all  the  workes  of  Nature, 
To  raine  in  th'  aire  from  earth  to  highest  skie, 
To  feed  on  floivres  and  weads  of  glorious  feature." 

The  Fate  of  the  Butt  erf  ySiiensCT. 

This  beautiful  butterfly,  like  most  of  the  species  of  the  family 
to  which  it  belongs,  enjoys  a  wide  range,  occurring  in  the  more  north- 
ern of  the  States  and  in  Upper  Canada  and  extending  into  South 
America,  where,  according  to  Mr.  Bates,  it  is  common  throughout 
the  region  of  the  Lower  Amnzons.f  In  the  Mississippi  Valley  it  is 
one  of  our  most  common  species.  The  family  to  which  it  belongs  is 
distinguislied  by  the  front  legs  being  spurious  or  abortive;  by  the 
large  cell  in  the  centre  of  each  wing  being  closed,  and  by  the  exist- 
ence of  a  small  nervule  originating  at  the  base  of  the  front  wing  just 
below  the  lower  or  sub-median  nerve,  and  joining  that  nerve  a  short 
distance  from  its  base. J  This  nervule  is  so  covered  with  scales  that 
it  is  hardly  visible  till  they  are  removed.  In  the  genus  Danais  the 
sexes  are  readily  distinguished  by  the    male  having  a  small  horny 

*  Some  late  writers  use  the  specific  name  erippus  of  Cramer,  because  it  seems  to  have  the  pri- 
ority. I  have  not  all  the  works  of  the  old  authors  to  refer  to,  but  Mr.  Sanborn,  of  Boston  has 
been  kind  enough  to  refer  to  them  for  roe,  and  he  writes  that  erippus  was  first  applied  by  Cramer 
to  tho  $  in  1775,  and  plcxippus  to  tlie  <^  by  the  same  author  in  1780.  Fabricius  published  his  name  of 
archippus  in  179.'?,  and  the  name  had  already  been  applied  by  Cramer  to  the  Disippus  butterfly.  Ac- 
cordingly Cramer's  erippus  has  the  priority  ;  but  as  this  insect  has  been  very  generally  known  by 
the  name  which  Fabricius  gave  it,  among  entomological  writers,  nnd  as  it  has  become  familiar  to 
the  popular  ear,  I  prefer  to  retain  it — especially  since  it  is  no  longer  applied  to  the  Disippus  but- 
terfly. 

t'l'rans.  Linna'an  Soc,  Vol.  XXIII,  p.  516. 

JMr.  Bates  in  a  note  to  the  paper  already  referred  to,  (p.  497,)  gives  this  as  a  constant  and  ex- 

eellent  character  discovered  by  Dr.  C.  Fehler,  of  Vienna,  and  describes  it  as  "a  small   nervule   at 

the  base  of  the  foVe-wing  median  nervure  which  anastomoses  with  the  median  a  short  distance  from 

ts  origin."     I  have  no  means  of  referring  to  Dr.  Felder's  original  article,  and  cannot  say  whether 

e  is  correctly  quoted  ;  but  in  the  two  N.  A.  species  of  the  genus  {D.  archippus aad   bcrenice)   thin 

hervule  originates  below  and  anastomoses  with  sub-median  nerve. 


144 


THIRD  AI^KUAL  REPORT   OF 


excrescence  near  the  disk  of  the  hind  wing,  close  to,  or  upon  the  fourth 
nerve.  This  excrescence  or  tubercle  is  faintly  shown  in  the  above  fig- 
ure, which  represents  the  male,  and  it  is  entirely  lacking  in  the 
female.  The  color  of  the  Archippus  butterfly  is  of  a  bright  orange- 
red,  marked  with  black  and  cream-color  as  in  the  figure — the  underside 
being  similarly  marked  but  paler,  that  of  the  hind  wings  being  bright 
fulvous.  The  species  feeds  upon  most  of  the  different  kinds  of  Milk- 
weed or  Silk-weed  (AsclepiasJ^Sind  also  upon  Dogbane  {Apocynum)^ 
according  to  some  authors.  It  shows  a  wonderful  dislike,  however,  to 
the  Poke  Milk-weed  {Asclepias phytolaGcoides)^  and  I  was  surprised 
to  find  that  larvae  furnished  with  this  plant  would  wander  about  their 
breeding  cages  day  after  day,  and  would  eventually  die  rather  than 
touch  it,  though  they  would  eagerly  commence  devouring  the  leaves 
of  either  A.  iuherosa^  curassavica,  cornuti  or  purpurasoens  as  soon  as 
offered  to  them. 

The  butterflies  hibernate,  though  whether  anj''  but  the  impregna- 
ted females  survive  until  the  Milk-weeds  commence  to  grow  is  not 
definitely  ascertained.  They  commence  depositing  eggs  in  the  lati- 
tude of  St.  Louis  during  the  fore  part  of  May.  Some  of  the  earliest 
developed  butterflies  from  these  eggs  begin  to  appear  about  the  mid- 
dle of  June  and  others  continue  to  appear  for  several  v/eeks.  These 
lay  eggs  again,  and  the  butterflies  abound  a  second  time  in  October. 
Thus  there  are  two  broods  each  year,  and  though  the  first  brood  of 
larvo3  are  hatched  more  uniformly  apd  within  a  more  limited  time 
than  the  second,  the  two  broods  yet  connect  by  late  individuals  of  the 
first  and  early  individuals  of  the  second,  and  the  caterpillars  may  be 
found  at  almost  any  time  from  May  to  October,  but  are  especially 
abundant  during  late  summer  and  early  fall. 

The  egg  (Fig.  64,  a,  magni- 
fied ;  c,  natural  size)  is  invari- 
ably deposited  on  the  under 
side  of  a  leaf,  and  is  conical  and 
delicately  reticulate  with  longi- 
tudinal ribs,  and  fine  transverse 
strioe.  It  is  yellowish  when  first 
deposited  but  becomes  gray  as 
the  embryo  v/ithin  develops. 

Description  OF  Egg. — Length  0.05;  greatest  diameter  0.0.3  inches.  Conical,  slightly  narrower  at 
base  than  in  middle,  and  generally  slightly  contracted  towards  apex.  Color  pale  cream-yellow; 
opaque,  smooth;  the  shell  but  slightly  polished  and  rather  soft.  About  22  longitudinal  narrow  car- 
inate  ribs,  usually  regular  and  single,  though  oceasionally  one  gives  forth  a  branch;  interstices 
crossed  by  about  30  very  fine  transverse  striae,  often  subobsolete.  Apes  smooth.  Slightly  and  singly 
attached  to  the  underside  of  leaf. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens. 

It  is  a  little  singular  that  this  egg  has  not  previously  been  des- 
cribed. It  is  very  easily  found,  and  I  had  no  difQculty  in  obtaining  great 
numbers  last  summer,  though  I  owe  the  first  one  ever  obtained  to  the 
sharp  eyes  of  Miss  M.  E.Murtfeldt,  of  Kirkwood,  a  lady  who  takes  much 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  145 

interest  in  Entomology,  and  is  an  excellent  observer.  It  were  greatly 
to  be  wished  that  more  of  our  ladies  would  interest  themselves  in 
such  studies,  for  we  have  altogether  too  few  Madam  Merians. 

In  about  five  days  after  deposition,  the  egg  hatches,  and  the  young 
larva  as   soon  as   hatched   usually  turns  round  and  devours  its  egg- 
shell ;  a  custom  very  prevalent  with  young  caterpillars.  At  this  stage 
it  differs  considerably  from  the  mature  larva  ;  it  is  perfectly  cylindri- 
cal, about  0.12  inch  long  and  much  of  a  thickness   throughout.    The 
head  is  jet  black  and  polished  ;  the  color  of  the  body  is  pale   green- 
ish-white  with   the   anterior   and  posterior  horns   showing  as  mere 
black  conical  points,  and  with  two  transverse-oval  black  warts,  nearer 
together,  on  the  first  joint.    It  is  covered  with  minute  black  bristles, 
arising  from  still  more  minute  warts,  six  on  the  back  and  placed  four  in 
a  row  on  the  anterior  portion  and  one  each  side  on  the  posterior  por- 
tion of  each  joint,   (Fig.  64,  f)\  and  three  on  each  side,  one  in  the 
middle    of   the   joint,     and    two    which    are      substigmatal,     pos- 
teriorly,  (Fig.    64,    e.)    There    is    a  sub-triangular  black    spot    on 
the  anal  flap,  the  legs  are  alternately  black   and  white   and  the  stig- 
mata are  made  x)lainly  visible  by  a  pale   shade  surrounding  them. 
When  the  young  worm  is  three  or  four  days  old,  a  dusky  band  ap- 
pears across  the   middle  of  each  joint;  and  by  the  fifth  or  sixth  day 
it  spins  a  carpet  of  silk  upon  the  leaf,  and  prepares  for  its  first  moult. 
After  the  first  moult  the  anterior  horns  are  as  long  as  the  thoracic 
legs,  the  posterior  ones  being  somewhat  shorter;  the  characteristic 
black  stripes  show  quite  distinctly,  but  the  white  and  yellow  stripes 
more  faintly.    After  this  it  undergoes  but  slight  change  in  appear- 
ance, except  that  the   colors  become  brighter  and  that  at  each  suc- 
cessive moult  the  horns  become  relatively  longer.    There  are  but 
three  moults. ^^  and  the  intervals  between  them  are  short,  as  the  worms 
frequently  acquire  their  full  growth  within  three  weeks  from  hatch- 
ing. 

Some  persons  may  be  curious  to  know  how  the  larva  acquires 
longer  horns  at  each  moult.  The  explanation  is  simple.  During 
each  period  of  growth  the  skin  which  is  to  serve  for  the  next  period 
is  forming  and  perfecting  under  that  which  at  the  the  time  serves 
the  worm.  Upon  this  inner  skin  and  beneath  the  outer  one,  the  horns 
are  also  developing,  and  when  the  outer  skin  has  become  useless  and 
the  worm,  alter  a  short  period  of  rest  and  fasting,  bursts  it  near  the 
head  and  works  it  off,  the  old  horns  go  with  the  old  skin  and  the  new 
ones  appear  as  mere  stubs.  The  new  skin  is  now  very  fresh  and 
moist,  and  no  sooner  is  the  old  skin  off  than  these  soft  stubs  begin 
to  swell,  and  it  is  then   easily  seen   how  wonderfully  the  long  horns 

'•■■I  do  not  include  the  last  moult  by  which  the  larva  is  transformed  to  the  chrysalis.  Some 
persons  in  counting  the  diflferent  moults  that  larvae  pass  through,  are  content  with  counting  the 
heads  that  are  shed.  Whenever  this  method  is  relied  on  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  beads 
really  increase  in  size  between  each  moult,  though  not  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  body.  Thus, 
in  the  present  species  the  first  head  is  considerably  larger  when  shed  than  it  was  when  the  larva 
hatched,  and  though  appearing  uniformly  black  when  hatched,  it  shows  the  usual  white  marks 
more  or  less  distinctly  when  shed. 
S  E— 10 


^46 


TfliRi)  ASJilUAli  REPORT  OP 


fiave  been  folded  tip  and  curled  over  and  between  the  wrinkt(t?s  of  tb 
body  so  as  not  to  impede  the  casting  o-f  the   skin.     At   Figure  64,  5, 1 
have  given  a  somewhat  enlarged   view  of  a  worm  just  in  the  act  of 
xiasting  its  last  skin  in  order  to  show   (at  d)  how   the  flexible  horns 
were  folded.    They  unbend  of  their  own   accord,  though  the  worm 

often  helps  to  straighten 
them  out  by  cunningly 
.turning  its  head  and 
drawing  them  over  the 
surface  of  the  leaf. 

When  full  grown  the 
worm    presents   the   ap- 
pearance if  J'igure  65,  the  colors   being  black,  white  and  yellow. 

HOW  THE  LARYA  BECOMES  A  CHRYSALIS. 

The  metamorphoses  of  insects  will  ever  prove  a  source  of  won- 
der and  admiration.  If  a  naturalist  were  to  announce  to  the  world 
the  discovery  of  an  animal  which,  for  a  short  term  of  its  life,  existed 
in  the  form  of  a  serpent;  which  then,  after  performing  its  own  inter- 
ment and  weaving  itself  a  shroud  of  pure  silk,  changed  to  something 
like  an  Egyptian  mummy ;  and  which  after  remaining  thus  buried 
without  food  or  motion,  for  a  much  longer  term,  should  at  length 
struggle  through  its  shroud  and  start  into  day  a  winged  bird— every 
one  would  be  interested  in  the  history  of  such  a  marvelous  creature! 
Yet  the  transformation  of  insects  are  scarcely  less  startling  than  such 
an  occurrence  would  be,  and  it  is  only  by  drawing  such  a  picture, 
that  we  are  made  to  fully  appreciate  these  changes.  The  methods  of 
transformation  are  varied,  as  the  reader  who  has  perused  these 
Reports  is  well  aware.  A  good  illustration  is  often  needed  in  our 
schools,  and  as  the  present  species  furnishes  an  excellent  illustration 
of  the  process  in  those  butterflies  which  are  suspended  in  the  chrysa- 
lis state  from  the  tail,  and  is  withal  so  common  that  those  who  desire 


[Fig.  66.]'^ 


to  witness  the  process  will 
have  no  difiicultyin  doing 
so,  I  will  give  some  ac- 
count of  it ;  for  the  person 
who  had  never  witnessed 
the  true  method  employed, 
might  gaze  a  long  time  at 
the  full  grown  larva  (Fig. 
65,)  and  the  chrysalis  (Fig. 
67)  without  divining  how 
the  latter  was  produced  by  the  former.  We  have  on  the  one  hand 
a  crawling  worm,  and  on  the  other  a  legless  body  hanging  securely  by 


*These  figures  are  drawn  from  memory  and  are  perhaps  a  litUe  ideal  and  inaccurate. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  HI 

its  tail.    What  has  become  of  the  larval  appurtenances  and  how  did 
the  chrysalis  attach  itself?     Let  us  see. 

As  soon  as  the  larva  is  full  grown  it  spins  a  little  tuft  of  silk  to 
the  underside  of  whatever  object  it  may  be  resting  upon,  and  after 
entangling  the  hooks  of  its  hind  legs  in  this  silk,  it  lets  go  the  hold  of 
its  other  legs  and  hangs  down  with  the  head  and  anterior  joints  of  the 
body  curved  as  at  Figure  66,  a.  In  this  position  it  Iianga  for  about 
twenty-four  hours,  during  which  the  fluids  of  the  body  naturallj^  gravi- 
tate towards  the  up-turned  joints,  until  the  latter  become  so  swollen 
that  at  last,by  a  little  effort  on  the  part  of  the  larva,the  skin  bursts  along 
the  back  behind  the  head.  Through  the  rent  thus  made  the  anterior 
portion  of  the  pupa  is  protruded  and  by  constant  stretching  and  con- 
tracting the  larval  skin  is  slipped  and  crowded  backwards  until  there 
is  but  a  small  shriveled  mass  gathered  around  the  tail  (Fig.  56,  J). 
Now  comes  the  critical  period — the  culminating  point 

The  soft  and  supple  chrysalis,  yet  showing  the  elongate  larval  form 
with  distinct  traces  of  its  prologs,  hangs  heavily  from  the  shrunken 
skin.  From  this  skin  it  is  to  be  extricated  and  firmly  attached  to 
the  silk  outside.  It  has  neither  legs  nor  arms,  and  we  should  suppose 
that  it  would  inevitably  fall  while  endeavoring  to  accomplish  this 
object.  But  the  task  is  performed  with  the  utmost  surety,  though 
appearing  so  perilous  to  us.  The  supple  and  contractile  joints  of  the 
abdomen  are  made  to  subserve  the  purpose  of  legs,  and  by  suddenly 
grasping  the  shrunken  larval  skin  between  the  folds  of  two  of  these 
joints  as  with  a  pair  of  pincers,  the  chrysalis  disengages  the  tip  of 
its  body  and  hangs  for  a  moment  suspended  as  at  Figure  66,  c. 
Then  with  a  few  earnest,  vigorous,  jerking  movements  it  suc- 
ceeds in  sticking  the  horny  point  of  its  tail  into  the  silk,  and 
firmly  fastening  it  by  means  of  a  rasp  of  minute  claws  with  which  that 
point  is  furnished.  Sometimes  severe  effort  is  needed  before  the  point  is 
properly  fastened,  and  the  chrysalis  frequently  has  to  climb  by  stretch- 
ing the  two  joints  above  those  by  which  it  is  suspended,  and  clinging 
hold  of  the  shriveled  skin  further  up.  The  moment  the  point  is 
fastened  the  chrysalis  commences,  by  a  series  of  violent  jerkings,  and 
whirlings  to  dislodge  the  larval  skin,  after  which  it  rests  from  its  efforts 
and  gradually  contracts  and  hardens  until  it  presents  the  appearance 
'^^'^"  ^;L  of  Figure  67.  The  really  active  work  lasts  but  a  few 
^^^^^^S minutes,  and  the  insect  rarely  fails  to  go  through  with 
it  successfully.  The  chrysalis  is  a  beautiful  object  and 
as  it  hangs  pendant  from  some  old  fence  board  or  from 
the  underside  of  an  Asclepias  leaf,  it  reminds  one  of 
somo  large  ear-drop;  but  though  the  jeweller  could 
successfully  imitate  the  form,  he  might  well  despair  of 
ever  reproducing  the  clear  pale  green,  and  the  ivory 
black  and  golden  marks  which  so  characterize  it. 
This  chrysalis  state  lasts  but  a  short  time,  as  is  the  case  with  all 
those  which  are   known   to  suspend  themselves  ^nakedly  by  the  tail. 


148  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPOET  OF 

At  the  end  of  about  the  tenth  day  the  dark  colors  of  the  future  butter- 
fly begin  to  show  through  the  delicate  and  transparent  skin,  and  sud- 
denly this  skin  bursts  open  near  the  head  and  the  new-born  butterfly 
gradually  extricates  itself,  and,  stretching  forth  its  legs  and  clamber- 
in"-  on  to  some  surrounding  object,  allows  its  moist,  thickened  and 
contracted  wings  to  hang  listlessly  from  the  body.  Under  the  direct 
influence  of  the  air,  the  circulation  quickens  so  that  the  fluids  of  the 
body  are  driven  into  every  portion  of  these  wings,  and  they  visibly 
expand  under  the  eye,  while  the  other  parts  of  the  body  gain  in 
strength  and  firmness.  In  less  than  an  hour,  and  often  within  half  an 
hour,  the  wings  are  ready  to  perform  their  intended  work  and  our 
o-ay  Archippus  takes  his  first  lesson  in  aeronautics.  Ah  I  what  an 
enviable  fellow  is  he, 

-Lazily  flying 


Over  the  flower-decked  prairies,  West ; 
Basking  in  sunshine  till  day-light  is  dying, 
And  resting  all  night  on  Asclepias'  breast ; 

Joyously  dancing, 

Merrily  prancing, 
Chasing  his  lady-love  high  in  the  air. 

Fluttering  gaily. 

Frolicking  daily. 
Free  from  anxiety,  sorrow  and  care  ! 

THE  LARVA  ENJOYS  GREAT  IMMUNITY  FROM  THE  ATTACKS  OF  BIRDS  AND  OTHER 

PREDACEOUS    ANIMALS. 

Many  of  our  insects,  from  one  cause  or  another,  enjoy  a  wonderful 
immunity  from  the  attacks  of  predaceous  and  parasitic  animals  and 
there  exists  a  curious  relation  between  color  and  edibility.  It  is  a 
very  general  rule  that  those  which  have  such  an  immunity  from  the 
attacks  of  enemies,  are  conspicuously  colored  and  feed  openly  upon 
the  plants  they  attack;  while  those  which  are  persecuted  are  generally 
of  sombre  and  evasive  colors,  and  often  possess  some  protective 
resemblance  to  the  objects  upon  which  they  occur,  or  hide  themselves 
in  one  way  or  another.  For  several  years  past  Mr.  J.  Jenner  Weir,  of 
London,  England,— a  gentleman  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
some  eleven  years  ago— has  made  numerous  experiments  with  the 
direct  view  of  ascertaining  what  species  of  insects  are  eaten  by  birds 
and  what  species  are  rejected;  and  the  results  of  these  interesting 
experiments  are  recorded  in  the  Transactions  of  the  London  Ento- 
mological Society  (1869,  pp.  21-26  and  1870  pp.  337-9).  They  point 
conclusively  to  the  facts  above  given,  and  Mr.  A.  G.  Butler  of  the 
British  Museum  made  corroborating  experiments,  with,  lizards,  frogs 
and  spiders.  Prompted  by  these  experiments  made  in  England,  I  was 
led  to  make  similar  ones  with  our  gaily  colored  Archippus  larva,  and 
the  result  fally  accords  with  that  obtained  by  Mr.  Weir  ;  for  neither 
turkeys,  chickens,  toads  or  snakes  would  touch  it.  The  reason  why 
predaceous   animals  refuse  these  gaily   colored  larvae  is  not  always 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  119 

SO  easy  to  explain,  but  in  the  present  case  it  is  undoubtedly  owing  to  an 
odor  which  the  larva  possesses.  This  odor  is  hardly  appreciable,  when 
the  larva3  are  in  the  open  air;  but  by  confining  a  few  of  them  for  a 
short  time  in  a  tight  box,  it  soon  becomes  apparent,  and  is  pungent 
and  nauseous  in  the  extreme  even  to  our  sense  of  smell,  and  it  is 
doubtless  more  intensely  so  to  the  keener  sense  of  birds  and  other 
animals. 

Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace  believes  that  the  gay  colors  of  such  larvas  are 
realb'-  protective,  because  if  by  more  sombre  colors  they  were  undis- 
tinguishable  from  edible  species,  they  would  be  seized  by  birds,  and 
though  rejected  afterwards,  would  be  so  much  injured  that  the  prob- 
ability of  their  producing  butterflies  would  be  very  remote,  even  if 
they  were  not  killed  outright. 

The  same  immunity  is  enjoyed  bj'our  Archippus  butterfly  in  all  its 
stages,  and  especially  in  the  perfect  state,  in  which  the  peculiar  odor 
is  still  stronger;  as  I  have  abundantly  proved. 

The  larva  does  not  however  enjoy  entire  immunity  from  parasites 
as  has  been  hitherto  supposed,  for  though  after  extensive  experience 
I  have  never  found  any  of  the  numerous  Hymenopterous  parasites 
attacking  it,  it  is  nevertheless  often  killed  by  a  Dipterous  Tachina- 
fi3\  I  have  never  noticed  any  such  parasite  in  the  first  brood  of 
larvns,  but  last  year  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  St.  Louis,  not  one  in 
fifty  of  the  second  brood  escaped  its  fatal  work;  and  this  same  para- 
site was  by  no  means  confined  to  one  locality,  as  I  received  it  trom 
Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  who  found  the  Archippus  larvas 
and  chrysalids  badly  infested.  The  eggs  of  the  Tachina-fly  must  be 
deposited  for  the  most  part  while  the  larvas  are  j^oung,  for  specimens 
of  larva3  taken  at  the  first  moult  and  confined  in  cages  where  no  flies 
could  get  access  to -them,  were  frequently  parasitised.  These  victim- 
ized larvfe  usually  succumb  a  day  or  two  before  they  are  full  grown, 
though  occasionally  one  succeeds  in  efl"ecting  the  change  to  the  chry- 
salis. They  grow  sickly  and,  hanging  by  the  hind  legs,  become  flaccid 
and  discolored,  while  the  parasitic  maggots  pierce  the  skin  and  fall  to 
the  ground,  which  they  enter  to  transform.  A  silky  liquid  escapes 
from  the  breathing  pores  and  from  the  holes  made  by  these  maggots, 
which,  when  dry,  forms  long  white  semi-elastic  threads;  and  as  the 
discolored  larvcie  hang  by  hundreds  from  the  milkv/eeds,  with  these 
glistening  filaments,  one  might  at  first  imagine  they  had  been  smitten 
with  some  epidemic  disease. 

The  Tachina  maggot  is  not  specially  distinguishable  from  the 
many  other  larvfe  of  this  kind  which  are  known  to  infest  the  bodies 
of  other  insects,  but  the  spiracles  are  encircled  by  a  very  distinct  dark 
brown  ring.* 

••■  The  larva  of  this  Tachina-fly,  after  it  enters  the  ground,  contracts  very  rapidly  to  the  pupa 
etate,  and  if  retained  on  a  hard  surface,  one  may  watch  with  interest  how,  as  the  chitinous  cover- 
ing- thickens  and  hardens,  the  dark  head  is  vigorously  kept  at  work  underneath  it,  gnawing  or 
abrading  the  thickening  skin  in  a  constant  circle,  so  as  to  partially  sever  that  portion  which  serves 
as  a  lid  to  be  easily  pushed  open  by  the  future  fly.     I  have  often  wondered  how  tliis  lid  in  so  many 


150  THIRD  ANNUAL  KtPORT   OF 

OurTacliina-flies  generally  very  closely  resemble  each  other,  and 
very  little  attention  has  been  paid  to  them  in  this  country.  The  present 
species  seems  to  be  new  to  science,  but  I  forbear  to  describe  it  for  the 
simple  reason  that  it  varies  so  much  in  itself  and  so  closely  resembles 
many  others,  that  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  characterize  it 
sufficiently.  It  may  be  provisionally  known,  for  purposes  of  reference, 
as  the  Archippus  Tachina-fly —  DtGliina*  archijjpivora.  It  may  be  at 
once  distinguished  from  the  two  flies  described  in  my  second  Report 
(p.  51),  and  which  attack  the  true  Army-worm,  not  only  by  the  diifer- 
ent  form  and  smaller  size,  but  by  being  of  a  paler  gray,  and  by  lacking 
the  reddish  or  yellowish  tail.  The  eyes  are  perfectly  smooth.  An 
interesting  fact  connected  with  this  fly  is  that  it  likewise  attacked 
the  Fall  Army-worm  (as  already  mentioned  on  page  116,  note,) 
which  was  so  abundant  at  the  same  time  of  year.  I  have  also  bred  it 
undescribed  cut  worm. 

The  Tackinarics  can  only  be  satisfactorily  studied  in  connection  with  their  habits,  and  even 
then  they  must  prove  a  most  difficult  Division  to  work  up.  The  species  are  very  apt  to  grease  in  the 
cabinet  and  where  they  do  not  grease,  the  colors,  especially  of  the  face,  lose  their  brilliancy.  I  am 
satisfied  that  the  same  species  often  attacks  indiSerently  many  widely  distinct  larvce  and  that  there 
are,  in  consequence,  entomophagic  varieties.  I  have  a  score  of  different  lots,  bred  from  as  many 
distinct  species  of  Lepidopterous  and  even  Coleopterous  larvae;  and  the  individuals  of  each  lot, 
often  bred  from  a  solitary  specimen  of  some  particular  species  of  larva,  differ  more  among  them- 
selves than  from  individuals  of  some  other  lot,  bred  from  a  distinct  species  of  larva.  Indeed, 
unless  there  are  striking  characters,  it  would  be  folly  for  any  but  the  specialist  to  attempt  to 
describe  them.  These  Tachina-flies,  indeed,  form  such  an  extensive  Division  that  in  order  to  facil- 
itate study,  authors  have  inclined  to  erect  genera  upon  characters  most  trivial  and  such  as  would 
certainly  not  be  looked  upon  as  of  more  than  specific  value  in  other  groups.  Sixteen  specimens 
bred  from  Danais  archippus  vary  from  0.18 — 0.30  inch  in  length  and  from  0.33 — 0.60  inch  in  ex- 
panse :  some  have  a  rufous  spot  on  the  side  of  the  second  abdominal  joint,  while  others  show  no 
signs  of  any  such  spot.  From  among  them  two  somewhat  distinct  forms  occur  in  about  equal 
numbers.  In  the  one,  which  is  on  an  average  the  largest,  the  abdomen  is  rather  broader,  and  when 
dry  shrinks  so  as  to  become  flat,  while  the  antenna  have  the  third  joint  from  four  to  five  times  as 
long  as  the  second.  In  the  other  the  abdomen  is  rather  narrower,  remains  more  cylindrical  when 
dry,  and  the  antennas  have  the  third  joint  from  five  to  sis  times  as  long  as  the  second.  These  dif- 
ferences are,  I  believe,  sufficient  to  cause  the  specialist  to  make  distinct  species  or  even  genera; 
but  as  the  same  two  forms  occur  in  those  bred  from  other  species   of  larvaj,  and  as  all  the  other 

coarctate  pupaa  was  so  regularly  and  smoothly  opened  by  the  nascent  fly ;  but  am  now  satisfied 
from  observations  made  on  this  particular  species,  that  it  is  previously  prepared  by  the  larva  while 
contracting,  in  the  manner  described  above.  This  mil  be  more  especially  the  case  where  the  con- 
tracted skin  is  thick  as  in  Cuterebra,  CEstrus,  etc.,  while  in  those  where  the  skin  L«  thin  and  delicate 
as  in  Anthomyia  and  many  of  the  smaller  Muscida,  the  habit  probably  does  not  obtain,  as  the  fly 
can  crowd  itself  out,  and  the  opening  is  quite  irregular,  sometimes  transverse,  at  others  forming  a 
simple  longitudinal  slit.  I  have  witnessed  the  same  wonderful  forethought  in  the  larva  of  Chry- 
sopa,  after  spinning  its  small  cocoon.  In  this  case  the  sharp  sickle-like  jaws  of  the  larva  enable  it 
to  cut  very  finely  and  smoothly,  and  the  edge  of  the  severed  parts  show  plainly,  under  the  lens,  a  slight 
discoloration.  The  circle  inscribed  is  often,  but  not  always,  slightly  spiral  so  that  when  pushed 
open  the  lid  hangs  as  on  a  hinge.  The  same  habit  no  doubt  prevails  in  the  Lepidopterous  genus 
Limacodes  and  its  allies  ;  for  I  have  experimentally  proved,  by  opening  several  cocoons  of  Callo- 
chlora  vitidis,  Reakirt,  both  while  the  inmate  was  yet  in  the  larva  or  pupa  state,  that  the  lid  opens 
with  the  slightest  pressure,  and  just  as  regularly  as  if  pushed  from  within.  There  is,  however,  a 
marked  difference  in  the  working  in  these  last  two  cases  and  that  of  our  Dipterous  larva;.  The 
former  enclose  themselves  in  cocoons,  in  which  they  have  abundant  room  to  turn  round  and  par- 
tially cut  their  lid,  while  the  Tachina  larva  performs  the  work  on  its  own  skin  while  it  is  harden- 
ing and  before  it  has  become  separated  from  the  transforming  body  within. 

*  I  forwarded  specimens  of  this  fly  to  Dr.  LeBaron,  the  State  Entomologist  of  Illinois,  who  is 
better  posted  as  to  the  minute  generic  differences  between  these  flies,  than  any  one  else  in  the  AYest, 
and  he  refers  it  to  the  genus  Masicera,  Macq.,  in  speaking  of  which  Macquart  says  :  "they  are  the 
only  Tachince  which  have  the  third  joint  of  the  antenna;  very  long  without  at  the  same  time  having 
the  front  very  prominent."  This  and  other  minor  genera  of  Macquart  and  Meigen  have  been  dis- 
carded by  some  modern  authors,  such  as  Walker  and  Zetterstedt,  and  referred  to  Tachina. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  151 

details  of  structure,  coloration,  etc  are  precisely  similar,  and  as  these  differencas  themselves  grad- 
uate, I  cannot  consider  them  specific.  I  have  bred  the  same  fly  from  larva;  of  Prodenia  autumnalis 
as  stated  above  ;  also  from  larva;  of  an  imdescribed  Noctuan,  closely  resembling  Agrotis  subgothica. 
Haw.  These  specimens  differ  only  ia  the  rather  smaller  average  size  and  more  slender  body,  frona 
^specimens  bred  from  several  other  distinct  larvtB,  and  from  the  pupa  of  Cynthia  cardui.  It  is  also 
an  interesting  fact  that  the  largest  specimene  of  what  appear  to  be  but  one  species  are  those  bred 
from  the  largest  larvia',  as  for  instance  that  of  Citkeronia  regalis. 

THE   BUTTERFLY  OFTEN  CONWREGATES  IN  IMMENSE  SWARMS   OR  BEVIES, 

Various  butterflies  have  long  been  known  in  Europe,  to  swarm 
prodigiously  at  certain  periods;  but  in  this  country  no  other  butter- 
fly congregates  in  such  swarms  as  our  Archippus,  though  the  Painted 
Lady  {Cnythia  cardui)^  an  insect  found  in  all  four  quarters  of  the 
globe,  and  often  seen  in  swarms  in  Europe,  has  been  known  also  to 
swarm  in  Canada. 

The  Archippus  butterfly  appears  in  large  bevies  or  flocks  almost 
every  year  in  some  part  or  other  of  the  West.  In  September,  186S,  I 
received  accounts  of  their  sudden  appearance  in  difl"erent  parts  of 
the  city  of  Madison,  Wisconsin,  and  at  Manteno,  Ills.;  while  on  the 
19th  of  that  month  Mr.  P.  B.  Sibley  of  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  sent  me  speci- 
mens with  the  statement  that  he  saw  millions  of  them  filling  the  air 
to  the  height  of  three  or  four  hundred  feet,  for  several  hours  flying 
from  north  to  south,  and  quite  as  numerous  as  the  grasshoppers  had 
been  the  year  before. 

In  the  spring  of  1870  I  received  the  following  account  of  such  a 
swarm  from  L.  J.  Stroop  of  Waxahachie,  Ellis  Co.,  Texas  : 

During  my  ramble  this  morning  (March  31st)  I  happened  upon  a 
flock  or  bevy  of  butterflies  known  as  Danais  arolilppus^  Fabr.,  con- 
taining thirty  individuals,  four  of  which  I  captured  for  the  purpose  of 
identification,  only  two  of  which,  however,  I  pinned  down.  I  find 
them  to  be  of  the  genuine  archippus^  identical  in  every  respect  with 
specimens  bred  from  the  caterpillar  by  myself  last  summer,  except 
in  that  of  color,  which  is  somewhat  paler  in  these  captured  this  morn- 
ing than  it  was  in  those  bred  by  me  in  the  summer.  They  have  the 
appearance  of  having  been  on  the  wing  some  days. 

A  little  later  the  same  spring  similar  swarms  were  noticed  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Kansas,  the  most  remarkable  of  which  was  one  which 
occurred  at  Manhattan  about  tho  middle  of  April,  and  which,  as  I 
learn  from  Mr.  Thos.  Wells  of  that  place,  came  rapidly  with  a  strong 
wind  from  the  N.  W.  and  filled  the  atmosphere  all  around  for  more 
than  an  hour,  sometimes  so  as  to  eclipse  the  light.  Again,  large 
flocks  passed  over  the  same  place  in  a  southerly  directio'),  on  the 
evening  of  the  27th  and  morning  of  the  28th  September,  while  at 
Alton,  Illinois,  great  numbers  of  them  were  seen  passing  in  a  S.  W. 
direction  on  ihe  laet  day  of  October  of  the  same  year. 

It  would  be  diflicult  to  give  any  satisfactory  reason  for  this  as- 
sembang  together  of  such  immense  swarms  of  butterflies.  Insects 
otherwise  solitary  in  their  habits  sometimes  congregate  thus  for  pur- 
poses of  emigration ;  but  this  can  hardly  be  the  object  of  our  butter- 


152  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

fly  bevies.  They  certainly  do  not  travel  very  long  distances  or  we 
should  hear  more  numerous  accounts  of  them.  There  are  two  signifi- 
cant facts  connected  with  them  from  which  some  corollary  might  be 
deduced,  namely,  that  only  those  species  which  have  a  very  extended 
ran;;e  are  known  to  form  such  flocks,  and  that  they  always  travel, 
under  these  conditions,  in  a  southerly  or  south  westerly  direction. 
Mr.  Bates*  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  uninterrupted  pro- 
cesL-ions.  of  butterflies  belonging  to  the  genus  Oallidnj as,  which 
passed  from  morning  to  night  in  a  southerly  direction  across  the 
Amazons;  and  as  far  as  he  could  ascertain  these  migrating  hordes 
were  composed  entirely  of  males. 

If  our  Archippus  flocks  should  turn  out  to  be  all  males,  this  fact 
may  lead  to  some  solution  of  the  cause  of  their  congregating;  but  I 
incline  to  believe  the  flocks  are  composed  of  both  sexes.    Again,  if 
the  swarms  occurred  during  the  egg-depositing  season,  we  might  even 
then  venture  to  solve  the  problem.    For  it  is  evident  that  a  species 
which  enjoys  such  immunity  from  predaceous  animals  and  which  is 
confined  in  its  diet  to  a  single  family  of  plants,  must  occasionally 
multiply  in  particular  districts  beyond  the  capability  of  the  plants  to 
sustain  them ;  and  as  most  female   butterflies  instinctively  refuse  to 
deposit  eggs  on  a  plant  that  has  already   been  abundantly  supplied 
by  some  other  individual,  the  females  of  our  Archippus  would  natur- 
ally roam  in  vain  for  fresh  plants  when  once  the  latter  had  all  been 
stocked;  and  would  thus  congregate  together,  and,  followed  b}'  the 
males,  form  migrating  bevies.     Or  we  might   suppose  that  after  the 
larvas  had  eaten  up  all  the  milk-weeds  in  a  district,  the  butterflies 
they  produced,  finding  no  plants  upon  which  to  lay  their  eggs,  would 
be  forced  to  migrate  in  swarms.    But  neither  of  these  suppositions 
can  have  much  weight  from  the  fact  that  the  swarms  occur  either  late 
in  the  fall  or  early  in  spring;  and  the  mqst  plausible  solution  under 
the  circumstances  is  that,  as  these  are  the   seasons  when  the  milk- 
weeds are  either  destroyed  or  have  not.  yet  started  to  grow,  the  but- 
terflies, having  nothing  to  confine  their  attention  and  keep  them  iso- 
lated, naturally  congregate  together,  and  that  when  in  motion,  the 
low  temperature  of  the  seasons  instinctively  prompts  them  to  wend 
their  way  southwards.    The  probabilities  are  that  these  swarms  are 
eventually  destroyed,  for  no  species  can  multiply  beyond  a  certain 
limit,  and  when  there  is  not  check  to  increase  in  one  direction,  there 
will  be  in  another.     Of  course  this  is  as  yet  all  theory  and  hypothesis, 
but  hypotheses  in   such  cases   are  necessary,   for  they  are  threads 
on  Avhicli  to  string  and  combine  the  known  parts  of  a  case  so  as  ulti- 
mately to  arrive  at  the  real  truth  in  the  matter. 

*  No-turalist  on  the  River  Amazons,  I,  p.  249, 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


153 


THE  DISIPPUS  B\]TTEIIFLY—Li7ne7iitis  disippus,  Godt. 

(Lepidoptera,  Nyiuphalida!). 

This  is  another  butterfl}^  (Fig.  QS)  which   is  well  known  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley.    It  belongs  to  a  family  which  agrees  with  that  to 
[Fig-  68.]  which  the  previous  insect 

belongs,  in  the  front  pair 

iof  legs  being  more  or  less 

'functionally  impotent,  but 

differs    remarkably    from 

it  in  the  large  cell  in  the 

centre  of  each  wing  never 

being    closed    externally 

by  a  distinct  tubular  vein, 

and  in  its  being  generally 

open  towards  the  outer  margin  of  the  wing  :  also  in  lacking  the  small 

nervule  at  the  base  of  the  front  wing,  spoken  of  on  page  143. 

The  food  plants  of  the  Disippus  butterfly  are  Willow,  Poplar  and 
Plum,  and  though  not  as  numerous  as  the  Archippus,  it  is  yet  toler- 
ably common  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  occurs  sparingly  all  over 
the'  United  States  and  in  the  West  Indies.  As  will  be  seen  by  re- 
ferring to  the  figure*,  though  belonging  to  an  entirely  distinct  family, 
it  nevertheless  bears  a  great  general  resemblance  to  the  Archippus 
butterfly,  and  this  resemblance  is  rendered  more  striking  by  the  col- 
ors of  the  two  insects  being  identicaliy  the  same. 

The  natural  history  of  this  species  is  fully  as  interesting  as  that 
of  the  Archippus  butterflj^— if  not   more  so.    The   egg  which,  so  far 
[Fig.  69.]  as  I  am  aware,  has  never  be- 

and 


01^  fore  been  described 
tiscfigured,  differs  remarkably 
^from  that  of  the  Archippus 
^^butterfly  and  is  well  repre- 
^1!:  sented  at  Figure  69,  a  show- 
Jj  ing  it  greatly  magnified,  c  of 
.<l-^  the  natural  size  and  d  giving 
a  greatly  magnified  view  of 
one  of  the  cells  with  the  filamentous  processes  from  each  angle  of 
the  hexagon.  The  color  is  at  first  pale  yellow  but  soon  becomes  gray 
as  the  embryo  within  develops.  It  is  usually  deposited  singly  near 
the  tip  of  the  leaf,  generally  on  the  underside  but  often  on  the  upper 
side;  and  I  have  exceptionally  found  as  many  as  three  together,  and 
sometimes  one  on  either  side  of  the  leaf,  opposed  to  each  other. 

*  In  Figure  68,  which  represents  the  Disippus  butterfly,  the  left  wings  represent  the  upper  sur- 
face, and  the  right  wings,  which  are  detached  from  the  body,  represent  the  lower  surface.  The 
difference  in  the  coloration  of  the  two  surfaces  is  but  slight  in  this  species,  neither  does  it  amount 
to  much  in  the  Archippus  butterfly ;  but  in  some  butterflies  and  in  others  belonging  to  the  same 
genus,  it  is  very  considerable. 


154 


THIRD   ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 


Description  op  the  Egg. — Length  0.38  inch.  Diameter  at  base  about  the  same.  Globular, 
with  the  top  often  slightly  depressed.  Hexagonally  reticulate,  the  cells  more  or  less  regular, 
sunken  so  as  to  give  the  egg  a  thimble-like,  pitted  appearance,  and  about  10  of  them  in  the  longi- 
tudinal row  and  30  in  the  circumference.  Covered  with  translucent  filamentous  spines,  one  aris- 
ing from  every  reticulate  angle  and  giving  the  egg  a  pubescent  appearance.  Each  spine  about  as 
long  as  the  cell  is  wide,  those  on  the  top  being  longest. 

The  young  larva  differs  materially  from  its  more  mature  self,  as 
will  be  seen  from  the  description  which  follows.  It  grows  apace, 
casting  off  its  old  coat  and  devouring  the  same  three  times  during  its 
growth,  and  eventually  suspending  itself  by  the  hind  legs  and  trans- 
forming to  the  chrysalis,  frequently  within  a  month  from  the  time  of 
[Fis-  70.]  hatching.  The  mature  larva 

(Fig.  70,  a)  presents  a 
roughened  tubercled  ap- 
pearance and  varies  much 
in  color,  the  predominau 
colors  being  moss-green, 
brown  and  creamy- white; 
the  moss-green  parts  being 
studded  with  beautiful  light 
blue  points.  The  pupa 
Fig.  70,  h)  is  marked  with 
burntumber  brown,  ash-gray,  flesh-color  and  silvery  white,  and  is 
characterized  like  that  of  the  other  species  of  the  genus,  by  a  curious 
thin  almost  circular  projection  which  has  been  likened  to  a  Roman 
nose,  growing  out  of  the  middle  of  its  back. 

Description  of  mature  Larva. — Length  1.20,  diameter  0.25  inch.  General  color  either 
whitish  or  olive-green.  Body  thickly  granulated.  Head  dull  olive,  with  dense  minute  prickles  ; 
its  vertex  bifid  and  terminating  in  a  pair  of  prickly  cylindrical  horns,  transversely  arranged  and 
each  about  0.03  inch  long.  Back  speckled  and  mottled  with  olive  of  difi"erent  shades  above  the 
line  of  the  spiracles,  except  joints  2  and  8  and  the  upper  part  of  7  and  9,  but  with  a  continuous  pure 
white  line  below  the  spiracles,  beneath  which  white  line  on  joints  4-10  is  a  large  olive  patch  ex- 
tending on  joints  6-9  to  the  external  tip  of  the  prolegs.  A  pair  of  black  transversely-arranged 
dorsal  dots  in  the  suture  behind  joint  2,  and  a  more  or  less  obvious  lateral  one  just  above  and  be- 
hind the  5th  and  7th  pair  of  stigmata  surmounting  the  lateral  white  line.  Joints  3-7  and  9-11 
with  more  or  less,  shining,  elevated,  blue  dots.  On  joint  2  a  pair  of  prickly  cylindrical  black  horns, 
transversely  arranged  and  0.16  inch  long.  On  joints  3,  10  and  11  a  pair  of  large  dorsal  tubercles 
transversely  arranged,  each  crowned  by  a  little  bunch  of  8-12  robust  prickles.  On  joint  5  a  pair  of 
similar  tubercles,  but  still  larger,  of  a  yellowish  color,  and  mamma-like.  On  joints  4,  6,  7  and  9 
tubercles  similar  to  those  on  joints  3, 10  and  11,  but  smaller.  Onjoint  12four  black  prickly  dorsal 
horns,  quadrangularly  arranged  and  each  about  0.03  inch  long.     Stigmata  and  legs  blackish. 

Described  from  many  specimens.  Such  are  the  prominent  and  more  constant  traits  of  this 
larva,  but  it  is  so  variable  in  the  general  depth  of  coloring  and  in  the  proportion  of  the  lighter 
and  darker  shades  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  frame  a  description  which  shall  alike  agree  with 
half  a  dozen  specimens. 

The  newly  hatched  larva  presents  a  quite  different  appearance.  It  is  0.09  inch  long  with  a 
yellowish-brown  head  twice  as  large  as  the  first  joint  and  distinctly  bilobed.  The  first  joint  is  also 
larger  than  the  others.  Each  joint  is  divided  by  a  transverse  impressed  line,  and  upon  the  dorsum 
of  each  fold  thus  made  are  4  pale  elevated  spots,  the  anterior  outer  ones  larger  than  the  rest,  as 
shown  at  Fig.  69,  b,  especially  on  joints  2,  3,  5  and  11  where  they  appear  conical  with  a  darker  an- 
nulation  at  base.  There  is  a  subdorsal  and  a  sub-stigmatal  row  of  similar  rounded  warts,  and  they 
all  give  rise  to  little  pale  bristles  or  spines.  The  general  color  is  pale  yellowish-brown,  mottled 
with  dark  streaks,  especially  below  the  stigmata.    The  second  period  scarcely  differs  from  the  first 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  155 

except  in  the  somewhat  greater  length  of  the  horns.  In  the  third  period  the  horns  acquire  their 
mature  proportions,  and  the  whole  larva  becomes  more  granulated.  In  the  fourth  or  last  the  blue 
points  appear  and  the  lateral  rows  of  tubercles  lose  their  conspicuousness  to  a  great  extent. 

ITS   WINTER   QUAKTERS. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  in  the  life-history  of  our 
Disippus  butterfly  is  its  mode  of  hibernating.  A  great  many  moth 
larva3  pass  the  winter  in  the  larva  state  sheltered  in  one  way  or 
another;  but  no  other  American  butterfly  has  hitherto  been  recorded 
as  hibernating  in  this  state,  except  the  closely  related  Ursula  butter- 
fly,* though  no  doubt  the  few  other  species  belonging  to  the  same 
genus  possess  a  similar  habit.  Misled,  perhaps,  by  the  fact  that  the 
butterfly  is  seen  flying  about  so  early  in  the  spring  that  it  could  not 
have  had  sulficient  time  to  hatch  out  from  the  egg  and  acquire  its  full 
larval  growth  the  same  season,  and  with  its  wings  so  bright  and  un- 
worn that  it  could  not  have  hibernated  as  a  butterfly  as  some  other 
closely  allied  species  are  known  to  do  ;  Dr.  Harris,  in  his  work  on  In- 
jurious Insects  (p.  282)  asserts  that  it  hibernates  in  the  i)upa  state, 
though  he  subsequentlj^  in  the  year  1850,  became  aware  of  the  facts 
in  the  case.f 

In  reality  the  larvae  of  the  autumnal  brood,  when  about  one- 
fourth  or  one-third  grown,  build  for  themselves  curious  little  houses 
(Fig.  70,  c),  in  which  they  pass  the  winter.  First  and  foremost — with 
wise  forethought,  and  being  well  aware  through  its  natural  instincts, 
that  the  leaf  which  it  has  selected  for  its  house  will  fall  to  the  ground 
when  the  cold  weather  sets  in,  unless  it  takes  measures  to  prevent 
this — the  larva  fastens  the  stem  of  the  leaf  with  silken  cables  securely 
to  the  twig  from  which  it  grows.  It  then  gnaws  ofl"  the  blade  of  the 
leaf  at  its  tip  end,  leaving  little  else  but  the  mid-rib,  as  shown  in  Fig- 
ure 70,  d.  Finally,  it  rolls  the  remaining  part  of  the  blade  of  the  leaf 
into  a  cylinder,  sewing  the  edges  together  with  silk.;];  The  basal  por- 
tion of  the  cylinder  is  of  course  tapered  to  a  point,  as  the  edges  of 
the  leaf  are  merely  drawn  together,  not  overlapped  ;  and  invariably 
the  lower  side  of  the  leaf  forms  the  outside  of  the  house,  so  as  to 
have  its  projecting  mid-rib  out  of  the  way  of  the  larva,  as  it  reposes 
snugly  in  the  inside.  The  whole  when  finished  (Fig.  70,  c)  has 
somewhat  the  appearance  of  the  leaf  of  a  miniature  pitcher-plant 
{Sarraoenia)^  its  length  being  0.50-0.65  inch,  and  its  diameter  0.11- 
0.11  inch. 

*There  is  good  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  some  of  those  butterfly  larvae  which  habitually 
protect  themselves  by  a  sort  of  loose  cocoon,  made  by  drawing  together  or  rolling  up  the  leaves  of 
their  food-plant;  likewise  pass  the  winter  in  the  larval  state.  At  least  I  have  known  an  oak-feed- 
ing larva  of  Nisoniades  juvenalis,  Sm.  and  Abb.,  kept  by  a  lady  friend  of  mine,  to  remain  in  the 
larva  state  nearly  all  winter  before  transforming  to  the  chrysalis.  But  there  is  not  strict  analogy 
between  such  a  case  and  that  of  the  hibernation  of  the  immature  Disippus. 

"f"  Harris  Correspondence,  p.  245. 

J  In  the  article  in  the  A7n.  Entomologist — which  was  the  greater  part  of  it  written  by  Mr.  Walsh, 
with  my  own  facts  and  experience  inserted  here  and  there — it  is  stated  that  the  ''gnawed  portion  of 
the  leaf  forming  the  flap,  is  bent  down  and  fastened  by  silken  cords,  so  as  to  act  as  a  door  to  the 
house."  After  fuller  experience,  I  find  that  this  is  very  seldom  the  case,  but  that  the  orifice  is 
more  often  left  open. 


156 


THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 


These  curious  little  cases  may  be  commonly /ound  upon  our  wil- 
lows or  poplars  in  the  winter  time,  I  have  examined  hundreds  of 
them,  and  although  they  are  invariably  built  upon  the  same  plan, 
they  vary  greatly  in  the  degree  of  perfection  which  the  architect  at- 
tained ;  and  this  is  especially  the  case  when  they  have  been  built  in 
confinement.  The  blade  on  the  tip  piece  is  sometimes  gnawed  oft' 
right  down  to  the  rib ;  at  others  it  is  left  almost  as  broad  as  the  tube. 
Sometimes  it  is  bent  over  the  orifice  ;  at  others  not.  They  are  also 
[Fig.  71.]  much  more  irregular  and  ungainly  when  made  from 
broad  leaves  such  as  those  of  the  Silver  poplar, 
than  when  made  from  the  more  narrow  leaves  of 
the  Willow.  These  autumnal  larvm  have  also  an- 
other peculiar  habit  not  heretofore  recorded,  and 
which  was  first  pointed  out  to  me  by  Mr.  J.  A.  Lint- 
ner,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.  They  exhibit  a  tendency  to 
build  from  the  time  they  are  born,  and  will  always 
a  eat  the  leaves  from  the  side,  gnawing  large  holes 
and  cutting  along  the  sides  of  the  mid-rib,  as  at 
Fgure  71,  a.  They  commence  at  the  tip  and  as  they 
work  downwards  towards  the  base,  they  collect  the 
debris  into  a  little  bunch,  which  they  fasten  with 
silk  to  the  mid-rib.  When  the  hibernaculura  is  fin- 
ished the  seam  is  perfectly  smooth  and  the  whole 
inside  is  lined  with  silk.  The  larva,  after  completing  its  work,  com- 
poses itself  for  the  winter,  with  the  tail  towards  the  orifice.  Here  it 
remains  till  the  catkins  are  in  bloom  the  next  spring,  when  it  retreats 
from  its  house  and  commences  feeding.  Not  the  least  wonderful  part 
of  the  phenomenon  is,  that  it  is  only  the  autumnal  brood  of  larvas 
that  form  pitcher-like  houses  to  live  in  during  the  inclement  season 
of  the  year,  the  summer  brood  having  no  occasion  to  shelter  them- 
selves from  the  cold.  We  thus  have  an  instance  of  a  curious  archi- 
tectural instinct  being  only  developed  in  alternate  generations; 
which  is  much  the  same  thing  as  if,  with  a  certain  race  of  men,  the 
great-grandfathers,  the  fathers  and  the  grandchildren  ran  wild  in  the 
woods,  and  the  grandfathers,  the  sons  and  the  great-grandchildren 
lived  in  houses  and  led  the  life  of  civilized  human  beings. 

When  we  duly  consider  this  peculiarity  in  our  Disippus  larva,  we 
may  well  pause  and  ask — 


What  wondrous  power  enables  it  so  well, 
The  coming  cold  of  winter  to  foretell, 
And  to  provide  for  its  long  torpid  rest, 
A  house,  from  means  at  hand,  the  very  best  ? 


We  can  but  admire  the  beautiful  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end 
— no  matter  how  we  choose  to  explain  it !  There  can  be  little  doubt 
but  that  man-y  of  the  phenomena  in  animal  life  which  we  so  summa- 
rily dispose  of  by  the  ready  use  of  that  rather  blind  term  "instinct," 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  157 

might  be  explained  in  a  more  natural  way.  The  term  is  justly  applied 
to  those  actions  which  are  prompted  by  exterior  influences  or  pecu- 
liarity of  organization,  and  which  are  performed  unconsciously;  but 
by  its  too  general  application,  most  people  have  acquired  a  deep-set 
idea  that  all  animals  act  under  its  power,  and  Jiave  nothing  akin  to 
our  reason  ;  whereas  there  is  hardly  anything  more  certain  than  that 
true  reason  of  degree  exists  very  generally  in  the  animal  liingdom; 
or  that  what  we  know  as  pure  instinct  may  have  been  developed  by 
natural  law,  i.  <?.,  first  acquired  by  experience  and  afterwards  fixed  as 
a  habit  by  heredity. 

The  subtle  influences  of  the  late  fall  which  seem  to  convey 
through  every  pulse  of  nature,  intelligence  of  the  approaching  win- 
ter, and  which  cause  all  animals  to  prepare  for  their  hyperborean 
sleep,  no  doubt  originally  induced  the  young  larva  of  the  ancestral 
type  from  which  our  Disippus  and  the  other  species  of  the  genus 
sprung,  to  prepare  for  itself  some  shelter.  The  gradually  increasing 
cold  and  the  decrease  of  nourishment  in  the  leaf,  would  act  as  physi- 
cal prompters,  and  the  pitcher-like  house,  which  at  first  strikes  us  as 
so  remarkable,  is  the  simplest  structure  that  could  be  made  with  the 
materials  at  command.  The  characteristic  smoothness  of  its  food- 
plant — forbidding  as  it  does  the  shelter  under  loose  bark  which  many 
larvcB  seek — would  also  tend  to  develop  such  a  trait.  That  this  trait 
— this  instinct — should  only  be  developed  under  similar  conditions  to 
those  which  gave  birth  to  it,  is  not  so  remarkable;  and  that  it  does 
only  so  develop,  seems  certain,  for  I  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  while  the  insect  is  two-brooded  further  north,  it  is  sometimes 
three-brooded  with  us,  and  consequently  that  this  peculiar  instinct 
obtains  either  in  the  second  or  third  generation,  according  to  circum- 
stances. 

ITS   PARASITES. 

Though  not  generally  known  to  entomologists,  our  Disippus 
butterfly  is  very  subject  to  the  attacks  of  parasites,  at  least  three 
distinct  species  infesting  it  in  the  preparatory  states.  One  of  these 
is  a  Tachina-^j,  of  which  I  have  often  noticed  the  eggs  fastened 
transversely  on  the  back  of  the  neck  of  the  larva,  but  of  which  I 
have  not  obtained  the  fly.  In  all  probability  it  does  not  destroy  the 
larva  till  the  latter  is  nearly  full  grown.  The  other  two  I  will  briefly 
describe  as  no  mention  has  heretofore  been  made  of  them. 

The  Disippus  Egg-parasite.— The  eggs    already  described  were 

very  abundant  last  fall  on  a  certain  clump 
of  willows  near  Kirkwood,  and  of  about 
two  hundred  obtained,  fully  one  half  of 
them  were  parasitised.  Instead  of  hatch- 
ing out  into  larvae,  as  they  would  have 
done  if  they  had  been  unmolested,  these 
last  produced  little  dark  colored  four- 
winged  flies,  from  four, to  six  of  which 


158  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

would  gnaw  their  way  through  the  shell  of  each  egg.  This  little  fly- 
belongs  to  the  great  Chalcis  family,  and  though  scarcely  more  than 
0.02  inch  long,  it  can  jump  to  the  distance  of  several  inches.  Its 
wings,  especially  the  hind  ones,  are  beautifully  fringed  with  hairs.  It 
is  inconspicuously  marked,  the  body  being  dark  brown  with  the  an- 
tennfB  and  legs  pale,  and  the  wings  iridescent.  The  highly  magnified 
outlines  at  Figure  72  will  convey  a  good  idea  of  its  appearance,  a 
showing  the  fly  with  wings  folded  on  the  back,  I  one  of  the  front 
wings.  G  one  of  the  hind  wings,  d  one  of  the  legs,  and  e  one  of  the 
antennae. 

I  shall  leave  the  proper  determination  of  this  insect  to  those  who  pay  more  particular  attention 
to  the  Chalcidid^b.  It  comes  nearest  the  genus  Trichogramma,  Westw.,  and  may  be  provisionally 
called  Trichogramma  {1)  minuta.  It  differs  from  that  genus  and  from  all  other  Chalcididan 
genera  with  which  1  am  acquainted,  in  the  antennae  being  but  6-jointed  (scape,  plus  4  joints),  the 
scape  stout  and  as  long,  or  longer,  than  joints  2,  3  and  4  together  ;  joints  '6  and  4  small  and  to- 
gether as  long  as  joint  2  ;  5  very  stout,  fusiform  and  as  long  as  2,  3  and  4  together.  The  legs  have 
the  trochanters  stout  and  long,  the  tibia;  not  quite  so  long  nor  so  stout  as  the  femora,  and  with  a 
long  tooth ;  the  tarsi  are  3-jointed,  with  the  joints  of  equal  length  and  with  the  claws  and  pulvilli  sub- 
obsolete.  The  abdomen  is  apparently  6-jointed,  the  basal  joint  wide,  the  2nd  narrower,  2 — 5  in- 
creasing in  width  till  5  is  as  wide  as  1.  The  ovipositor  of  $  extends  a  little  beyond  the  apex,  and 
starts  from  the  anterior  edge  of  the  5th  joint. 

The  Disippus  Microgaster. — The  third  parasite  which  also  very 
[Fig.  73.]     commonly  infests  the  last  brood  of  larvae,   and  kills  its 
victim  during  the  second  period,  is   a  little  black  four- 
winged  fly  belonging  to  the  genus  Microgaster.    The  para- 
sitic maggot  eats  its  way  out  just  before  the  Disippus  larva 
gets  ready  to  build  its  winter  tenement,  and  spins  a  pale 
yellowish  cocoon  of  silk,  either  upon  the  back  of  its  victim 
or  upon  the  leaf  close  by  ;  and  from  this  cocoon  the  fly  soon   after- 
wards issues.    Figure  73,  which  represents   the  Army-worm  Micro- 
gaster enlarged,  will  convey  a  good  idea  of  its  Disippus  relative. 

The  genus  Microgaster  is  a  very  extensive  one,  and  the  species 
have  not  yet  been  well  studied  in  this  country.  They  are  all  of  small 
size,  and  in  many  instances  resemble  each  other  so  closely  that  they 
can  only  be  satisfactorily  studied  in  connection  with  their  habits  and 
the  particular  larvas  which  they  infest.  Some  appear  to  confine  their 
attacks  to  one  particular  kind  of  caterpillar,  while  others  infest  alike 
many  different  species.  Thus  the  one  under  consideration  not  only 
infests  the  Disippus  larva,  but  I  have  also  bred  it  from  that  of  the 
Golden-rod  Gall-moth  {Gelechia  galloesolidaginis.,  Riley)  obtained 
from  Canada ;  which  indicates  it  to  be  a  widely  distributed  species. 

Microgaster  limenitidos,  N.  Sp. — (^  $ .  Length  0.09  inch.  Color  pitchy-black.  Antenna) 
black,  about  as  long  as  body  ;  palpi  whitish.  Thorax  minutely  punctured.  Abdomen  with  the  two 
or  three  basal  joints  emarginate  and  rugose,  the  terminal  joints  smooth  and  polished.  Legs  dus\iy  ; 
front  and  middle  femora  yellowish,  hind  femora  black  ;  front  and  middle  tibite  yellowish,  hind 
tibiae  with  terminal  half  dusky,  but  the  spur  pale  ;  front  and  middle  tarsi  yellowish  tipped  with 
dusky,  hind  tarsi  dusky  above,  paler  below.  Wings  hyaline,  iridescent,  the  nervures  and  stigma 
black  or  dark-brown,  the  radial  nervule,  the  cubital  nervules  and  the  exterior  nervule  of  the  dis- 
coidal  cell,  sub-obsolete. 


THE  STATE  EKTOMOLOGIST.  159 

Described  from  6  $,  1  c?>  ^Ted  from  larvic  of  Limenitis  disippus,  3  $  bred  from  larvaa  of  Gc- 
Idvhia  gallcesolidaginis.  In  the  latter  the  nervures  of  wings  are  paler  and  less  distinct  than  in  the 
former.  Most  of  our  N.  A.  species  of  this  genus  have  been  described  by  Mr.  Cressonwho  has  seen 
this  and  considers  it  new.     It  certainly  differs  from  the  other  described  species. 


MIMICRY  AS  ILLUSTRATED  BY  THESE  TWO  BUTTERFLIES,  WITH    SOME  REMARKS 
ON   THE  THEORY  OF  NATURAL    SELECTION. 

The  means  by  which  animals  are  enabled  to  escape  from  their 
enemies  and  obtain  their  food,  or  in  other  words  to  sustain  them- 
selves in  the  great  struggle  for  existence  that  is  continually  going  on 
between  each  species,  are  as  varied  as  they  are  wonderful.  There  is 
generally  a  conformity  of  tint  between  all  animals  and  their  surround- 
ing, and  in  the  higher  classes  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace  has  shown*  that  in 
general  terms  it  may  be  stated  that  desert  animals  are  desert  colored 
arctic  animals  white,  and  nocturnal  animals  gray,  i.  e.,  of  such  colors 
as  best  to  accord  with  the  surroundings.  Animals,  birds,  fishes  and 
reptiles  come  under  this  rule  to  a  great  extent,  and  the  reader  will  be 
amply  rewarded  by  perusing  the  details  given  in  the  valuable  and 
interesting  work  referred  to.  But  in  no  Class  of  animals  does  this 
principle  of  adaptation  to  environment  occur  so  generally  and  in  such  a 
striking  manner  as  in  insects.  With  them  mimicry  and  other  protec- 
tive resemblances  are  almost  universal,  and  it  may  be  given  as  a  rule 
that  all  insects  living  above  ground,  when  not  naturally  protected  by 
odor,  luminosity  or  defensive  covering  such  as  hairs,  spines,  hard 
shelly  wings,  etc.,  or  by  armor  such  as  stings,  beaks,  etc.,  either 
cover  themselves  with  one  substance  or  another,  or  similate  their  sur- 
roundings, or  mimic  either  other  animals,  plants,  or  even  inorganic 
substances.  With  insects  in  their  larval  states,  will  this  rule  especi- 
ally hold  good. 

What  entomologist  has  not  been  deceived  by  the  close  resemblance 
of  the  beetles  belonging  to  the  genus  Ghlamys  to  the  dung  of  cater- 
pillars;  or  is  not  familiar  with  the  quaint  and  close  resemblance  of 
the  Walking-sticks  and  Walking-leaves  to  the  objects  from  which  they 
take  their  names?  Chapter  after  chapter  might  be  written  on  these 
wonderful  imitations  which  deceive  the. best  trained  eyes  ;  and  there 
are  many  most  striking  instances  among  our  American  insects  which 
have  never  yet  been  published  and  which  I  hope  some  day  to  illus- 
trate. Bat  my  present  purpose  is  simply  to  draw  attention  to  the 
illustration  aiforded  by  the  two  butterflies  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering. 

These  striking  resemblances  were  formerly  looked  upon,  for  the 
most  part,  as  curious  analogies  in  nature,  intended  to   carry  out  the 


^Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection. 


160  THIRD   ANNUAL    REPORT   OF 

general  plan  of  the  Creator ;  but  viewed  in  the  light  of  modern  science, 
and  especially  by  that  of  the  Darwinian  development  hypothesis, 
they  have  acquired  an  immense  significance.  One  of  the  most  interest- 
ing phases  of  this  mimicry,  and  one  which  has  only  within  the  last  few 
years  been  brought  to  light,  is  the  imitation  by  an  otherwise  defenseless 
butterlly,  of  one  whose  great  numbers  and  wide  distribution  indicate 
that  it  enjoyspeculiar  advantages.  This  specific  imitation  of  one  but- 
terfly by  another  is  precisely  of  the  same  nature  as  the  mimicking  of  a 
vegetable  orinorganic  substance,  and  may  consequently  bejust  as  prop- 
erly termed  mimicry.  Some  authors  seem  to  make  a  distinction  between 
this  so-called  mimicry  and  what  is  known  as  "protective  resemb- 
lance," while  others  again  misconceive  the  true  import  of  the  word 
"mimicry"  as  used  in  this  connection.  Thus,  Maj.  J.  R.  Muhleman  in 
an  essay  on  "Mimicry  in  Insects,"  read  before  the  Central  Illinois  Hor- 
ticultural Society  this  winter,  gave  the  word  so  broad  an  interpretation 
as  to  apply  it  to  the  possum-playing  of  some  insects,  and  even  to  the  sup- 
posed and  far-fetched  resemblances  such  as  that  of  the  female  Canker- 
worm  to  a  plant-louse,  and  of  the  female  Bag-worm  to  a  Dipterous 
maggot.  True  mimicry  can  only  occur  where  it  is  of  benefit  to  the 
species,  no  matter  whether  the  benefit  be  derived  by  enabling  harm- 
less species  to  avoid  their  enemies  in  one  way  or  another;  or  by  enab- 
ling predaceous  species  to  deceive  their  prey  by  assimilating  the  form 
and  colors  of  the  latter. 

As  already  stated,  the  particular  group  to  which  our  Archippus 
butterfly  belongs  is  a  large  one,  and  the  species  comprising  it  are 
very  numerous.  They  are  especially  abundant  in  South  America,  and 
like  our  own  species,  they  all  possess  a  pungent  odor  which  seems  to 
pervade  all  the  juices  of  their  system.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that 
according  to  Mr.  Wallace,^'  when  an  entomologist  "squeezes  the 
breast  of  one  of  them  between  his  fingers  to  kill  it,  a  yellow  liquid 
exudes  which  stains  the  skin,  and  the  smell  of  which  can  only  be  got 
rid  of  by  time  and  repeated  washings."  The  wings  of  these  butter- 
flies, as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  Figure  G3,  are  rather  longer  than 
usual,  but  their  flight  is  comparatively  slow,  and  they  do  not  dodge 
and  zig-zag  about  with  sudden  skips  and  jerks  as  the  "Skippers," 
(Hesperid^e,)  are  known  to  do.  They  furthermore  possess  no  adap- 
tive coloring  to  protect  them  during  repose,  for  they  take  no  pains  to 
hide  themselves,  and  their  colors  are  bright,  and  those  of  the  under- 
side as  conspicuous  as  those  of  the  upper. 

Hence  we  cannot  assume  that  they  are  enabled,  by  their  pecu- 
liar mode  of  flying,  to  escape  to  a  great  extent  those  cannibal 
animals  that  would  otherwise  catch  and  devour  them;  and  if  we  pro- 
pose to  account  for  their  prodigious  abundance  at  all,  we  are  driven 
to  have  recourse  to  some  other  hypothesis.  Indeed,  so  far  is  it  from 
])eing  the  case  that  it  is  their  mode  of  flight   which  enables  them  to 

^Coutributiousi  etc.,  p.  7S. 


THE   SIATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  161 

escape  from  their  cannibal  foes,  that  Mr.  H.  W.  Bates,  the  English 
naturalist,  who  spent  eleven  years  in  the  Valley  of  the  Amazon  River 
studying  the  natural  history  of  the  insects  of  that  region,  where  this 
particular  group  of  butterflies  is  very  copiously  represented,  declares 
that  he  never  saw  a  single  one  of  them  attacked  by  any  cannibal  foe 
whatever,  whether  bird,  or  Dragon-fly,  or  lizard,  or  Asihis-fiy. 

It  is  therefore  reasonable  to  assume  that  their  peculiar  odor  ren- 
ders them  unpalatable  to  animals  of  prey.  We  have  seen  that  the  Arch- 
ippus  butterfly  enjoys  an  almost  perfect  immunity  from  the  attacks 
of  predaceous  animals,  consequent,  in  all  probability,  upon  this  pecu- 
liar odor  which  attaches  to  it  both  in  the  larval  and  perfect  states.. 
In  this  case  the  supposition  is  even  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the 
only  parasite  known  to  attack  it  is  a  Taohina-fiy^helongmg  to  a  fami- 
ly which  is  notoriously  defiant  of  strong  odors,  the  larvas  often  rioting 
in  filth  and  the  flies  many  of  them  known  to  be  especially  attracted 
to  such  odors. 

Now  there  is  another  large  group  of  butterflies,  known  as  the 
Pieris  family,  to  which  the  white  cabbage  butterflies  belong,  which 
were  mentioned  in  my  last  Report  (pp.  104-110.)  This  group  difl"ers 
widely  in  structure  from  the  Danais  group,  and  is  represented  by 
many  species  in  the  Valley  of  the  Amazons;  but  instead  of  the  spe- 
cies being  exceedingly  abundant  in  individuals,  as  in  the  case  of  those 
belonging  to  the  Danais  family,  it  is  quite  the  contrary;  the  propor- 
tion between  the  number  of  individuals  belonging  respectively  to 
two  of  the  commonest  genera  of  either  group  {Leptalis  din^  ItJiomia) 
being  only  1  to  1000.  Hence,  it  is  reasonable  to  infer  that  this  group 
must  be  much  persecuted  by  cannibal  foes,  and  such  has  been  found 
to  be  the  case.*  ' 

The  colors  found  in  the  species  of  the  Z>(a5;^a^s  family  are  red, 
yellow,  orange,  white  and  black;  while  only  the  last  two  colors  obtain 
in  the  Pieris  famil}'^,  the  white  being  sometimes  tinged  with  green- 
ish yellow.  So  far  so  good.  We  see  flitting  about  in  the  great  Val- 
ley of  the  Amazons,  vast  swarms  of  long-winged  butterflies,  gorgeous- 
ly dressed  in  red,  orange,  yellow,  white  and  black;  and  certain  short- 
winged  butterflies,  in  very  much  smaller  numbers,  whose  proper  liv- 
ery is  but  the  plain  black  and  white  that  befits  a  funeral.  We  see 
the  former  enjoy  an  entire  immunity  from  the  attacks  of  all  preda- 
ceous animals,  and  the  latter  snapped  up  by  every  hungry  bird.  Dra- 
gon-fly or  Asilus-^j  that  happens  to  come  across  them.  Will  it  be 
believed,  now,  that  there  are  certain  particularspeciesof  the  homely, 
much  persecuted,  short- winged  group,  that  assume  the  livery  worn  by 
certain  particular  species  of  their  gaily  dressed  compatriots,  and  ac- 
tually even  copy  their  elongated  wings  ?  Yet  such  is  the  indubitable 
fact.    In  the  Memoir  of  Mr.  Bates,  already  referred  to,  will  be  found 

»These  facts  were  first  brought  to  light  about  nine  years  ago,  by  Mr.  Bates,  in  a  most  inter- 
esting and  valuable  Memoir,  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Linnteaa  Society,  (Vol.  XXIII 
p.  496.)  ' 

S  B—ll 


162  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

beautiful  colored  figures,  in  the  hi.2:hest  style  of  art,  both  of  the 
species  that  mimic  and  of  those  that  are  mimicked;  and  no  one  that 
looks  at  those  figures  with  an  unprejudiced  eye  can  believe  for  a  mo- 
ment that  the  resemblance  is  merely  accidental. 

Even  the  practiced  eye  of  the  entomologist  is  sometimes  deceived 
by  these  close  resemblances,  and  to  illustrate,  I  cannot  do  better  than 
to  quote  Mr.  Bates's  own  language  : 

These  imitative  resemblances,  of  which  hundreds  of  instances 
could  be  cited,  are  full  of  interest,  and  fill  us  with  the  greater  aston- 
ishment the  closer  we  investigate  them ;  for  some  show  a  minute  and 
palpably  intentional  likeness  which  is  perfectly  staggering.  I  have 
found  that  those  features  of  the  portrait  are  most  attended  to  by  na- 
ture, which  produce  the  most  effective  deception  when  the  insects  are 
seen  in  nature.  The  faithfulness  of  the  resemblance,  in  many  cases, 
is  not  so  striking  when  they  are  seen  in  the  cabinet.  Although  I  had 
daily  practice  in  insect-collecting  for  many  years,  and  was  ahvays  on 
my  guard,  I  was  constantly  deceived  by  them  when  in  the  woods,  (p. 
.507). 

Mr.  Bates  accounts    for  these  singular  cases  of  mimicry  by  sup- 
iposing  that,   ages  and  ages  ago,  certain  individuals  of  this  plainly- 
dressed  and  much  persecuted  Pieris  family  happened  to  vary  slightly- 
so  as  to  resemble  slightly  some  species  or  other  belonging  to  the  gaily- 
dressed  and  unpalatable  Danais  family;  that,  in  consequence  of  this 
slight  resemblance,  they  were  sometimes  mistaken  for  their  more  for- 
tunate compatriots  by  cannibal  animals,  which  would  otherwise  have 
preyed  upon  them  forthwith;   and  consequently  that  they  survived 
long  enough  to  propagate  their  species,  while  almost  all  the  individuals 
that  had  not  varied   in  this  particular  manner  perished  prematurely 
by  a  violent  death.    Now,  we  know  that,  in  the  language  of  breeders 
and  stock-raisers,  "like  produces  like,"  which  is  what  naturalists  ex- 
press by  the  well-known  term  of  the  "•Law  of  Inheritance."    Hence 
the  descendenis  of  this  primordial  race  of  imitative  butterflies  would 
naturally,  most  of  them,  vary  in  the  same  manner  as  did  their  ances- 
tors from  the  normal  type  ;  and  some  of  them  would  probably  vary  in 
a  still  more  marked  manner  and  in  the  same  direction.    These  last  in- 
dividuals, as  they  would  bear  a  still  closer  resemblance  to  the  unpal- 
atable butterflies,  would  of  course  stand  a  still  better  chance  of  sur- 
viving  and   propagating   their  species,  in  the  course   of  that  great 
Struggle  for  Existence,  which  we  see  going  on  all  around  us,  not  only 
among  the  inferior  animals,  but  among  the  human  species  itself.    By 
the  perpetual  repetition  of  this  process,  during  indefinite  ages,  that 
perfect  imitation  of  the  imitated  butterfly  would  at  length  be  formed, 
which  at  first  view  appears  so  utterly  inexplicable.    And  when  it  had 
once  been  formed,  the  very   same  process  that  originally  formed  it 
would  afterwards  keep  it  up  to  the  standard  of  perfection.     For  all  in- 
dividuals, that  varied  in  a  backward  direction  towards  the  primordial 
type,  would  be  more  liable  than  the  rest  to  be  devoured  in  early  life 
by  cannibals,  and  would  therefore  be  less  lil^ely  than  the  rest  to  pro- 
pagate their  own  image  in  succeeding  generations.    The  whole  pro- 


THE  STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  1^3 

cess,  indeed,  is  so  beautifully  simple  and  intelligible,  that,  but  for  cer- 
tain prepossessions  and  prejudices,  it  would  at  once  command  the  as- 
sent of  every  logical  mind.  In  fact,  it  is  strictly  analogous  to  the  com- 
mon operation  of ''rogueing"  a  bed  of  seedlings,  which  every  gardener 
is  familiar  with.  The  only  difference  is  that,  when  the  gardener  pulls 
up  what  he  calls  the  "rogues"  out  of  a  thousand  seedling  tulips,  *.  g., 
those  which  deviate  from  the  standard  of  perfection  which  he  is  aim- 
ing to  attain,  he  acts  with  the  definite  object  of  preventing  the  further 
propagation  of  those  so-called  "rogues;"  whereas,  when  cannibal  an- 
imals destroy  the  "rogues"  among  the  imitative  butterflies,  they  are 
of  course  perfectly  ignorant  of  the  consequences  likely  to  follow,  and 
act  wholly  and  solely  for  the  gratification  of  their  own  carnal  appe- 
tites. In  short,  the  whole  phenomenon  is  explained  on  the  theory 
t)f  Natural  Selection  as  expounded  by  Darwin. 

Since  the  publication  of  Mr.  Bates's  paper,  a  great  many  addition- 
al cases  of  similar  mimicry  among  butterflies  have  been  observed  by 
Mr.  Wallace*  in  the  Malayan  region  of  South  America,  and  by  Mr, 
Trimen  in  South  A^frica.f  But  though  most  of  these  wonderful  cases 
of  mimicry  occur  in  the  tropics,  where  insect  development  is  so  rapid 
and  species  are  so  abundant,  we  also  have  a  striking  instance  of  sim- 
ilar mimicry  in  our  two  N.  A.  butterflies,  Arcliippua  and  Dlsippus. 
The  resemblance  between  them  must  long  ago  tave  been  noticed,  for 
it  is  so  servile  that  Prof  Jaeger  in  his  Life  of  North  American  In- 
sects^ has  actually  favored  his  readers  witZi  a  figure  of  the  Disippus 
and  gravely  informs  them  that  it  is  the  Archippus  butterfly.  Indeed 
it  is  far  more  striking  than  my  figures  would  indicate,  and  in  a  state 
of  nature  the  two  insects  could  h.'jrdly  be  distinguished  at  a  short 
distance  \>^  the  sharpest  eyes.  TAe  fact  that  these  two  species  offer 
an  illustration  of  similar  roimiery  to  that  observed  so  frequently  in 
the  tropics,  was  first  made  clear  by  Mr.  Walsh  and  myself  in  the 
American  Entomologist  for  June,  1869;  and  the  facts  which  have 
since  come  to  ray  knowledge  all  tend  to  confirm  the  opinion. 

The  only  other  species  belonging  to  the  same  genus  as  our  Disip- 
pus butterfly,  which  occurs  in  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  is  the  Ursula 
butterfly;]:  {Limeniiis  ursiila^  Fabr.},  an  insect  which  differs  remark- 
ably from  our  Disippus  in  being  of  a  sombre  blue-black  color,  with  its 
wings  bordered  both  above  and  below  with  blue,  and  below  with  a 
series  of  dull  orange  spots  inside  the  blue  border.  Its  larva  feeds  on 
Willow,  Scrub-oak,  Whortleberry,  Cherry  and  Plum,  and  as  already 
stated,  has  the  same  habits  as  that  of  Disippus,  which  it  resembles  so 
closely  as  scarcely  to  be  distinguishable.  The  pup£e  of  the  two  spe- 
cies are  also  undistinguishable. 

*  See  the  Chapter  on  Mimicry  among  Lepidoptera  in  his  Contributions,  etc. 

f  Sep  his  paper  on  "Mimetic  Analogies  among  African  Butterflies,"  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Linniean  bociety  for  1368. 

J  There  are  seven  ilescribed  species  of  N.  A.  L'?nenitis,  but  with  the  exception  of  the  two  abov* 
named  they  are  all  confined  to  the  more  eastern  or  western  portions  of  the  Continent. 


1Q4:  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

If  this  Ursula  butterfly  were  placed  side  by  side  with  the  Archip- 
pus  butterfly,  everybody  would  say  at  once  that  no  two  species  could 
possibly  be  more  unlike  in  the  general  style  of  their  coloration. 
Clearly,  therefore,  it  cannot  be  considered  as  in  any  wise  mimicking 
the  latter.  Now,  the  Ursula  butterfly  is  found  everywhere  through, 
out  the  Northern  States  wherever  the  Disippus  butterfly  is  met  with  ^ 
and  yet,  while  the  latter  is  a  common  and  abundant  species,  the 
former  is  quite  rare.  This  is  certainly  the  case  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley, and  will,  according  to  my  own  experience,  and  that  of  others* 
very  generally  hold  true  all  over  the  country. 

To  what  are  we  to  attribute  this  fact  ?  It  can  scarcely  be  owing 
to  structural  diff"erences  in  the  external  organization  of  the  two  spe- 
cies ;  for  the  two  belong  to  one  and  the  same  genus.  It  surely  cannot 
be  because  the  larvae  of  the  former  are  more  exposed  to  the  attacks 
of  predaceous  animals  than  those  of  the  latter;  for  they  inhabit  the 
same,  or  very  nearly  the  same  trees,  and  in  size,  shape  and  general 
coloration  the  two  are  almost  exactly  alike.  Certainly  it  can  not  be 
because  the  pupas  of  one  species  are  more  subject  to  be  devoured  by 
birds,  insects,  etc.,  than  those  of  the  other  species ;  for  it  is  impossible 
to  tell  one  pupa  from  another  when  placed  side  by  side.  The  only 
cause  to  which  we  -^an  reasonably  attribute  the  great  abundance  of 
the  Disippus  butterfly  and  the  comparative  rarity  of  the  Ursula  but- 
terfly is,  that  the  former  mimicks  the  Archippus  butterfly,  as  has  been 
shown  above,  and  is  conseq^uently  often  mistaken  bj'- birds,  tree-frogs, 
Dragon-flies,  Asilus-'^ies  and  other  beasts  of  prey  for  its  unsavory 
prototype  and  allowed  to  escape  with  impunity,  while  the  latter,  hav- 
ing no  such  disguise,  is  ruthlessly  devoured  by  every  insect-eating 
animal  that  can  get  hold  of  it. 

All  the  facts  lead  to  such  a  conclusion.  The  mimicked  species 
enjoys  an  almost  perfect  immunity  from  the  attacks  of  enemies  in  all 
its  stages,  while  the  mimicker  is  persecuted  by  several.  The  raim- 
icker  is  often  found  in  company  with  the  mimicked,  as  I  have  myself, 
and  as  others  have  witnessed. f  But  what  is  still  more  conclusive  is 
the  fact  observed  by  Mr.  S,  H.  Scudder;):  that  in  the  extreme  Southern 
States  where  the  Disippus  butterfly  occurs,  and  Archippus  is  replaced 

*  According  to  Mr.  J.  A.  Lintner,  Ursula  is  "rnre"  and  Disippus  is  found  abundantly  in  New 
York.  (Pioc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  III.,  pp.  63-4.)  According  to  Mr.  J.  Kirkpatrick  Ursula  is  "rather 
rare"  and  Disippun  "common  in  the  fall"  in  Ohio.  (Ibid.,  p.  329.)  According  to  Mr.  Sam  H. 
Si'udder,  Ursula  is  "rather  rare"  and  Disippus  is  "common"  in  New  England.  (Proc  Essex  Inst., 
III.,  p.  165.)  According  to  Mr.  Billings,  who  does  not  seem  to  have  met  wit\i  any  Ursula  at  all, 
bisip  us  is  "very  common  from  July  to  October"  in  Canada  West.  (Ccnad.  Kntum.,  I.,  p.  45.) 
There  appear  to  be  some  exceptions  to  this  rule,  however,  for  Mr.  Thos.  W  Higgiuson,  of  New- 
port, R.  I.,  declares  {Am.  Entomologist,  II.,  p.  177.)  that  Ursula  is  one  of  the  commonest  of  the 
large  butterflies  there  and  decidedly  more  so  than  Disippus.  I  was  also  informed  while  at  Troy 
last  fall,  that  the  former  outnumbered  the  latter  in  the  vicinity  of  Xew  York  City  in  tlie  year  1868, 
though  the  previous  years  it  had  been  quite  rare.  These  e.xceptious  to  the  rule  may  be  owing  to 
one  clause  or  another,  but  I  shall  attempt  to  explain  them  when  I  come  to  consider  the  objectiona 
to  the  theory  which  I  espouse. 

t  Mrs.  Mary  Treat,  of  Vineland,  N.  J.,  writes  that  Archippus  was  unusually  abundant  there  last 
fall,  and  that  she  found  Disippus  in  company  with  it. 

j  Nature,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  147. 


THK  STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  165 

by  the  Berenice  butterfly — a  species  of  the  same  genus  and  of  similar 
appearance  but  of  darker  color — ^the  color  of  the  mimetic  Disippus 
deepens  nearly  or  quite  to  the  tint  of  the  Southern  Danais.  Thus  it 
is  that  facts  before  unintelligible  are  explained  by  Darwinism! 

In  a  discussion  on  the  difBculties  of  Natural  Selection,  which  took 
place  in  late  numbers  of  the  London  journal  Nature^  some  ingenious 
objections  have  been  urged.  As  many  of  them  have  especial  refer- 
ence to  the  mimicry  we  have  been  noticing,  a  brief  summary  of  these 
objections  will  prove  interesting  in  this  connection,  the  more  espe- 
cinll}^  as  all  objections  must  in  the  end  only  serve  to  strengthen  a 
theory,  if  that  theory  is  sound. 

Mr.  Alfred  W.  Bennett*  undertakes  to  show  upon  mathematical 
considerations,  that  Natural  Selection  could  not  produce  these  mim. 
etic  forms,  lie  assumes  that  it  would  take  iOOO  steps  to  enable  the 
normal  form  of  a  Leptalls  for  instance,  to  pass  into  the  protective 
form  of  an  lthomia\  that  no  change  less  than  one-fiftieth  of  the  whole 
alteration — i.  e.  20  steps — would  be  of  any  use  to  the  insect,  and  that 
the  alterations  in  the  early  stages,  being  useless  to  the  animal,  would 
not  be  preserved,  and  even  if  they  were,  could  not  be  attributed  to 
Natural  Selection,  but  to  an  accumulation  of  chances.  He  reiterates 
what  has  already  been  well  shown  and  acknowledged  by  Darwinians^ 
namely,  that  Natural  Selection  cannot  produce  the  first  change,  and 
asks  with  good  reason  why  the  same  principle  that  works  the  first 
change  should  not  also  work  the  subsequent  changes?  He  does  not 
dispute  the  secondary  power  of  Natural  Selection,  but  believes  in  an 
unconscious  organizing  intelligence  which  co-operates  with  it  to  pro- 
duce the  mimetic  results.  He  endeavors  to  strengthen  his  position 
by  showing  that  there  is  a  close  connection  between  instinct  and 
mimicry,  and  ventures  the  theory  that  "the  power  of  mimetism,  so  far 
as  is  known  at  present,  runs  •A\mo?,t  2) ari passu  with  the  development 
of  the  nervous  system."' 

The  essay  is  an  able  and  interesting  one,  and  the  arguments  are 
skillful  and  ingenious.  It  pays  due  and  just  respect  to  Darwinism 
and  forcibly  presents  the  fact,  which  no  one  has  denied,  that  some 
other  power  than  natural  selection  acts  in  i^roducing  first  change 
The  mathemaiical  argument,  however,  will  have  little  weight  with 
those  who  fully  appreciate  the  changes  in  Lepidoptera  that  take 
place  in  nature.  No  entomologist  who  has  had  any  experience  in 
rearing  Lepidoptera  will  admit  with  Mr.  Bennett  that  1000  steps  are 
necessary  to  produce  mimetic  resemblance,  and  when  this  foundation 
stone  of  his  objection  is  taken  away,  much  of  his  other  reasoning 
which  is  built  upon  it  becomes  weak.  Instances  of  great  and  sudden 
variation  among  butterflies  and  more  particularly  among  moths  are  by 

*  Nature,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  30-33- 


166  THIRD   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

no  means  rare.  In  this  Report  instances  of  great  variation  in  species 
have  been  given,  and  hundreds  of  others  might  be  cited.* 

Mr.  Bennett  furlhermore,  as  Mr.  Wallace  subsequently  pointed 
out.f  fails  to  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  each  butterfly 
produces  not  only  one,  but  numerous  offspring,  that  the  right  varia- 
tion has,  by  the  hypothesis  which  he  combats,  a  greater  chance  of 
surviving  than  the  rest,  and  that  at  each  succeeding  generation,  the 
inflnence  of  heredity  becomes  more  and  more  powerful,  causing  the- 
chance  of  the  right  variation  to  become  greater  and  greater.  He  alsa 
appears  to  forget  that  this  imitation  in  butterflies  is  of  comparatively 
rare  occurrence,  and  that  the  mimickers  generally  belong  to  genera 
which  naturally  show  a  tendency  to  depart  from  the  normal  coloring 
of  their  own  family  and  to  approach  that,  of  the  mimicked,  so  that  the- 
first  steps  are  greatly  facilitated.  I  consider  therefore  tliat  the  math- 
ematical objection  utterly  falls  to  the  ground  ;  but  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  closing  ideas  which  Mr.  Bennett  throws  out,  which  may 
yet  lead  to  important  discoveries,  I  can  very  well  conceive.  Indeed 
it  must  be  rash  to  deny  some  such  influence  as  he  describes  when  we- 
reflect  upon  the  extraordinary  power  which  the  mii^d  of  the  mother  ex- 
erts, during  pregnancy,  on  her  oflspring ;  and  when  we  iurther  consider 
that  Mr.  Wallace  himself  admits  that  man's  present  mental  and  piiysi- 
ca!  condition  could  not  have  been  brought  about  by  natural  selection 
alone.  It  must  be  obvious  to  every  one,  however,  that  such  an  admis- 
sion is  no  argument  against  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection.  All  oth- 
er modifying  influences  though  they  may  lessen  her  potency  siujply 
assist  her  in  her  grand  work. 

The  next  objector  we  find  in  Mr.  Saml.  H.  Scudder  of  Boston^ 
Mass.,J  who,  while  admitting  that  there  can  be  no  possible  doubt  of 
the  fact  of  mimicry,  questions  its  advalitage  among  butterflies,  since 
the  greatest  destruction  occurs  in  their  preparatory  states.  But  as 
he  refers  especially  to  the  two  butterflies  w'e  have  been  treating  of 
and  as  from  the  context  it  appears  that  he  is  also  aware  of  the  exis- 
tence of  some  of  the  parasites  which  I  have  described,  I  will  quote 
the  greater  portion  of  his  letter  which  was  written  from  Cairo,  Egypt^ 
under  date  of  November  9th,  1S70;  and,  will  afterwards  reply  to  hia 
objections: 

"  But  of  how  m;ich  actual  benpfit  to  the  mimetic  species  is  this  so-called  "protective"  resem- 
blance? It  seems  to  occur  where  it  can  be  of  the  least  possible  advantas^e  to  the  species.  The  great 
sources  of  destruction  here,  as  in  all  groups  of  animals,  are  in  early  life.  IIow  large  a  proportion 
of  the  eggs  that  are  laid  by  butterflies  ever  finally  produce  imagines  ?  Let  those  answer  who  havft 
attempted  to  follow  their  history  in  their  native  haunts.  My  experience  leads  me  to  believe  that 
at  the  very  least,  nine-tenths — perhaps  ninety-nine  hundredths — never  reach  maturity.    Hymenop- 

*A  most  remarkable  case  came  under  my  notice  the  past  summer.  From  a  single  batch  of 
flattened  and  ribbed  eggs,  overlapping  each  other  under  a  piece  of  Hickory  bark,  I  succeeded  in 
raising  eighteen  imagines  of  Cutocala  phclungca,  Guen.  The  upper  wings  vary  greatly  in  the  indi- 
viduals, and  in  one  specimen  the  ground-color  and  markings  are  so  very  aberrant,  tliat  there  is  more 
difference  between  it  and  some  of  the  others  belongiag  to  the  same  batch,  than  there  is  between  the- 
latter  and  a  dozen  distinct  species. 

■f Nature,  111,  p.  49. 

Xlbid,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  147. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  167 

terous  and  Dipterous  parasites  beset  them  at  every  step.  The  eggs,  although  so  small  and  ofton  so 
heavily  ridged,  cannot  escape  the  ovipositors  of  the  tiny  Pteromali,  while  in  attempting  to  breed 
caterpillars  taken  in  the  field,  the  chance  is  so  greatly  against  the  evolution  of  a  butterfly,  that 
Hymenopterists  actu-dly  choose  this  method  of  supplying  their  cabinets.  '  Of  two  hundred  larvas 
of  Pieiis  brassiccB,'  Mr.  Drewsen,  of  Denmarlv,  writes  to  me,  'I  obtained  only  twenty  pupae,  all  the 
rest  were  attacked  by  Microgcster  glomeratua,  and  my  own  attempts  with  the  larvas  of  Pijrameu  Ata- 
lanta,  both  in  America  and  Europe,  have  been  even  more  unavailing.  These  caterpillars  seem  to 
be  peripatetic  banqueting    halls  of  Microgasters  and  Tachina;. 

«Now  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  while  the  globular  egg  of  Limenitis  Misippusr-  with  its  deeply-pitted 
shell,  defended  by  long  filamentous  spines,  is  constantly  attacked  by  parasites  ;  and  the  gro- 
tesque hump-backed,  strangely-colored  caterpillar  of  the  same  species  is  likewise  infested  to  an 
e.xtraordinary  degree,  I  have  been  unable  to  discover  by  very  careful  search  any  evidence  that  the 
egg  or  larva  of  Daiais  Archi/rpus  is  ever  pierced  by  a  parasite  ;  yet  the  egg  is  not  small  and  only 
lightly  ribbed,  and  the  caterpillar  large,  fleshy,  smooth-skinned,  and  gaily  banded,  living  on  the 
widely-separated  leaves  of  Asclepias,  with  no  attempt  at  concealment.  The  abundance  of  the  ima- 
go of  the  Danais  is  then  due  quite  as  much  to  the  immunity  of  the  egg  and  larva  from  the  attacks 
of  parasites,  as  to  any  freedom  it  may  itself  enjoy  from  pursuit  by  insectivorous  birds.  [I.] 

"  Although  I  have  hunted  butterflies  for  fifteen  years,  I  confess  I  have  never  seen  one  in  a  bird' « 
bill,  and  my  faith  in  that  method  of  lessening  their  numbers  is  very  slight.  Birds,  too,  must  be 
their  greater  foes  in  earlier  life;  and  the  chances  of  living,  which  are  certainly  against  them 
before  they  take  wing,  seem  afterwards  rather  in  their  favour,  at  least,  until  they  have  accom- 
plished their  mission.   [2.] 

"  If,  then,  such  an  extraordinary  element  as  Mimicry  is  to  be  summoned  to  the  aid  of  Natural 
Selection,  and  can  perform  its  task  in  such  a  masterly  manner,  why  has  it  been  made  to  waste  its 
energies  upon  unimportant  material  ?  If  the  object  of  the  resemblance  be  protection,  why  does  not 
the  unfortunate  caterpillar  of  the  Limenitis  mimic  the  more  favoured  larva  of  the  Danais  ?  P>.] 

"  I  cannot  now  consult  the  writings  of  Messrs.  W.allace  and  Bates,  nor  do  I  remember  their 
statements  respecting  the  abundance  of  the  mimetic  species  compared  to  that  of  its  normal  congen- 
ers. In  my  own  country  Limenitis  Mis  ppusis,  as  a  general  rule,  more  common  than  L.  Ursula,  but 
the  difference  in  their  numbers  is  not  very  marked.  It  is  by  no  means  as  great  as  one  would  expect 
had  Mimicry  in  the  imago  state  so  strong  a  protective  power  as  has  been  assumed.  [4.]  Two  close- 
ly allied  species  occupying  the  same  geographical  area,  do  not  often  occur  in  the  same  abundance, 
whatever  be  the  cause,  and  the  disparity  in  numbers  in  these  two  species  of  Limenitis  is  no  greate 
than  occurs  in  many  instances  where  mimicry  plays  no  part.  [5.] 

[1.]  No  one  will  deny  the  facts,  after   what  I  have  already  set 
forth. 

['^.]  Such  an  experience  from  a  butterfly  hunter  surprises  me 
Individually  I  have  on  several  occasions  seen  butterflies  captured  by 
birds,  and  have  seen  Dragon-flies  dart  after  them.  Any  amount  of 
evidence  might  be  collected  on  this  head,  and  Mr.  Scudder  has  already 
been  answered  by  Mr.  Arthur  G.  Butlerf  of  the  British  Museum, 
who  mentions  often  having  seen  birds  catch  and  devour  the 
unprotected  species  upon  the  wing,  while  he  has  received 
abundant  evidence  respecting  the  immunity  of  the  Danais 
group.  '^  T.  G.  B."  of  St  Johns  College,  Cambridge,  has  also 
often  seen  the  common  English  sparrow  capture  Vanessa  tcrfioce 
and  Pieris  rapceX;  while  Mr.  Wallace  has  shown  that  great  numbers 
of  butterflies  are  destroyed  on  the  wing  by  insectivorous  birds  such 
as  jacaniars,  trogons  and  pufl'-birds,  and  gives  conclusive  evidence 
that  while  our  Disippus  congeners,  the  NympJialidce,  suffer  such  per- 
secution,  the   Archippus  congeners   do  not.  §      Thus,  though    there 

»The  reader  must  bear  in  mind  that  Misippus  is  but  a  synonym  for  Disippus. 

t  Nature  III,  p.  165. 

X  Ibid,  p.  166. 

I  Contributions,  etc.,  p.  79, 


168  THIRD   ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

seems  to  be  no  record  of  any  person  having  actually  seen  a  bird  or 
other  animal  attack  the  species  of  Limenitis  in  this  country,  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  will  do  so.  This  fact  once  being 
admitted,  it  must  also  be  admitted  that  the  resemblance  oi  Dinppiis 
to  Archippus  serves  the  former  as  a  protection.  I  freely  grant  how- 
ever, that  the  species  of  Limeniiis  are  kept  under  by  enemies  far 
more  in  the  preparatory  states  than  in  the  perfect  state;  but  this  fact 
only  adds  importance  to  the  mimicry  of  Disipxjus  as  throwing  light 
upon  its  greater  numbers.  The  larvae  and  pup^e  of  Ursula  and  Di- 
sippus  so  closely  resemble  each  other  that  it  is  not  likely  their  ene- 
mies would  make  any  discrimination  between  them ;  and  if  in  a  given 
district  where  Arcluppus  is  abundant,  the  two  former  species,  by  the 
undue  multiplication  of  their  enemies  in  some  particular  year,  should 
be  so  thinned  out  while  \w  the  immature  states,  that  only  a  dozen 
imagines  of  each  were  perfected  in  an  area  of  say  100  square  miles; 
it  becomes  obvious  that  by  deceiving  the  birds,  or  by  associating  with 
Archippus^  the  twelve  specimens  of  Disippus  would  stand  a  much 
better  chance  of  escape  than  those  ot  Ursula^  and  that  consequently 
more  would  succeed  in  perpetuating  the  species. 

[3.]  Natural  Selection  does  not,  therefore, waste  its  energies  upon 
unimportant  material,  in  giving  protection  to  the  jjerfect  insect;  and 
any  one,  with  a  little  reflection,  will  perceive  that  there  are  the  best 
of  reasons  why  the  unfortunate  caterpillar  of  Limenitis  cannot 
mimic  the  more  favored  larva  of  Danais.  They  never  come  in  con- 
tact !  The  perfect  insects  are  enabled  by  flight  to  associate  together ; 
but  their  larvae— the  one  being  confined  to  plants  of  the  Willow  and 
Po[:flar  families,  the  other  strictly  to  those  of  the  Milkweed  family — 
can  never  so  associate.  That  there  is,  however,  an  eff'ort  at  protec- 
tion in  the  preparatory  stages  of  Limenitis^  no  entomologist  who  has 
studied  them  in  the  field  will  deny.  The  egg,  as  Mr.  Scudder  has 
admitted,  is  in  a  measure  protected  by  the  long  filamentous  spines, 
wliich  may  protect  it  from  the  attacks  of  some  of  the  very  numerous 
parasites  that  might  otherwise  aid  in  exterminating  it.  The  larva  is 
very  variable,  and  wears  a  remarkable  protective  resemblance  to  its 
surroundings.  I  have  often  noticed  that  in  the  mature  specimens 
found  on  the  dark  Scrub  willow  the  dark  colors  predominate;  that 
those  found  on  Golden  willow  are  much  brighter  and  greener,  and 
the  palest  specimen  I  ever  saw  was  found  upon  Silver  poplar.  Only 
those  who  have  diligently  searched  for  these  larva  can  fully  appre- 
ciate the  protection  which  their  appearance  aff'ords.  In  one  instance 
I  chanced  to  espy  a  large  full  grown  specimen  of  Disippus  on  a  Golden 
willow  not  more  than  seven  feet  high.  The  specimen  on  account  of  its 
brightness  and  greenness  struck  me  as  remarkable,  and  I  searched 
for  others.  In  taking  a  casual  glance  I  could  detect  none,  but  after 
a  diligent  search  I  succeeded  in  finding  seven  specimens,  and  then 
left,  fully  convinced  that  I  had  espied  every  one  upon  the  tree.  The 
next  day,  however,  my  confidence  in  the  sharpness  of  my  eyes  was 


THE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  169 

considerably  shaken,  for  upon  returning  to  the  same  small  tree  I  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  three  more,  all  of  them  more  than  half  grown. 

As  to  the  chrysalis,  it  bears  a  very  strong  resemblance  to  a  bit  of 
bird  dung,  and  for  the  first  few  hours  of  its  being,  while  the  parts  are 
yet  soft  and  elongated  this  resemblance  is  truly  striking. 

[-l.j  I  have  shown  that  the  disparity  in  numbers  between  Disip- 
pus  and  Ursula  is  very  marked  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  former  is  most  abundant  wherever 
its  protector,  the  Archippus  butterfly,  abounds.  I  have  Mr.  Scudder's 
own  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  latter  is  comparatively  rare 
in  the  northeastern  States,  and  my  own  experience  would  indicate 
such  to  be  the  case.  Now  it  is  extremely  probable  that  where  Arch- 
ippus aboundf,  birds  and  other  natural  enemies  are  continually  re- 
minded of  its  nauseous  qualities  both  by  smell  and  taste.* 

It  would  very  naturally  follow  therefore,  that  where  Arc/u'pptis  is 
rare,  birds  would  not  be  so  continually  warned  of  its  evil  properties, 
and  the  deceptive  resemblance  in  Disippus  would  lose  much  of  its 
protective  power  in  such  a  case.  This  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
Ursula  is  in  some  districts  more  common  than  Dlsixfpus  will  acquire 
greater  force,  if  we  find  that  such  a  state  of  things  occurs  only  where 
Arohippus  is  rare,  and  the  facts  as  they  at  present  stand  indicate  such 
to  be  the  case. 

Mr.  Wallace!  is  inclined  to  account  for  the  fact  that  Ursula  is  in 
some  districts  as  numerous,  or  more  so  than  Disipp>us^  on  tlie  supposi- 
tion that  Ursula  is  also  a  mimicker,  resembling  the  Philenor  swallow- 
tail ( P apilio phileiior^  DruryJ)  especially  on  the  underside,  which  is 
exposed  when  the  insects  are  at  rest.  We  must,  however,  be  very  cau- 
tious in  accepting  such  resemblances  as  cases  of  mimicry,  without  first 
ascertaining  whether  there  can  be  any  real  cause  for  mimicry  or  whether 
the  two  butterflies  ever  associate  together.  Under  the  circumstances  I 
incline  to  believe  that  the  markings  on  the  underside  of  Ursula  are  of  a 
generic  character  since  they  obtain  in  other  N.  A.,  species  of  Zm- 
initis;  and  that  the  resemblance  to  P.  philenor  is  merely  casual  and 
bears  no  more  relation  to  mimicry  than  does  the  close  resemblance 
of  certain  plants  belonging  to  different  continents.  P.  j^hilenor  is 
itself  a  rare  insect  where  ^r^i^^a  is  common,  and  must  always  be  so 
on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  its  food-plant;  and,  if  anything,  Ui'sula 
bears  a  greater  general  resemblance  to  P.  troilus^  Linn,  an.d  P.  aste- 
ri-f/^,  Drury,  which  are  both  more  common  species.  It  also  bears  a 
greater  resemblance  ui^on  the  upper  surface  to  the  female  of  Argy fi- 
nis Diana^  Cramer. 

■■■A  sinsular  fact  bearing  on  this  point  has  been  communicated  to  me  by  Jlr.  Otto  Lug-ger  of 
Chicago,  a  gentleman  who  takes  much  interest  in  entomology  and  is  a  good  collector.  While 
employed  on  the  U.  S.  Lake  Surve3'  he  once  saw  a  bird  dart  after  an  Archippus  butterfly,  seize  it 
andiiiHiH'diately  drop  it  without  devouring  the  body.  The  butterfly  dropped  close  by  his  side  and 
he  picked  it  up  and  examined  it,  and  had  no  means  at  tlie  time  of  accounting  for  the  singular 
action  of  the  bird. 

■\Nalurp.\\\,  p.  166. 

%  See  my  2ud  Rep.  Fig.  86, 


170  THIRD  ANNUAL   REPORT  OF 

[5]  This  in  nowise  alters  the  fact,  however,  of  the  existence  of 
mimicry  in  Dhippus^  which  Mr,  Scudder  fully  admits.  It  is,  there- 
fore no  argument  against  Natural  Selection  having  produced  such 
mimicry.  Because  we  are  able  to  explain  the  principle  power  work- 
ing to  produce  the  relative  abundance  of  one  species,  compared  with 
another  that  is  closely  allied,  it  does  not  follow  that  we  must  also  give 
the  varied  infiaences  which  cause  the  relative  abundance  or  rarity  of 
other  species  in  other  groups  ! 

The  third  objector  is  Mr.  A.  Murray,  who  undertakes  to  show  that 
these  mimetic  resemblances  have  nothing  to  do  with  Nnaural  Selec- 
tion,* He  takes  it  upon  himself  to  assert  that  every  inch  of  ground 
which  Mr,  Bates  has  gone  over  is '"mined  and  unsound" — that  the 
"bad  smell  has  not  been  observed  in  North  America  where  similar 
mimicry  occurs";  and  that  "birds  and  insects  of  prey  hunt  by  sight  and 
not  by  smell."  Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  carefully  read 
the  paper  in  which  these  assertions  occur,  will,  I  have  little  doubt- 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  the  author's  ground  which  is  "mined 
and  unsound,"  The  second  assertion,  as  I  have  already  shown,  is  false  5 
and  even  if  the  third  is  admitted,  it  does  not  in  the  least  affect  the 
arguQient  in  favor  of  Natural  Selection,  because  the  fact  nevertheless 
remains  that  some  groups  do  enjoy  immunity  from  the  attacks  of 
birds  while  others  do  not.  The  manner  in  which  Mr.  Murray  would 
account  for  this  mimicry  is  by  hybridization,  and  he  endeavors  to  draw  a 
parallel  between  the  phenomenon  and  hybridization  in  plants.  He  car- 
ries little  weight  in  his  arguments,  which  were  in  a  measure  anticipated 
by  Mr.  Bates  himself,  and  have  since  been  refuted  by  Mr.  Butler  and 
Mr.  Wallace. f  He  forgets  that  hybridization  cannot  play  any  part 
in  the  mimicry  of  insects  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  or  to  backgrounds 
generally.  It  has  never  been  known  to  occur  between  insects  of  dif- 
ferent Orders,  families,  or  even  genera,  and  produce  fertile  oifspring,J 
w^hile  mimicry  does  occur  even  between  insects  of  distinct  Orders  5 
and  though  he  of  course  supposes  the  hybridization  to  have  taken 
place  at  a  very  remote  date,  when  the  structural  characters  of  the 
mimickers  and  mimicked  were  less  specialized,  yet  had  such  been 
the  case,  these  structural  characters  Vv^ould  not  now  remain  so  distinct 
between  them,  because  it  is  quite  fair  to  suppose  that  the  hybrids 
wouLl  partake  of  the  characters  of  each  parent.  Indeed  the  assump- 
tion of  the  theory  is  unsupported  by  facts.  He  ignores  in  a  measure 
the  great  difference  in  the  affinities  of  species  belonging  to  the  natural 
Orders  of  plants,  and  those  belonging  to  the  Orders  of  insects,  and 
depreciates  the  importanoe   of  the  latter  by   comparing  the  Orders 

''^Nature  III,  pp.  164-6. 

■\Ibid.,  Ill,  p.  1-65. 

tCnses  of  bybridization  even  between  species  of  the  same  genus  are  very  rare,  and  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  tbe  hybrids  would  ever  be  fertile  ;  and  ns  to  hybrids  between  e;enera  I  do  not  think  a  case 
has  ever  been  recorded.  In  18G5  I  succeeded  in  obtaining  thorough  coitus  between  a  (^  Aftacua 
Cynthia,  Ilubn.,  and  2  Attacus  cecropia,  Linn.,  but  for  some  reason  the  eg-gs  resulting  from  this  in- 
tercourse did  not  hatch.  Last  year  I  succeeded  in  produc'ing  an  equally  thorough  coitus  between 
a  1^  Atlacus  cecropia,  Linn.,  and  a  J  yl//flcws^oZi//;/!emMSj  Linn.,  but  the  eggs  subsequently  deposited 
by  tbe  latter  were  likewise  infertile. 


TUE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  171 

simply  to  families  in  other  animals — thus  showing  that  he  has  not  a 
due  appreciation  of  the  true  affinities  of  insects. 

It  must  not  be  forijotten  that  Natural  Selection  is  not  the  only 
power  at  work  producing  this  raimicr3\  This  we  do  not  claim.  There 
is  an  inherent  tendency  in  all  things  to  vary — a  fact  universally  ad- 
mitted. We  may  not  be  able  to  fully  comprehend  the  causes  producing 
this  first  variation,  ibr  they  are  complicated,  and  depend  on  numerous 
external  conditions,  and  physical  and  mental  influences.  But  our 
ignorance  in  this  respect  does  not  affect  the  theory,  because  "spon- 
taneous" change  is  the  material  out  of  which  Natural  Selection  has 
fixed  and  perfected  tiie  mimicry  and  adaptation;  and  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  know  how  the  "spontaneous"  change  is  produced  to  learn  the 
origin  of  the  mimicry.  AVhatever  be  the  causes  of  variation,  and 
wliether  or  not  they  continue  to  act  after  the  first  change  takes  place^ 
Natural  Selection  is  still  potent,  for  the  change  would  be  perfectly  in- 
operative in  producing  specific  character  without  it. 

There  may  be  a  hundred  different  influences  that  have  ]ed  Dis?p- 
j)us  to  mimic  Archrppus.  The  resemblance  being  purely  colora- 
tional,  there  may  have  been  a  tendency  from  the  first  in  the  color 
of  the  former  to  approach  that  of  the  latter,  and  this  is  ren- 
dered very  probable  from  the  fact  that  the  red-brown  color  oc- 
curs    more    or    less     in    all    the    N.   A.    species   of    the   genus.* 

The  very  smell  which  protects  ArcJtippus  may  have  had,  and 
may  still  have,  attractions  for  its  mimioker,  for  Mr.  Henry  Edwards 
found  that  a  Californian  species  of  the  same  genus  {Limeniiis  Bre- 
duioii)  was  greatly  attracted  by  any  offensive  odor.f  Again,  when 
we  reflect  that  we  owe  so  many  of  our  flowers  and  fruits  to  what  are 
called  "sports,"  which  are  simply  instances  of  great  and  sudden  va- 
riation; it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  the  mimicry  of  Disip2)us- 
may  be  due  in  a  measure  to  some  such  sudden  original  variation — an 
idea  that  is  greatly  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  instances  of  such 
great  variation  are  common  with  butterflies  and  moths,  and  that  one 
is  known  to  occur  in  the  very  genus  Limonills.X    ■ 

We  may  give  due  weight  to  the  somewhat  Lamarckian  theory 
advanced  by  Mr.  Bennett;  we  may  attach  the  greatest  importance  to 
the  influence  of  physical  conditions — and  we  knov/  that  similar  habi- 
tat sometimes  produces  modification  of  allied  forms  in  a  simihir  direc- 

"■'"  In  the  seven  described  N.  A.  species  of  Limenii'is,  namely,  L.  disippus,  Godt.,  Ursula,  Fabr.' 
Proserpina,  Edw.,  Wcidemeyerii,  Eilw.,  Arthemis,  V)vi\ry,  Lorqumi,  Ho'mA.  AnOi  li'-edoivii,  llnhn' 
the  red  color  obtains  more  or  less  in  all  of  them,  especially  on  the  underside,  and  Uiis  is  more  par~ 
ticularly  the  case  in  the  last  two.  I  also  possess  specimens  of  Vrmla  in  which  a  very  distinct 
shade  of  red  blends  with  the  blue-black  and  spreads  over  the  upper  surface  of  the  primaries,  and 
is  in  two  individu.ils  quite  marked  towards  the  apices.  That  the  blue  and  black  is  closely  connec- 
ted with,  and  shows  a  tendency  to  affiliate  with  the  brick  red  and  black,  or  vice  verse,  we  mny  alsa 
reasonably  infer  from  the  wonderful  contrast  existing-  between  the  ^  and  J  Argijnnis  Uiann,  Cram.^ 
the  former  colors  obtaining-  in  the  §  and  the  latter  in  the  (^. 

f  Bsttlerjlies  of  Xorlh  Ameiica,  by  Wm.  II.  Edwards  It  is  impossible  to  make  any  explicit 
reference  to  this  beautii'ul  work  as  it  is  not  pag'ed  :  this,  to  my  mind,  is  a  deplorable  oversight. 

X  Limeniiis  Sibij.'la  figured  in  "Xewman's  English  Butterflies,"  and  referred  to  by  S.  N.  Car- 
valho,  Jr.,  in  Nature,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  66. 


172  THIRD  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF 

tion — but  all  these  agencies  willnot  produce  specific  imitation  of  one 
species  by  another,  for  they  only  prepare  the  way  for  it.  It  is  there- 
fore quite  evident  that  such  imitation  can  only  be  brought  about  to 
use  Mr.  Bennett's  own  words,  "by  the  continuous  preservation, 
through  countless  generations  of  those  individuals  which  sponta- 
neously approach  most  nearly  to  the  ultimate  forms;"  and  Natural 
Selection  is  the  Preserver. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  frankly  consider  the  objections  raised 
against  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection,  as  it  applies  to  the  mimicry 
of  our  two  N.  A.  butterilies.  It  would  be  out  of  place  here,  and  might 
justly  be  considered  a  work  of  supererogation  on  my  part  to  undertake 
to  defend  it  on  more  general  grounds.  It  has  been  so  well  developed 
by  Darwin,  Wallace,  Bates,  and  many  other  writers,  both  English, 
French  and  German,  that  it  only  asks  a  hearing  to  be  understood  and 
appreciated.  The  rapid  increase  of  organisms  is  demonstrable,  and 
the  consequent  struggle  for  existence,  since,  all  organisms  considered; 
tliere  are  as  many  deaths  as  births, is  manifest.  The  result  of  this 
strugs^le  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  by  which  organic  forms  are  con- 
stantly changing  to  keep  in  harmony  with  the  changed  conditions 
which  it  is  demonstrable  have  taken  i)lace,  and  are  still  taking  place, 
in  the  inorganic  world.  And,  to  use  Wallace's  language,  "  as  the 
changes  of  conditions  are  permanent  changes  in  the  sense  of  not  re- 
verting back  to  identical  previous  conditions,  the  changes  of  organic 
forms  must  be  in  the  same  sense  permanent,  and  thus  originate 
species." 

That  its  influence  and  importance  has  been  overrated  by  some 
writers  is  not  at  all  unlikely,  for  Mr.  Darwin  himself  now  believes  that 
ho  at  first  attributed  too  much  to  its  action;  and  certain  it  is  that  it 
could  have  had  no  influence  in  producing  many  purely  ornamental 
features  of  certain  animals,  that  are  of  no  use  to  the  species  tiius  or- 
namented. No  theory  was  ever  yet  propounded,  however,  which  has 
so  well  stood  the  test  of  scientific  investigation  in  all  departments  of 
research,  or  that  has  such  a  power  of  absorbing  new  facts ;  and  no 
theory  has  in  such  a  short  time  been  so  very  generally  accepted  by 
the  leading  scientific  minds. 

A  two-fold  reason  has  led  me  to  give  it  prominence  in  this  Report. 
First,  I  believe  that  when  well  understood  it  must  prove  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  husbandman,  by  giving  him  an  intelligent  concep- 
tion of  the  growth  and  development  of  animal  and  plant  life  about 
him,  and  by  adding  zest  and  interest  to  his  efforts  to  produce  superior 
varieties  and  breeds.  Secondly,  my  studies  of  insect  life  led  me  sev- 
eral years  ago  to  appreciate  the  hypothesis,  and  the  more  I  become 
acquainted  with  these  tiny  beings  in  the  field,  the  more  I  become  con- 
vinced  of  its  truth  and  importance.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  entomologist  who  treats  the  different  varieties  in  any  group  as  inde- 
pendent species,  should  have  implicit  faith  in  the  absolute  distinctness 
and  immutability  of  species  ;  but  whenever  he  pays  more  attention  to 


TDE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  173 

the  biological  part  of  his  science,  and  studies  insects  more  in  the  field, 
his  views  must  necessarily  change.  Indeed,  next  to  plants,  insects 
offer,  perhaps,  the  best  material  for  the  inquiring  mind  to  work  upon. 
Their  rapid  multiplication,  the  rapid  manner  in  which  one  generation 
is  often  followed  by  another,  the  wonderful  manner  in  which  they  are 
often  affected  by  climate  and  food,  especially  during  the  preparatory 
or  adolescent  stages — all  tend  to  furnish  variation  for  Natural  Selection 
to  work  upon,  in  a  profusion  unknown  in  the  higher  animals.  Though 
the  formation  of  a  species  in  the  other  Classes  of  animals  may  never 
be  in  man's  power  to  trace,  on  account  of  the  great  lapse  of  time  re- 
quired; it  seems  highly  probable  that  the  process  may  some  day  be 
traced  in  insects,  and  Mr.  Bates  gives  strong  proof  of  the  derivation 
of  one  butterfl}'-  {Jleliconius  theJxiope)  from  another  {Ileliconius 
melpomene)  and  a  clear  insight  into  the  manner  in  which  the  gradual 
modifications  take  place,  till  at  last  the  two  forms  cease  to  interbreedy 
and  are  in  every  sense  of  the  word  true  species.* 

After  all,  the  great  objection  to  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection, 
in  the  minds  of  many,  is,  that  it  involves  belief  in  the  broader  doc- 
trine of  Development — of  Evolution.  Very  true!  But,  no  matter 
how  much  importance  be  attached  to  Natural  Selection,  the  funda- 
mental truth  of  the  development  of  species  is'now  almost  universally 
accepted  by  scientific  men  best  able  to  judge  of  its  merits;  and  those 
■who  have  not  considered  the  subject  may  be  excused  from  judging  of 
it.  Indeed  it  can  hardly  any  longer  be  considered  a  hypothesis  :  it  is 
in  reality  established  as  a  law,  and  as  eminent  a  naturalist  as  (Jarl 
Vogt  has  even  ventured  the  assertion  that  "no  one  in  Europe  dares 
any  longer  sustain  the  independent  and  direct  creation  of  species." 
Development  is  a  fact  in  nature,  and  the  revelations  of  science 
strengthen  faith  in  the  universality  of  her  laws  and  principles.  No 
one  can  study  well  the  facts  in  natural  science,  or  the  truliis  of  phil- 
ology, which  point  to  corresponding  results,  v/ithout  feeling  more 
strongly  than  ever  words  can  express,  the  general  truth  of  the  doc- 
trine. Our  own  Agassiz  is  about  the  only  great  naturalist  who  op- 
poses it,  though  it  is  rather  significant  that  many  of  his  leading  pu- 
pils have,  within  the  last  few  years,  boldly  proclaimed  their  faith  in 
Darwinism.  If  there  is  one  error  in  Agassiz'  life,  I  take  it  to  be  the 
authority  which  he  has  lent  to  that  popular  prejudice  which  has  al- 
ways opposed  inquiry  into  the  order  of  nature,  and  which  has  ignor- 
antly  accused  Darwin  of  atheism. 

A  theory  which  is  so  opposed  to  deep-set  tradition  and  to  present 
theological  interpretations,  must  necessarily  at  first  meet  with 
very  great  objection.  Such  has  been  the  history  of  all  great  sci- 
entific truths,  for  we  have  Agassiz'  own  words  that  "  the  his- 
tory of  the  sciences  is  present  to  tell  us  that  there  are  few  of 
the    great    truths    now    recognized    which  have   not  been  treated 

*Naturalist  on  the  River  Amazons,  Vol.  1,  pp.  255-265. 


174  THIRD  ANNUAL   KEPOKT  OP 

as   chiine'rical   and  blasphemous  before   lliey  were  demonstrated.' 
Truth  must,  hov/ever,  in  the  end  prevail  1 

Science  and  theology  have  little  in  common,  and  will,  perhaps, 
always  be  at  variance,  but  science  and  true  religion  are  twin-sisters, 
and  will  ever  go  hand  in  hand.  In  the  present  question,  theology  af- 
firms supernatural  causes  beyond  man's  investigation,  and  conse- 
quently sets  an  embargo  on  inquiry;  while  science  affirms  natural 
causes  within  the  limits  of  investigation:  the  one  appeals  to  man's 
senses,  the  other  appeals  to  man's  reason,  whose  throne  should  never 
be  abdicated,  and  whose  power  to  trace  effects  to  antecedent  causes 
is  unlimited. 

The  belief  that  Darwinism  is  irreligious  and  atheistic,  is  wide- 
spread; but  this  belief  is  the  direct  result  of  prejudging  and 
unfounded  prejudice.  For  no  one  who  understands  the  theory 
can  entertain  such  an  idea  for  a  moment.  The  individual  is  not 
created  by  a  special  miracle,  but  develops  by  natural  means.  Yet  no 
one  would  claim  that  the  individual  was  any  the  less  a  creation.  And 
so  when  it  is  argued  that  species  also  develop  by  natural  means— ac- 
cording to  natural  law;  they  are  none  the  less  therefore  creations! 
It  is  only  a  question  as  to  the  method  which  the  Almighty  employs; 
for  not  only  does  the  development  hypothesis  imply  an  Infinite  cause, 
but  to  use  Prof.  E.  L.  Youman's  language  "its  conception  is  as  much 
grander  than  the  common  theological  idea,  as  the  conception  of  the 
Cosmos  which  science  has  revealed,  transcends  the  petty  ideas  of  the 
world  which  were  entertained  in  the  grovelling  infancy  of  the  race  I" 
Creation  by  a  process  of  development  is  tangible  and  conceivable, 
whereas  we  can  have  no  knowledge  and  no  conception  of  creation 
without  any  process. 

Haeckei,  one  of  Darwin's  strongest  supporters,  says  :  "In  recog* 
nizing  the  unity  of  nature  and  the  efficacy  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in 
everything,  we  may  perhaps  lose  the  hypothesis  of  a  personal  Creator, 
but  we  evidently  gain  the  idea  of  a  Divine  Spirit,  which  pervades  the 
whole  universe.  God  is  the  highest,  the  most  living,  the  most  active 
unit  through  all  things  which  only  appear  as  sensuous  representa- 
tives for  sensuous  creatures."  Can  such  men  be  called  atheists  or 
materialists  ? 

The  supposition  that  the  creative  mind  produced  all  things  as  we 
now  find  them,  by  a  single  act  of  unstinted  power,  requiring  only  such 
time  as  can  be  reckoned  by  ourselves,  is  the  direct  outgrowth  of  our 
own  comparatively  feeble  minds — is  to  gauge  the  power  of  the  Al- 
mighty by  our  own.  The  supposition  that  he  works  through  natural 
law,  originally  ordained,  and  by  a  constant  exercise  of  his  preroga- 
tive, is  a  far  higher  and  more  comprehensive  conception  ;  for  it  helps 
to  broaden  our  views  and  enables  us  to  grasp  something  more  than 
we  have  hitherto  done.  It  carries  us  back  seons  in  the  past,  and  shows 
us  that  creation  has  not  only  been  continuous  but  still  endures,  and  it 


IHE  STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  175 

helps  us  to  rise  to  sublimest  contemplation  of  that  unknown  Infinity 
which  pervades  all. 

Von  Baer  has  truly  remarked  that  "the  scientific  investigation  of 
Nature  strives  to  learn  everything  in  detail,  in  order  to  get  nearer  to 
the  cause  of  everything,"  and  though  we  may  not  always  reach  the 
goal  we  aim  at,  we  should  not  therefore  cease  to  try.  The  law  of  the 
age  is  progress,  and  the  f)oint  we  reach  to-day  will  form  our  starling 
point  to-morrow.  Every  step  which  enables  us  to  more  truly  inter- 
pret the  workings  of  the  Divine  Mind  in  nature,  necessarily  brings 
us  nearer  to,  and  gives  us  a  more  intelligent  idea,  of  a  Creator.  Each 
new  insight  into  the  significances  and  harmonies  around  us,  helps  us 
to  lift  the  mystic  veil  and  behold  with  awe  and  wonder  the  might  and 
majesty  of  God — to  converse  with  him  as  flesh  with  unknown  Infinity; 
and  I  look  forward  to  the  day  when  the  development  of  species  will 
not  only  be  universally  recognized  as  a  law,  among  naturalists  ;  but 
when  the  liberal-minded  theologian  will  revere  the  names  of  men 
like  Darwin,  who  help  to  a  higher  conception  of  creation — instead 
of  anathematizing  them  and  ignorantly  charging  to  their  doctrine? 
those  atheistic  tendencies  which  in  times  past  have  been  vainly 
thrown  up  to  those  of  so  many  other  great,  clear-thinking,  discover- 
ing minds  1 


ERRATA. 


Page  7,  line  13  from  bottom,  for  "  Hylecectus,"  read  "  Hyleccctus." 

Page  57,  line  18,  add  "c"  before  the  first  "h." 

rage  58,  line  2  from  bottom,  for  "formidolosus"  read  "formidolosut." 


ERRATA  OMITTED  IN  THE  FIRST  REPORT. 

Page  14,  line  16  from  bottom,  for  "females"  read  "males."  Page  30,  note,  for  "F"  read 
"T."  Page  32,  line  U  from  bottom,  for  "III"  read  "V ;"  same  page,  line  7  from  bottom,  for 
''XIII"  read  "VIII."  Page  38,  line  5,  for  "Tredeim"  read  "Tredeciin."  Page  53,  line  19  from 
bottom,  for  "laid'-"  real  "lain."  Page  54,  line  4  from  bottom,  for  "hatcb"  read  "are  deposi- 
ted." Page  87,  line  11  from  bottom,  for  "F"  read  "T."  Page  132,  line  16,  for  "ampelo])sis"  read 
"ampelopsidos."  Page  150,  line  6,  for  "ruddy"  read  "vigorous  )"  same  page,  line  26,  for  "thy- 
ridoptenjx  read  "thyridopterygis."     Page  154,  in  the  heading,  for  "seas"  read  _"se«."__    Page  155, 


"wiu"-."    Page  173.  linos  2  and  3,  for  "gelechia"  read  "gelechice." 


INDEX. 


Acronycta  eblinita « ,..- 76 

JEgeria  polistiformis .^ > « 75,     76 

Agrotis  inermis ,, ».. 15,  129 

Aleiodes  Rileyi • • 71 

Amphipyra,  pyramidoides .  ■ « —> ~ - 72,     74 

"  pyramidea , , 73,     74 

"  contpefrta '»•. ~... •'- 7-^ 

"  inornata „ « - ^. ...,...„ -. -.. 75 

American  Bean-weevil , , ^ ~ - 52 

Analcis  fragaruB „.  .^^ ~ ...42,     44 

Anomalon  Jlavicorne „.^, ......'...., » ^ • 69 

Anthonomns  qviadrigibbut •...,...,.—. ■^■^ ^ „.....,... .29,     35 

"  prtinicida. .....ft ~ • «....~ •.-. Sf 

Apple  insects - ^ ~... - S 

"     Carcalio « - 23 

'^  "        —Its  natural  history ^ 3* 

*<  "        — It  transforms  in  the  fniit « ..„^........^....^..:..»....» 3L 

''  *'        — The  amount  o£  damage  it  does .,....,....-..»..^.....,.... — 33 

"  ^'       — Season  during  which  it  works ,.. ^^.... 34 

«  «       —Remedies , , M 

"    -tree  Tent-caterpillar  ,..™... ^..«............^.,...  Ill 

Archippus  Butterfly ., „ _ ..................^w.......^..  liS 

<*  "       --Its  natural  history . 145 

*'  **        — How  the  larira  becomes  a  chrysalis — .,,  14S 

*'  "        — The  larva  enjoys  immaaity  from  fchi;  afetacks  of  predsiceaus  aaimals.......  14S 

**  **       — It  often  congregates  in  imiaenEe  swarms 151 

ArgynnM  diana « „..,.,........................................<....  I&^ 

Ash-gray  Pinion ., .......,.,...........«..............~..  134 

Aspidiolua  pimfoliiB ...„..,. .....*...,...,..,.,...................«..............«»»......>.....>...........    92 

Atlacv4  cecropia ...,...,.........,.,....,..,«.........«...».«.......«.  ......««..».«.««.»»«..«..........  129,  17^ 

"       jjoZypAemtM  ..„..„,.,.,«„,.„».....,..«..,.,....>....,........... ....««».%...«.«<»»%«»««>**««««.»>»*»«.><  179 

S  E— 12 


2  INDEX. 

B 

Bean-weevil 52 

Beneficial  Insects 137 

Blue-spangled  Peach-worm 132 

Boll-worm 104 

Bruchus  pisi '.  44 

'*'      discoideus 45 


granarius , 


50 


"      fabce 52,  55 

"      erythrocerus 55 

"      obsol«tas 56 

"      rufimanus 56 

"      serratus 56 

c 

Callimorpha  fulvicosta 132 

"         vestalis , 133 

"         clymcne 134 

"         LeContei 134 

Calosoma  scrutator 129 

Campyloneura  vitripennis 137 

Carpocapsa  pomonella 101 

Glisiocampa  Americana H' 

"  sylvatica 121 

Cocklebur  Sphenophorus - 60 

GodljngMoth 101 

Oolaspls  flavida 44,     81 

"      brunnea °2 

"      suilla  .  • ^2 

"      barbara «.« 82 

Common  Yellow  Bear 67 

Colorado  Potato  Beetle 98 

"  "  "    — Best  means  of  fighting  it 97. 

"  "  "    — Paris  Green  a  remedy 99 

"  "  "    — Natural  checks  increasing 100 

"  "  "    — Bogus  experiments 100 

"  "  "    —True  remedy 101 

Conotrachelus  nenuphar , 11>  12' 

"  cratccgi 35,    39 

Corn-worm , 104 

"    Sphenophorus i 59 

Curculionidae  or  Snout-beetles • 9 

Curculio— The  Plum H 

"     —The  Apple 29 

"     —The  Quince 35 

"     -catcher— Hull's , 19 


INDEX.  3 

Curculio-catcher — Ward's 20 

<•  "    Hooten's  23 

D 

Danais  arckippus 143 

Datana  minis!  a 127,  129 

Deilephila  lineatt , 140 

Desmia  maculalis 61 

Disippus  Butterfly log 

"  "        — Di>3cription  of  mature  larva 154 

"  "        —  "        "  the  ej5 154 

"  "        — Its  winter  quarters 155 

"  "        — Its  parasites 157 

"       Microgaster 15S 

E 

Epiccerus  imbricatun 58 

"        formidolosus 53 

"         vadosus 58 

'•'        fallcx 58 

Euchales  egle 133 

Eudryas  unio 63 

Exorista  leucariice 116,  129 

F  . 

Fall  Army- worm 109 

"  "  — How  it  differs  from  the  true  Army-worm ,  112 

"  "  —Remedies 114 

Fall  Web-worm 130 

"  "  — Remedies 132 

Forsst  Tent-caterpillar 121 

G 

Srapa-vina — Insects  injurious  to 61 

"        —Leaf-folder 61 

"        — Epimenis 63 

"        —Plume 65 

"        — Common  Yellow  Bear 63 

"        — Smeared  Dagger 70 

"        — Pyramidal  Worm 72 

"        — Root-borer 75 

'•'         — Spotted  Pelidnota 77 

"        —Flea-beetle 79 

"        — Colaspis 81 

"        —Leaf  Gall-louse 84 


4  INDEX* 

(itrape-^rower — A  new  friend  to  the 137 

Grl assy-winged  Soldier-bug ►, 137 

tiortyna  nitcla 105- 

Grain  Brucbus .^..^ „ „„ — oO 

H 

Halesidota  tesselata ^ „ 127 

"         Harrisii i 127 

Haltica  striolata 44- 

"     chalyhea-. 79 

Heliconius  thelxiope 173 

"         melpomenCi ^ 173 

Heliothis  armigera 45,  104^ 

Hooten's  Curculio-catcber 23^ 

Hull's  Curculio-catcber 19 

Hyphantria  textor 130 

i 

Ichneumon  subcyaneus ^ 69 

"         pullatus 1 , 69 

"          signatipcs 69 

"         unifasciatoriui .- 71 

Imbricated  snout-beetle 58 

Innoxious  Insects 140- 

Insects  injurious  to  the  Grape-vine 61 

Ithycerus  noveboraccnsis >. 67' 


Limenitis  disippus-. 153,  171 

"  Ursula 171 

"  proserpina ■ 171 

"  weidemcyerii > 171 

"  arthemis 171 

"  lorquini: ^ « 17r 

"  bredoioii 171 

"  Sibylla, 171 

M 

Microgaster  Timenitidos, 15S 

"  glomeratus i 167 

Mimicry  in  Butterflies 159" 

N 

New  York  "Weevil < 57 

,  Natural  Selection — Kemarks  on 159 

,  Niso7iiadcs  juoenalis ^ 155 


IJSDEX.  O 

O 

O^hion  bilinealus ^^ 


Papilio  philenor ^^^ 

"       troilus 16i> 

"       asteiias ' 169 

P*a-weevil ^'^ 

i<       (I      — the  female  deposits  her  eggs  on  the  outside  of  the  pod 46 

"       "      — Remedies 13 

Peach-worm — Blue-spangled 132 

Pelidnola  jjunctata '7 

Phyllotrcta  striolata ' S3 

"          iiemorum ' S-' 

Phylloxera  vitifolice S4 

"         vastatrix ••••• »•••  8^ 

Pieris  brassica • 167 


rapm. 


167 


Pimpla  melanocephala 12t> 

Plum  Curculio H 

"            "      — Single-brooded  and  hibernates  as  a  beetle 11 

"            "      — Nocturnal  rather  than  diurnal H 

"            "      —The  Ransom  Chip-trap  process 15 

•'            "      — Keeping  it  in  check  by  the  offer  of  premiums 17 

"            "      — Paris  green  as  a  remedy ■. IS 

"            "      — Jarring  by  machinery 18 

"            "      — Hull's  Ourculio-catcher - I'J 

«      —Ward's         "          "       * 20 

"            "      — Hooten's      -'          " 2,5 

"            "      — Sigalphus  Curculio  Parasite 24 

ii            t(      —Porizon            "              "       23 

"      Gouger — Its  character,  distribution,  etc SS) 

"            "      — Of  ten  mistaken  for  the  Plum  Curculio k>...i 40 

"            "      — Its  time  of  appearance i 40 

"            "      — Remedies i i ..* 41 

Polysphincta  bicarinata ' 1\ 

Porizon  Curculio  Parasite < 2S 

Porizon  conoirackcli < <> 2S 

Potato  Beetle t 97 

Piodcnia  autumnalis 109,  116 

"           cornmelincB. 13 

Protective  Imitation 142 

Psychomorpha  cpinienis , < 6.3,  64 

Pterophorus  periscelidactylus 65 

"           carduidactylus j 67 

Pyramidal  Grape-vine  worm 72 

Pyrameis  atalr.nta ..  187 


Q  INDEX. 

Q 

35 

Quince  Curculio 

"        —How  it  differs  from  the  others 

u  "       —Its  transformations  and  habits 

,.  38 

<'  "        — ilemedies 

s 

12U 

Scmiotellus  clisiocampa: 

, 70 

Smeared  Dagger ' 

Uo 

Sigalphus  Curculio  Parasite 

Sigalphus  curcuHonis «»-.... 

Snout-beetles 

05 

Snout-beetle— the  Imbricated 

45 

Spcrviophagus  robinicc 

f  59 

Sijhenopkorus  zecB 

GO 

"  pulchellus • 

eo 

"  l'i-l)unctatus 

68 

Spilosoma  virginica 

Spotted  Pelidnota ' 

Strawberry  Crown  borer 

T 

116,  15a 

Tackina  archippivora.  

Hi 

Tent-caterpillar  of  the  Apple 

<<  <<  "        Forest • 

u  it  I'  "     — Ittj  natural  history 

,  124 

u  it  it  «<    — The  larva  spins  a  web 

.,  ,,  <<  a    _lt  feeds  both. on  orchard  and  forest  trees 5-' 

127 
it  it  it  "    — Is  it  ever  destructive? 

128 
,(  (i  n  ''    —Artificial  remedies 

,.  12S 

<<  it  it  i<    — Natural  remedies 

129 

.t  It  '•  "     — Summary 

105 

Tomato— Corn-worm  in 

..•.«..•••••• •   14i 

Transformation— Remarks  on ••• 

Tnjpcta  pomonclla 

Two  of  our  common  Butterflies .••« 

15o 

Trichogramma  (?)  minitta • 

V 

167 

Vanessa  uriicce  

w 

2l> 

Ward's  Curculio-catcher 

Ui> 

White-lined  Morninp;  Sphinx _ 


Xijlina  cinerea 

"  con/ormis... 
"  subcoftalis. 
"     Bethunei.,.. 


INDEX.  t 

X 

134 

13« 

1*6 

136 


capax 1 '''" 


FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT 


ON   THE 


NOXIOUS,    BENEFICIAL 


AND   OTHER 


INSECTS, 


OP   THE 


ST^TE    OF   MISSOURI, 


MADE  TO  THE  STATE    BOAKD  OF  AGRICULTURE,  PURSUANT  TO  AS 
APPROPRIATION  FOR  THIS  PURPOSE  FROM  THE 
LEGISLATURE   OF  THE  STATE. 


BY   CHARLES   V.   RILEY, 
State  Entomologist. 


JEFFERSON  CITY,  MO.: 
BEGAN  &  EDWARDS,  PUBLIC  PRINTERS. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by  Charles  V.  Kiley,  in  the  office 
of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


To  the  Members  of  the  Missouri  State  Board  of  Agriculture : 

Gentlemen: — I  herewith  submit,  for  publication,  my  Fourth  Annual 
Eeport  on  the  Noxious,  Beneficial  and  other  Insects  of  the  State  of 
Missouri. 

The  year  just  closing  has  been  remarkable  for  the  high  mean  temperature 
of  its  spring  and  summer,  and  the  unprecedented  small  amount  of  rain-fall. 
Yet  mother  Earth  has  yielded  abundantly  of  all  kinds  of  Agricultural  pro- 
ducts, and  our  fruit  "crop  has  generally  been  unusually  fine.  The  injuries  of 
the  notorious  Plum  Curculio  were,  comparatively,  so  insignificant  that  plums 
and  even  apricots  ripened  where  they  had  failed  for  many  previous  years; 
and  though  this  result  may  in  great  part  be  attributed  to  the  partial  failure 
of  such  fruit  and  the  consequent  scarcity  of  the  "little  Turk"  in  1870,  I 
think  the  Sigalphus  parasite  described  last  year  must  receive  some  share 
of  the  credit.  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  anticipate  in  any  manner  the  burden 
of  the  following  pages. 

During  the  extreme  heat  of  the  season  I  made  a  hasty  trip  to  Europe, 
for  the  improvement  of  health  and  for  scientific  purposes.  During  two 
months'  stay  there,  I  was  able  to  gather  some  facts  of  importance  without 
which  I  could  not  have  laid  before  you  the  articles  on  "  Grape  Disease/' 
and  "Silkworms"  to  which  I  call  your  especial  attention,  and  which,  I 
trust,  contain  some  important  truths  of  vast  moment  to  the  State. 

I  have  devoted  considerable  time  to  lecturing  the  past  year;  and  hope 
to  be  able  to  fill  still  more  engagements  during  the  year  to  come. 

Respecting  the  printing  of  this  Report  it  is  necessary  to  state  that  I  did 
everything  inYay  power  last  winter  to  have  the  printing  and  press-work  of 
the  third  volume  done  creditably  and  in  a  manner  which  would  do  justice 
to  the  engravings.  Mr.  Wilcox  was  obliging,  and  did  all  that  could,  per- 
haps, be  expected  of  him;  but'  in  truth  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  any  one 
to  turn  out  a  creditable  piece  of  work  from  the  old  rickety  presses  at  the 
capital ;  and,  with  the  three  years'  unsatisfactory  experience  of  the  past,  I 
shall  strive  to  get  the  publishing  of  this  fourth  Report  done  in  St.  Louis. 
To  enable  me  to  do  so,  I  hope  to  get  your  aid  and  encouragement. 

The  same  rules,  in  printing,  that  have  been  adopted  in  the  other  Reports, 
are  followed  in  this ;  and  the  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that,  unless  otherwise 
stated,  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis  is  always  intended  when  speaking  of  the 


4  PREFACE. 

eeason  of  an  insect's  appearance  or  disappearance.  The  older  and  more 
familiar  generic  names  are  generally  employed,  and  the  names  in  brackets 
indicate  the  genera  to  which  the  insect  is  referred  in  more  modern  systems. 
Figures  35,  45,  46,  47  and  49  have  been  kindly  loaned  by  Mr.  Charles 
L.  Flint,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Agriculture ;  51  by 
Dr.  A.  S.  Packard,  Jr.,  of  Salem,  Mass.,  and  52,  53  and  54  purchased  of  the 
same :  the  rest  are  original. 

My  office  is  still  at  Eoom  29,  Insurance  Building,  Southeast  corner  of 
Fifth  and  Olive  streets,  St.  Louis  j  and  all  letters  sent  to  me  should  be  thus 
addressed. 

I  thankfully  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  free  passes  over  the  following 
railroads:  St.  Louis  and  Iron  Mountain,  Missouri  Pacific,  Atlantic  and 
Pacific,  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph,  North  Missouri,  Chicago  and  St.  Louis, 
Illinois  Central,  and  Eockford,  Eock  Island  and  St.  Louis. 

Eespectfully  yours, 

CHAELES  y.  EILEY, 

State  Entomologist. 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  December  2,  1871. 


NOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


NOTES  OF  THE  YEAR. 


Of  the  more  prominent  and  important  of  our  insect  enemies  prolonged 
experience  is  continually  teaching  us  something  new,  and  of  some  of  those 
already  treated  of  in  former  Eeports,  I  shall,  hereafter,  under  the  head  of 
"Notes  of  the  Year"  bring  together  such  additional  facts  and  discoveries  as 
are  worthy  of  being  recorded.  These  notes  are  therefore  intended  to  sup- 
plement the  original  articles,  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  avoid  anything  like 
repetition  of  what  has  already  appeared.  By  thus  adding  the  observations  of 
the  year  the  original  reports  will  be  rendered  more  complete  and  circum- 
spect. 

THE  COLOEADO  POTATO  BEETLE. 

In  its  onward  march  across  the  continent,  this  insect  attracts,  perhaps, 
more  attention  than  any  other.  In  extending  over  new  territory  we  find 
that  its  enemies  increase  and  that  even  its  habits  become  more  varied;  while 
our  means  of  counteracting  its  injurious  work  become  more  numerous  and 
efficient.    For  these  reasons  it  demands  prominence  in  the  "Notes." 

Its  Injuries  in  1871.— Never  before  was  the  insect  so  numerous  with 
us  as  last  spring  and  summer.  In  March  the  beetle  was  turned  up  in  great 
numbers  while  the  ground  was  being  plowed,  especially  in  fields  that  had 
been  planted  the  previous  year  to  late  potatoes.  During  the  warm  days  of 
April  they  were  seen  everywhere  sailing  through  the  air— their  striped  ely- 
ti-a  or  wing-covers  raised  and  held  motionless  from  the  thorax,  while  the 
more  gauzy  wings,  unfolded  and  vibrating,  reflected  pleasantly  to  the  eye  as 
the  sun  intensified  their  rosy  hues. 

Before  the  potatoe  leaves  were  fairly  out  of  the  ground  the  beetles  were, 
as  usual,  after  them,  and  the  fighting  on  the  part  of  potato-growers  com- 
menced with  vigor,  for  it  seemed  that  twenty  bugs  came  to  the  funeral  of 
every  one  slain.  It  had  become  very  generally  known  that  no  powder  unless 
it  had  Paris  green  as  its  base,  was  efficient  enough  to  be  of  any  practical 


b  FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

use,  and  consequently  the  demand  for  Paris  green,  suddenly  became  so  great 
that  the  price  went  up  from  20c.  to  75c.  and  even  $1.00  per  lb.  Indeed,  for 
a  while  it  was  not  to  be  had  at  all  in  St.  Louis.  Several  parties  in  our  State, 
taking  advantage  of  the  demand,  prepared  pound  packages,  already  mixed, 
and  advertised  them  for  sale  at  50c.  per  package.  The  price  was  exhorbitant, 
and  by  inducing  the  well  known  firm  of  Michell  Bros.  &  Kern,  of  St.  Louis, 
to  prepare  packages  according  to  my  recommendation,  I  soon  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  the  price  reduced  to  a  more  reasonable  standard.  During 
the  latter  part  of  May  the  demand  for  the  green  was  at  its  height,  and  the 
bugs  were  in  such  force  throughout  the  Western  country,  that  the  agricul- 
tural papers  teemed  with  notices  of  it,  and  some  writers  gave  loose  rein  to 
their  fancy,  and  allowed  so  prosaic  a  subject  to  prompt  to  poetic  deeds. 
From  among  the  doggerel,  the  following  taken  from  the  columns  of  the 
Western  Sural  will  bear  repeating  and  exhibits  the  right  spirit : 

POTATO  BUGS  AND  I. 


In  deadly  strife  we  did  engage ; 
From  week  to  week  the  warfare  wage 
With  no  abatement  of  our  rage — 

Potato  bugs  and  I ; 
From  two  to  'leven  like  Falstaflf's  foes — 
In  one  brief  hour  their  number  grow — 
Yet  neither  any  yielding  knows 

Potato  bugs  or  I. 

Brave  fought  in  ancient  times  the  knight 
In  coat  of  mail  and  vizor  bright, 
But  more  tenacious  was  our  fight — 

Potato  bugs  and  I. 
Armed  to  the  teeth  were  foes  of  old, 
But  teeth  and  hands  our  ai-ms  all  told. 
Yet  still  we  struggled  strong  and  bold —     . 

Potato  bugs  and  I . 

I  fought  my  fav'i'ite  bulb  to  save, 
Which  to  the  world  Sir  Walter  gave. 
Each  had  our  reasons  strong  and  grave — 

Potato  bugs  and  I. 
To  exterminate  was  what  they  meant, 
And  I  toward  them  had  like  intent; 
Nor  one  short  hour  would  we  relent — 

Potato  bugs  or  I. 

Green  armor  I've  procured  of  late, 
Provided  by  that  city  great 
Where  bloodshed  seems  the  normal  state ; 
And  now  our  warfare  we'll  abate — 

Potato  bugs  and  I; 
For  all  their  energy  is  spent. 
Their  spears  are  broken,  armor  rent, 
And  now  I  think  we're  both  content — 

Potato  bugs  and  I .  Agra. 


But  if  the  bugs  themselves  were  unprecedently  numerous,  so  also  were 
their  natural  enemies.  I  passed  through  potato  patches  where  almost  every 
Boryphora  larva  had  upon  the  back  of  the  neck,  just  behind  the 
head,  one  or  more  eggs  of  its  deadly  parasite  Lydella  doryphorce,  Riley,  (Eep. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


I,  Fig.  48),  which  is  the  only  genuine  parasite  yet  known  to  attack  it;  and 
what  with  the  work  of  such  natural  enemies  and  the  efforts  of  man,  the  pest 
suddenly  became  about  as  scarce  as  it  had  been  numerous  before. 

All  accounts  agree  as  to  the  sudden  diminution  of  its  numbers  in  the 
month  of  June,  and  so  far  as  Missouri  is  concerned,  it  did  not  increase  to  any 
alarming  extent  during  the  rest  of  the  year.  The  disappearance  was,  in 
many  sections,  so  thorough  that  it  is  very  questionable  whether  man  and  natur- 
al enemies  should  alone  be  credited  with  the  cause.  The  spring  was  uncom- 
monly dry  and  warm,  and,  so  far,  was  favorable  to  the  increase  of  the  in- 
sect; but  the  summer  drought  and  extreme  heat  which  followed  were  quite 
unfavorable  to  its  multiplication.  Warm,  dry  weather  in  spring  is  conge- 
nial to  the  growth  and  well-being  of  the  larv£e  as  they  swarm  upon  and  de- 
vour our  vines;  but  at  a  later  stage  of  their  lives  when  they  have  to  enter 
the  earth  to  undergo  their  transformations,  a  great  many  of  them  will  un- 
doubtedly die  if  the  earth  continiies  excessively  dry  and  hot.  They  will,  in 
short,  be  dried  and  baked  to  death.  Those  who  have  had  large  experience 
•  in  breeding  insects,  and  who  understand  the  importance  of  coolness,  and  es- 
pecially of  moisture  in  the  successful  development  of  those  which  transform 
underground,  feel  perfectly  warranted  in  such  an  inference,  even  though  no 
systematic  and  accurate  experiments  have  been  made  to  test  its  validity. 
The  extreme  heat  and  dryness  of  the  season,  furnished  a  good  opportunity 
to  employ  the  sun-scalding  remedy,  and  it  was  fully  shown  that  in  an  in- 
tense summer  sun,  the  larvse  and  even  the  beetles  will  very  generally  die  if 
knocked  from  the  vines  on  to  the  dry  and  heated  ground,  especially  if  the 
vines  have  been  well  hilled ;  and  it  is  doubtless  because  the  insect  cannot 
thrive  when  the  thermometer  ranges  near  100^  F.  that  the  southern 
columns  of  the  spreading  army  extend  far  more  slowly  than  the  northern. 
Moreover,  the  past  summer  was  not  the  first  one  in  which  the  sudden  dis- 
appearance of  this  insect  under  conditions  of  heat  and  drought  has  been  no- 
ticed ;  for  a  similar  state  of  things  occurred  in  1868,  and  Dr.  Henry  Shimer, 
of  Mt.  Carroll,  111.,  then  attributed  such  disappearance  to  the  dryness  of  the 

season.* 

We  are  justifiable,  therefore,  in  concluding  that  while  dryness  and  warmth 
may  be  very  pleasant  and  agreeable  to  the  Colorado  Potato  Beetle  in  the 
spring  or  in  the  fall,  they  are  nevertheless  very  destructive  to  it  when  inten- 
sified in  the  summer  months. 

Amount  op  Damage  caused  by  it  in  Missouri. — Notwithstanding  such 
sudden  disappearance  of  the  potato  bug,  the  falling  off  in  the  potato  pro- 
duct of  the  State  compared  with  1870  is  fully  20  per  cent.  In  Illinois  it  is 
35  and  in  Michigan  34  per  cent.;  while  in  most  of  the  so-called  Middle  States 
it  has  increased.  Much  of  this  decrease  may  j  ustly  be  attributed  to  the  same 
heat  and  drought  that  killed  off"  the  bugs,  but  a  certain  amount  of  it  may  be 
attributed  to  the  early  ravages  of  the  latter.  In  1870,  the  Statistician,  Mr. 
J.  E.  Dodge,  informed  me  that  the  potato  crop  of  Missouri  was  5,525,000 
bushels;  and  after  careful  estimates  of  the  average  market  price  in  St. 


•  Am.  Naturalist,  Vol.  IH.  pp.  91-99. 


8  FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

Louis,  and  of  the  damage  done  to  the  crop  by  this  one  insect,  I  showed,  in 
a  lecture  delivered  before  the  Kansas  State  Agricultural  College,  that  this 
one  pest  had  abstracted  nearly  $500,000  from  the  pockets  of  our  farmers 
during  that  year.  No  insignificant  sum  to  be  sneered  at,  and  well  worth 
saving  when  the  means  are  at  hand ! 

New  Territory  invaded. — In  the  fall  of  1870  the  northern  columns 
of  the  great  army,  in  its  eastward  march,  had  reached  the  Canadian  border 
and  made  their  way  some  little  distance  into  the  Dominion.  In  the  spring 
of  1871  the  Detroit  river  was  literally  swarming  with  the  beetles  and  they 
were  crossing  Lake  Erie  on  ships,  chips,  staves,  boards  or  any  other  float- 
ing object  which  presented  itself.  They  soon  infested  all  the  islands  to  the 
west  of  the  Lake  and  by  June  were  common  around  London,  and  finally 
occupied  the  whole  country  between  the  St.  Clair  and  Niagara  rivers. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  indicate,  with  any  degree  of  exactness,  the  pre- 
cise eastern  limit  they  have  attained  in  the  States;  but  it  can  be  confidently 
stated  that  they  have  reached  in  some  places  the  borders  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.  Specimens  of  dried  larvae  were  sent  to  Mr.  A.  S.  Fuller  of 
the  Rural  New  Yorker ,  from  Martinsburgh,  N.  Y.,  but  he  was  not  able  to 
decide  positively  whether  they  were  the  genuine  Colorado  article  or  the 
Three-lined  Potato  beetle  (Eep.  I.  Fig.  42).  They  were  also  reported  during 
the  summer  to  have  obtained  a  foot-hold  in  Massachusetts,  as  the  following 
item  from  the  New  England  Farmer  will  show : 

"Hon.  M.  P.  Wilder  informs  us  that  this  long  dreaded  scourge  of  the 
potato  field  has  beeil  found  in  the  town  of  Worcester,  whither  it  probably 
stole  a  ride  on  the  cars  of  the  western  railroad,  or  was  introduced  by  some 
carpet-bagger.  We  understood  Mr.  Wilder  that  the  State  Board  of  Agri- 
culture were  contemplating  the  adoption  of  some  action  with  a  view  to 
'stamping  out'  the  pest.  AVe  are  not  informed  as  to  the  extent  of  the  foot- 
hold the  insect  has  secured,  but  we  should  certainly  advise  a  most  earnest 
endeavor  by  hand  picking,  by  poison,  by  fire,  and  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  to  check  its  further  extension  in  our  State." 

But  I  am  able  to  say,  with  sufficient  assurance,  that  no  foundation  what- 
ever existed  for  the  rumor,  and  that  the  Three-lined  species  was  here  the 
innocent  cause  of  alarm.  While  visiting  Prof.  Geo.  Thurber  of  the  Ameri- 
can Agriculturist,  I  learned  that  he  himself  had  unintentionally  started  the 
rumor  by  mistaking  certain  dried  3-lineata  for  the  genuine  10-lineata 
larvae. 

I  have  already  given  it  as  my  opinion  that  nothing  will  stay  its  onward 
march.  There  was  a  possible  chance  of  keeping  it  out  of  Ontario,  but  that 
is  now  lost.  It  might  perhaps  be  stayed  for  a  time,  if,  by  some  edict,  no 
potatoes  were  allowed  to  be  grown  for  several  years  within  a  belt  of  one 
hundred  miles  east  of  the  district  at  present  infested.  But  we  do  not  live 
in  the  time  of  edicts,  and  the  chances  of  its  getting  across  such  a  belt  by  one 
way  or  another  would  always  be  great.  So  I  expect  this  irresistible  army 
to  march  on.  Indeed  it  is  quite  possible  that  even  the  broad  Atlantic  may 
not  stay  its  course;  but  that  when  once  the  beetles  swarm  in  the  streets  of 
New  York  as  they  did  in  those  of  St.  Louis  last  spring,  some  female,  loaded 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  9 

with  fertile  eggs  and  hidden  in  the  nooks  and  crannies  of  some  vessel,  may- 
be safely  borne  over  to  the  land  of  "  murphies,"  whore  she  might  easily- 
found  a  colony  which  would  soon  spread  consternation  into  other  potato- 
growing  countries  to  the  eastward.  In  giving,  through  Walter  Ealeigh,  the 
precious  tuber  to  Europe,  America  conferred  upon  the  Old  World  an  ever- 
lasting boon.  She  may  j'ct  unwittingly  be  the  means  of  bequeathing  as 
great  a  bane,  by  sending  across  the  ocean  the  deadliest  enemy  of  that  tuber ! 
At  all  events,  it  behooves  oxir  European  neighbors  to  be  on  the  look-out, 
and  to  prevent,  if  possible,  any  such  catastrophe. 

The  southern  columns  of  the  army  lag  far  behind.  In  South  Missouri 
it  is  gradually  spreading,  but  has  not  yet  touched  the  extreme  southern 
counties.  I  saw  it  at  Springfield  in  1870  and  it  had  then  only  just  reached 
Green  county.  It  was  noticed  the  past  summer  b}^  Mr.  Wm.  E.  Howard  for 
the  first  time  in  Webster,  but  had  not  then  reached  Taney  county.  It  also 
made  its  first  appearance  in  1871  in  Phelps  and  Eeynolds,  as  I  am  informed 
by  Dr.  Thos.  Ferguson  of  Arlington  in  the  former,  and  by  Dr.  M.  M.  Ken- 
zie  of  Centreville  in  the  latter  county.  It  also  appeared  in  Wright,  Dent 
and  Texas,  and  will  doubtless  in  time  appear  in  all  the  extreme  south  and 
southwestern  couftties. 

To  the  east  this  southern  column  does  not  roach  much  beyond  Louis- 
ville, Ky.,  as  I  learn  from  Mr.  T.  J.  Key,  of  that  place,  that  it  has  only  been 
there  two  years,  and  Mr.  V.  T.  Chambers  informs  me  that  it  was  seen  at 
Covington  for  the  first  time  last  year.  Broadly  speaking,  therefore,  it  may 
be  said  to  occupy  more  or  less  all  the  territory  between  latitude  37°  and 
46° — bounded  on  the  west  by  the  Eocky  Mountains  and  on  the  oast  by 
a  line  drawn  from  the  extreme  eastern  limit  of  Lake  Erie  to  Cairo,  111. 

To  the  north  the  posts  have  extended  beyond  this  limit  in  Michigan,  and 
I  have  heard  of  them  even  on  the  northern  shore  of  Lake  Superior.  An 
incident  related  to  me  by  Jno.  Hurlburt,  Jr.,  who  has  been  engaged  in  sur- 
veying and  prospecting  in  that  part  of  the  country,  will  illustrate  how  great 
a  distance  they  may  extend  without  food,  when  aided  by  water.  He  found 
them  in  immense  quantities  on  a  potato  patch  belonging  to  some  Indians  on 
the  Menomonee  river;  yet  this  potato  patch  was  in  a  clearing  of  about 
twenty  acres,  with  no  other  clearing  near ;  and  to  his  certain  knowledge 
there  could  not  have  been  another  potato  patch  within  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles.  To  the  east  and  south  they  extend  a  little  beyond  the  imagin- 
ary line,  in  Ohio,  as  Mr.  Klippart,  Secretary  of  the  State  Board,  made  special 
inquiries  as  to  their  progress,  and  he  informed  me  that  they  have  been  found 
in  every  county  in  the  State. 

It  spreads,  but  does  not  travel  in  the  Sense  of  leaving  one  District 
FOR  Another. — Let  it  not  be  understood  that  this  insect,  in  its  onward  spread, 
or  march,  ever  entirely  quits  any  district  where  it  has  once  obtained  a  foothold. 
This  idea  of  its  itinerant  character  seems  very  generally  to  prevail,  and  a 
great  many  people  labor  under  the  impression  that  soon  after  its  advent, 
this  dreaded  foe  to  the  potato  will  of  its  own  accord  take  its  leave  as  sud- 
denly as  it  came— that,  like  every  other  dog,  it  will  have  its  day.     This  idea 


10  FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

is  rather  encouraged,  though  I  believe  unintentionally,  by  Dr.  LeBaron  in 
his  first  Illinois  Entomological  Report,  where  he  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  beetle  will  in  time  disappear  ''  especially  in  those  localities  where  it  is 
most  abundant,  even  though  we  leave  the  work  wholly  to  Nature."  Noth- 
ing could,  however,  be  farther  from  the  truth,  or  less  in  accordance  with 
past  experience.  It  may,  and  very  generally  does,  prove  more  injurious 
during  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  its  advent  than  subsequently ;  because 
time  is  required  for  its  natural  enemies  to  multiply  sufficiently  to  keep  it  in 
check.  But  wherever  it  once  obtains  a  footing,  there  it  may  be  expected  to 
remain  for  all  time  to  come — vascillating,  it  is  true,  from  year  to  j'^ear,  in 
numbers  and  conseqiient  power  to  do  mischief,  according  as  the  conditions 
for  its  increase  or  decrease  are  favorable;  but  always  present  to  take  its 
chances  in  the  great  struggle  for  existence,  and  to  get  the  upper  hand  if  it 
can. 

Mr.  Thomas  Meehan  of  the  Gardeners'  Monthly,  writes  me  that  while  in 
Colorado  the  past  summer  he  met  with  very  few  beetles,  and  that  these 
seemed  to  favor  the  Solanum  cornutum;  and  j)ersons  often  wonder  why  the 
insect  does  not  swarm  in  the  Territory  from  which  it  takes  its  popular  name. 
I  have  been  repeatedly  informed  by  men  living  on  or  near  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tains, and  more  especially  by  Mr.  J.  Savage,  of  Lawrence,  Kans.,  that  at  a 
certain  altitude  it  scarcely  ever  touches  the  Potato,  but  confines  itself  to  the 
wild  cornutum;  and  it  necessarily  cannot  be  as  numerous  in  thinly  settled 
parts  of  the  country  as  in  parts  more  thickly  populated.  It  received  the 
popular  appellation  of  "Colorado,"  not  because  it  was  numerous  there,  but 
because  it  was  first  found  there  by  entomologists  long  before  it  had  advanced 
to  any  of  the  Territories  or  States  to  the  East.  There  are  hundreds  of  in- 
sects that  in  like  manner  take  their  name  from  some  particular  district  where 
first  discovered,  though  they  often  afterwards  jsrove  to  be  far  more  common 
in  other  districts. 

New  Food;  Cabbage. — It  is  a  notable  fact,  and  a  most  important  one 
for  us,  that  the  Colorado  Potato  Beetle  has  in  the  past  been  found  incapable 
of  flourishing  on  any  other  plants  but  those  of  the  Nightshade  Family  {So- 
lanacece),  and  hitherto  it  has  only  been  known  to  thrive  upon  the  nightshade 
genus  proper  (Solanum)  which  includes  the  Egg  Plant,  the  Horse  nettle  and 
some  other  wild  species  west  of  the  Mississippi,  such  as  rostratum  and  cornu- 
tum, which  are  known  by  various  popular  and  local  names.  Upon  the 
Nettle  (S.  caroUnense),  which  is  common  with  us  but  is  mostly  replaced  in 
Kansas  by  the  S.  rostratum,  it  seems  to  delight  even  more  than  upon  the 
Potato,  and  I  have  found  it  quite  injurious  to  other  plants  of  the  same  genus, 
such  as  the  warscewiczi,  robustum,  discolor  and  sieglinge,  which  are  often  cul- 
tivated for  their  ornamental  foliage.  The  other  common  plants  of  the  Fam- 
ily such  as  the  Tomato  (Lycopersicum),  Ground-cherry  (Physalis),  Thorn-ap- 
ple (Datura),  Henbane  {Hyoscyamus),  Apple  of  Peru  {Nicandra),  Tobacco 
(Nicotiana),  Belladonna,  Petunia  and  Cayenne  Pepper,  are  not  overmuch  to 
its  liking,  though  upon  a  pinch,  it  will  feed  on  all  of  them,  and  especially  on 
the  first  named.  The  Cayenne  Pepper,  if  eaten  to  any  extent,  is  actually 
poisonous  to  it,  as  we  learn  from  Dr.  LeBaron. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  11 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  an  interesting  fact  (as  showing  how  a 
new  habit  may  be  acquired  under  fiivorable  circumstances),  that  last  summer, 
this  insect  was  jjositively  found  feedinjjj  upon  the  Cabbage,  which  is  botanic- 
ally  so  very  distinct  from  the  nightshade  Family.  It  would  be  sad  indeed  if 
so  all-important  an  esculent  should  in  the  future  be  doomed  to  suffer,  with 
the  Potato,  from  the  insatiate  appetite  of  such  a  pest,  and  I  have  no  idea  that 
cabbage  raisers  need  fear  anything  of  the  sort.  Yet  stranger  things  have 
happened !  and  certain  it  is  that  it  was  found  devouring  cabbages  by  Mi-.  H.  H. 
McAffee,  Superintendent  of  the  Wisconsin  University  Experimental  Farm, 
while  Miss  Mary  E.  Murtfeldt,  of  Kirkwood,  in  whose  testimony  I  can  place 
the  \itmost  reliance,  found  that  in  parts  of  Northern  Illinois  it  did  consider- 
able injui-y  to  growing  cabbages  and  was  even  breeding  in  great  numbers 
upon  them. 

Its  Hibernation. — Subseqiient  experience  has  corroborated  the  accu- 
racy of  the  account  given  in  my  first  Report,  of  this  insect's  natural  history, 
and  as  some  authors  have  since  claimed  that  it  winters  in  the  pupa  state,  I 
must  insist  that  with  us  it  never  does,  but  that  the  last  brood  invariably 
hibernates  in  the  perfect  beetle  state.  Specimens  have  been  found  at  a  depth 
of  eight  and  even  ten  feet  below  the  surface,  but  the  great  majority  do  n^bt 
descend  beyond  eighteen  or  twenty  inches,  and  many  will  not  enter  the 
ground  at  all  if  the}-  can  find  other  substances  above  ground  that  will  shel- 
ter them  sufficiently.  The  beetles  are  found  abundantly  above  ground  in  th* 
month  of  April  in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  but  often  re-enter  it  after  they 
have  once  left,  especially  during  cold,  damp  weather. 

A  few  Words  more  about  Paris  Green. — A  good  deal  of  objection  has 
been  raised  against  the  too  general  use  of  this  poison,  and  perhaps  with 
some  reason.  Mr.  H.  H.  McAfee,  who  has  had  a  good  opportunity  of  test- 
ing its  value,  strongly  opposes  its  use  on  the  grounds  of  its  dangerous 
nature,  and  shows  in  the  following  paragraph,  which  is  from  his  pen,  that 
the  bugs  can  be  subdued  by  determined  hand-picking. 

With  an  astonishing  large  supply  of  beetles  to  start  on  this  spring, 
we  have  fought  them  through  to  this  time  at  an  expense  of  just  $20.15,  and 
we  have  dug  potatoes  enough  to  pay,  at  market  price  when  dug,  for  the 
seed  upon  the  whole  plat,  also  to  pay  for  the  picking  of  the  bugs,  and  a 
profit  of  $6.51,  and  there  yet  remains  to  be  dug  over  half  the  potatoes, 
which,  after  paying  cost  of  cultivation  and  rental,  will  give  a  fair  profit. 
There  will  be  a  slight  bill  for  picking  bugs  from  this  on,  for  the  late  pota- 
toes, but  we  are  perfectly  sure  of  a  balance  of  profits,  if  the  potatoes  now 
in  the  ground  never  grcAv  another  ounce.  "Early  Rose,"  yielded  at  the 
rate  of  232.56  bushels  per  acre,  "King  of  the  Earlies,"  at  the  rate  of  157.24 
bushels  per  acre.  I  feel  sure  that  we  can  count  on  several  million  less  bugs 
to  winter  over,  than  were  on  the  farm  last  fall,  and  I  believe  that  the 
expense  of  gathering  them  another  year  may  be  lessened  more  than  three- 
fourths,  by  using  proper  implements  for  that  work. 

Some  persons  have  even  imagined  that  potatoes  groAvn  on  land  where 
it  has  been  used  are  often  watery,  rank  and  of  bad  flavor,  and  according  to 
the  Monthly  Repoi't  from  the  Dejiartment  of  Agriculture  for  August  and 


12  FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

September  last,  peas  planted  in  soil  mixed  with  the  green  rotted  immedi- 
ately and  would  not  germinate,  while  those  in  unadulterated  soil  grew  finely 
and  flourished,  but  died  immediately  when  transplanted  into  the  soil  mixed 
with  the  green.  How  far  these  statements  are  to  be  relied  on,  each  one 
must  judge  for  himself,  but  it  is  certainly  advisable  to  avoid  as  much  as  pos- 
sible the  use  of  the  poison,  by  carrying  out  the  other  methods,  both  pre- 
ventive and  remedial,  advocated  in  previous  Eeports;  for  wholesale  remedies 
always  have  the  disadvantage  of  destroying  some  friends  with  the  foes,  and 
in  this  case  the  true  parasite  and  those  cannibals  which  by  mastication  par- 
take bodily  of  their  green-covered  prey,  certainly  fall  in  the  general 
slaughter.  But  this  remedy  has  now  been  so  extensively  used  with  good 
results. and  without  any  apparent  harm  to  the  tubers,  that  full  and  thorough 
proof  against  it  will  be  necessary  to  cause  its  abandonment.  Properly 
mixed  I  have  used  it  without  the  slightest  trace  of  evil  eifect  on  the 
leaves  or  tubers,  and  I  know  hundreds  of  others  who  have  done  likewise; 
80  that  with  present  experience  I  should  not  hesitate  to  recommend  its 
judicious  use.  What  is  wanted  on  this  subject,  is  a  long  series  of  thoroughly 
accurate  and  reliable  experiments.  Let  our  Agricultural  colleges  make 
them !  Meanwhile  Paris  green  will  be  extensively  used,  especially  while 
the  vines  are  young  and  most  need  protection;  for  after  the  expense 
of  preparing  the  land  and  planting  has  been  incurred,  it  will  not  pay  to 
get  discouraged  and  abandon  the  field  to  the  enemy,  when  such  an 
efficient  remedy  is  at  hand.  We  must  take  lesson  from  one  of  ^Esop's 
instructive  fables,  and  instead  of  relying  on  providence  to  help  us  out, 
put  our  shoulders  to  the  wheel  and  help  ourselves  out  of  the  difficulty. 
The  green  may  be  shaken  over  the  vines  in  various  manners,  and  some  per- 
sons have  found  an  old  sleazy  sack,  such  as  those  used  for  table  salt,  to  do  good 
service,  when  attached  to  the  end  of  a  stick.  It  is  most  safely  applied,  how- 
ever, by  aid  of  a  perforated  tin  box  attached  to  the  end  of  a  stick  three  or  four 
feet  long.  Such  a  box  (Fig.  1)  I  induced  Messrs.  Michel 
Bros.  &  Kern  to  manufacture  last  summer.  It  can  be 
made  of  any  desirable  size.  The  least  possible  dusting 
suffices,  and  by  taking  the  handle  of  the  dust-box  in  the 
left  hand,  and  then  tapping  the  box  with  another  stick 
held  in  the  right  hand,  one  can  walk  rapidly  along  the 
rows  and  regulate  the  amount  sifted.  The  green  can- 
not well  be  mixed  with  the  flour  or  j^laster  except  by 
the  aid  of  a  mill,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  those  who 
mix  in  large  quantities  have  the  advantage.  It  is  most 
effectual  when  mixed  with  flour,  though  plaster  has  the 
merit  of  cheapness.  I  have  generally  used  and  have  hitherto  recom- 
mended from  12  to  15  parts  of  flour  to  one  of  green,  but  it  has  been  abun- 
dantly demonstrated  that,  if  the  green  be  pure,  it  may  be  diluted  with  25 
or  30  times  its  weight  and  still  be  effectual. 

Abundantly  as  this  mixture  has  been  used,  I  have  not  been  able  to 
learn  of  a  single  authenticated  case  of  poisoning  resulting  in  death,  except 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  13 

where  it  was  left  exposed  in  quantity  so  as  to  allow  animals  to  get  at  and 
eat  it.  A  few  cases  of  slight  poisoning  of  the  skin  have  occurred,  and  these 
might  have  been  avoided ;  and  perhaps  I  cannot  better  illustrate  how  small 
is  the  risk  of  its  judicious  use  in  the  field  with  the  precautions  given  in  my 
last  Eeport,  than  by  the  following  circumstance  which  came  under  my 
notice  :  Two  young  men  of  St.  Louis — Messrs.  August  Eeitemeyer  and  J. 
Fleming — were  daily  engaged,  through  the  greater  part  of  the  month  of 
May,  in  preparing  the  mixture  for  the  market.  They  became  unnecessarily 
careless  in  their  work,  and  were  actuallj'  living  in  an  atmosphere  heavily 
charged  with  the  dust,  while  their  clothing  was  saturated  with  it  through 
and  through.  Yet  they  experienced  no  ill  effects  from  it  till  about  the  first 
of  June,  when  the  weather  became  so  warm  that  they  begun  to  perspire. 

These  fticts  should,  however,  form  no  excuse  for  the  careless  use  of  the 
poison,  and  it  is  well  to  know  that  it  must  be  especially  guarded  against 
during  the  heat  of  the  day.  It  should,  in  fact,  always  be  dusted  in  the  cool 
of  the  morning  while  the  dew  is  on  the  plants. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  N.  Y.  Farmer's  Club,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Dr.  Eichard  Scuppernong,  who  has  had  much  experience  with  Paris  green, 
having  been  engaged  in  its  manufacture  with  the  firm  of  C.  T.  Eeynolds  & 
Co.  of  that  city.  Manufacturers  would  rather  make  and  sell  at  25  cents  per 
pound  in  winter  than  to  make  it  at  40  cents  per  pound  in  summer,  the  skin 
being  so  much  more  susceptible  to  its  effects,  during  the  latter  season.  Men 
do  not  ordinarily  work  at  its  manufacture  continuously  more  than  a  week 
at  a  time,  and  every  one  in  the  factory  is  obliged  to  take  an  occasional  anti- 
dote. Those  who  contemplate  using  it  on  their  potatoes  would  do  well  to 
procure  a  supply  in  the  winter  time,  as  they  would  thus  save  money.  Very 
much  depends  on  the  quantity  obtained,  and  none  but  that  of  a  deep  bright 
green  should  be  bought,  as  the  jjaler  brands  are  weaker  and  adulterated. 

Antidote  for  Paris  Green. — The  antidote  for  Paris  green  poison  is 
hydrated  sesquioxide  of  iron.  Nearly  every  druggist  keeps  it  always  on 
hand.  If  it  cannot  be  bought  it  may  be  prepared  thus : — Dissolve  copperas 
in  hot  water,  keep  warm,  and  add  nitric  acid  until  the  solution  becomes  yel- 
low; then  pour  in  ammonia  water — common  hartshorn — or  a  solution  of 
carbonate  of  ammonia,  until  a  brown  precipitate  falls.  Keep  this  precipi- 
tate moist  and  in  a  tightly  corked  bottle.  A  few  spoonfuls  taken  soou  after 
even  a  bad  case  of  poisoning  with  Paris  green  or  arsenic  is  a  per'ect  rem- 
edy. Every  farmer  who  uses  Paris  green  for  the  bugs  should  keep  this 
medicine  always  in  his  house. 

Other  Applications. — One  would  naturally  suppose  that  since  arsenic 
forms  one  of  the  principal  ingredients  of  Paris  green,  it  >  ould  also  kill 
potato  bugs,  with  the  advantage  of  being  much  cheaper.  With  a  view  of 
ascertaining  its  value  I  tried  it  last  spring,  but  with  no  sr.  ^sfactory  results. 
I  also  tried  powdered  cobalt  which  is  so  generally  used  to  kill  flies,  and  it 
likewise  failed  to  kill  with  anything  like  the  certaint.  which  Paris  green 
does.     White  hellebore  has  been  recommended,  by  th;    c  who  claim  to  have 


14  FOURTH   ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

been  benefitted  by  its  use ;  and  Mr.  Hay,  gardener  at  the  Illinois  Institution 
for  the  Education  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  says  that  he  has  found  that  black 
pepper  and  ashes  in  the  proportion  of  a  pound  of  pepper  to  the  pail-full  of 
ashes,  is  an  infallible  remedy.  How  reliable  this  last  may  be,  can  be  ascer- 
tained next  year,  but  at  present  I  can  safely  recommend  nothing  but  the 
mixture  of  green. 

Prom  a  series  of  experiments  made  last  summer  by  Messrs.  Wm.  Saun- 
ders and  E.  B.  Eeed,  of  London,  Ont.,  who  were  directed  by  the  Agricul- 
tural Department  to  institute  them,  we  also  learn  the  great  advantage  of  the 
green ;  and  as  the  results  of  these  experiments  are  interesting  and  important, 
I  quote  herewith  those  obtained  with  other  chemicals : 

Absenious  Acid  (Arsenic). — This  chemical  being  much  cheaper  than 
Paris  Green,  and  more  uniform  in  its  composition,  we  hoped  it  would  have 
proved  a  practical  and  safe  remedy.  We  tried  it  in  the  proportions  of  half 
ounce,  one  ounce  and  two  ounces  to  a  pound  of  flour,  and  while  we  are  not 
prepared,  from  the  few  trials  we  have  made,  to  entirely  disapprove  of  its 
use,  the  results  we  have  obtained  point  to  the  conclusion  that  where  it  has 
been  used  in  sufficiently  large  proportions  to  destroy  the  insect,  it  has  caused 
more  or  less  injury  to  the  leaves.  In  cases  where  Paris  Green  is  not  obtain- 
able, this  might  be  used  as  a  substitute,  in  the  proportion  of  one  ounce  to  one 
pound  flour,  which  should  always  be  colored  with  some  black  powder,  such 
as  charcoal  or  black  antimony,  so  as  to  lessen  the  risk  of  accident  from 
its  use. 

Another  Arsenical  compound  was  also  tested,  known  in  commerce  as 
Powdered  Cobalt  or  Fly  Poison ;  this  was  used  in  the  same  projDortions  as  the 
last  mentioned,  and  with  similar  results,  but  owing  to  its  higher  price  we  do 
not  recommend  it  for  general  use. 

Sulphate  of  Copper  (Blue  Stone). — A  strong  solution  of  this  salt  was 
tried  in  the  proportion  of  two  ounces  to  one  gallon  of  w^ater,  and  showered 
on  the  vines  with  a  watering  pot,  without  damage  to  either  the  insect  or 
the  plant. 

Bichromate  of  Potash. — This  is  a  poisonous  substance  largely  used  in 
dyeing,  and  one  which  has  attracted  some  attention  in  France  of  late,  as  a 
remedy  for  insects.  We  used  it  dissolved  in  water  in  the  proportion  of  two 
ounces  to  three  gallons  of  water.  This  killed  the  insects  effectually,  but  at 
the  same  time  destroyed  the  plants.  Whether,  in  a  more  diluted  form,  this 
remedy  could  be  effectively  used  without  injury  to  the  foliage,  w^e  are  unable 
at  present  to  say,  but  shall  experiment  further  with  it. 

Powdered  Hellebore. — This  powerful  irritant  which  is  so  effectual  as 
a  remedy  for  the  Currant  Worm  we  tried  without  perceptible  effect,  both  in 
powder  and  also  mixed  with  water,  in  the  proportion  of  one  ounce  to  the 
gallon  of  water.  Several  other  poisonous  substances  were  also  used  with 
like  results. 

Carbolate  of  Lime. — There  are  several  preparations  sold  under  this 
name,  which  w^e  found  to  vary  much  in  composition  and  character,  and  equally 
so  in  effect.  We  tried  an  article  known  as  Dougall's  without  any  good  re- 
sult, but  succeeded  better  with  one  prejjared  by  Lyman  Bros,  of  Toronto,  a 
black  powder  manufactured,  we  understand,  from  coal  tar.  This  destroyed 
a  large  proportion  of  the  larvae,  but  we  doubt  whether  it  would  kill  the  per- 
fect insect;  it  is,  moreover,  used  in  an  undiluted  form,  which  would  render 
its  cost  greater  than  that  of  the  Paris  Green  mixture,  so  we  see  no  advan- 
tage in  using  it,  although  the  fact  of  its  being  less  poisonous  may  induce  some 
to  try  it  who  are  prejudiced  against  Paris  Green. 

Ashes  and  Air-slacked  Lime,  we  found,  had  been  extensively  used  by 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


15 


many  of  the  farmers  on  the  frontier  districts,  but,  as  far  as  we  could  see  or 
leai-n,  without  any  perceptible  results. 

I  last  year  showed  how  futile  it  is  to  use  elder  leaves  as  a  remedy;  but  it 
is  so  easy  for  persons  who  are  not  thoroughl}'  posted  as  to  the  habits  of  this 
insect  to  form  wrong  conclusions  about  the  efficacy  of  whatsoever  application 
they  may  make  to  the  vines,  that  we  this  3-ear  find  the  sprinkling  of  a  decoc- 
tion made  from  Dog  fennel,  or  from  the  root  of  the  May  apple  or  Mandrake 
{Podophyllum  peltatuiii)  strongly  recommended  for  the  same  purpose.  Mr. 
John  Oliver,  of  Glencoe, — determined  to  fully  test  the  latter — went  to  consid- 
erable trouble  and  expense  to  jirocure  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  May  apple 
decoction  j  and  after  thoroughly  trying  it,  he  informs  me  that  it  had  no  effect 
in  killing  the  bugs.  Even  were  these  methods  successful,  they  could  not  be 
everywhere  employed,  and  must  always  prove  more  expensive  than  the 
Paris  green. 

"We  learn  from  the  JPrairie  Farmer  of  Chicago,  that  an  intelligent  Eussian 
gentleman  of  that  city  employs  the  following  method : 

He  takes  finely  pulverized,  air  slacked  lime,  commences  at  one  end  of 
the  field  and  scatters  it  over  the  vines  for  the  distance  of  about  ten  rods.  In 
the  course  of  the  day,  if  the  lime  is  applied  in  the  morning,  the  bugs  nearly 
all  betake  themselves  further  down  the  rows  where  no  lime  w^as  scattered. 
The  next  day  he  scatters  lime  on  the  vines  for  a  like  distance,  and  thus 
continues  day  by  day,  till  the  bugs  are  driven  on  to  a  small  area,  when  they 
are  destroyed  by  Paris  green  or  by  other  means. 

Mechanical  Means. — Various  contrivances  have  been  devised  for 
knoeking  the  bugs  off  the  vines.  Mr.  Geo.  Squires,  of  Montgomery,  111.,  as 
I  am  informed  by  Dr.  LeBaron,  built  a  machine  to  be  drawn  b}^  horses, 
which  worked  very  effectually  the  past  summer.  It  is  a  modification  of  that 
of  Mr.  Benson,  of  Iowa,  described  in  my  first  Eeport,  being  a  simple  box  six 
inches  high,  with  wheels  to  which  brooms  are  attached  to  sweep  the  vines — 
the  brooms  circling  towards  the  box. 

Mr.  Samuel  Creighton,  of  Lithopolis,  Ohio,  has 
been  kind  enough  to  frfrnish  me  with  an  "Improved 
Patent   Insect  Destroyer,"  which  is  especially  in- 
tended for  the  potato  bugs.     It  is  a  hand  machine  of 
a  very  simple  nature,  and  the  accompanying  outline, 
(Fig.  2.)  will  give  a  very  good  idea  of  it.     In  using,  it 
is  held  in  the  right  hand  by  the  handle  a,  and  placed 
at  one  side  of  the  potato  hill,  with  the 
upper  end  more  or  less  inclined,  according 
to  the  size  of  the  jjlants.     In  this  position 
the   lower   branches  of  the  plants  will 
overhang  the  forward  edge  of  the  plate 
d;  and  the  flanges'  of  the  sides,  cc,  which 
are  slightly  bent  outwards,  will  embrace 
the  second  and  third  sides  of  the  vines, 
leaving  the  fourth  exposed.     The  opera- 
tor then  strikes  this  exposed  side,  with  a 


[Fig.  -2.] 


16  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

light,  flat  and  broad  broom,  thus  detaching  the  bugs  which  fall  to  the  bottom 
of  the  trap.  Whenever  the  trap  is  filled  the  bugs  are  emptied  out  through 
a  sliding  door  b,  and  destroyed  in  whatever  manner  the  operator  sees  fit. 
A  good  size  for  this  trap  is  2  1-2  feet  in  height;  15  inches  from  flange  to 
flange  and  7  inches  across  the  narrow  way  of  the  pocket.  It  should  be  made 
of  tin  or,  if  of  wood,  the  pocket  should  be  lined  with  tin ;  as  when  kej^t  smooth 
or  moistened  with  oil  or  water  the  bugs  cannot  easily  crawl  out,  as  one  goes 
from  hill  to  hill.  This  contrivance  is  but  an  improvement  on  the  common 
tin  pan,  and  its  principal  merit  lies  in  its  simplicity  and  cheajDness. 

The  great  difliculty  with  all  mechanical  contrivances  of  this  kind,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  they  can  only  be  used  when  the  vines  are  of  a  considerable 
size,  whereas  the  enemy  must  be  most  j^ersistently  fought  from  the  moment 
the  ground  parts  to  give  way  to  the  sprouting  tuber,  until  the  plants  are  a 
few  inches  high.     Hence  the  great  advantage  of  Paris  green. 

A  cheap,  rapid  and  effective  method  which  commends  itself  to  the  good 
sense  of  every  one,  is  for  one  person  to  go  along  the  rows  with  a  short- 
handled  broom  and  by  quick  motions  knock  all  the  bugs  off,  while  a  second 
person  follows  immediately  after,  dragging  by  a  single  horse  a  heavy  bun- 
dle of  brush,  or  close-toothed  harrow  made  for  the  purjjose.  Some  of  the 
bugs  will  escape  being  killed,  and  a  few  of  the  younger  larvae  may  not  be 
knocked  off;  but  the  operation  is  so  rajDidly  performed  that  it  will  bear 
repetition  as  often  as  necessary. 

Natural  Enemies  increasing. — To  those  who  have  carefully  watched 
the  eastward  progress  of  this  insect,  the  manner  in  which  its  natural  ene- 
mies have  increased  in  number  and  kind  is  interesting  and  significant.  In 
previous  Eeports  fourteen  cannibal  or  parasitic  insects,  specially  observed 
to  attack  it  in  one  state  or  another  have  been  figured,  and  I  am  now  able 
to  add  seven  more  to  the  list.  The  toad,  and  perhaps  some  other  reptiles 
devour  them,  and  among  birds  the  ci'ow  has  been  observed  to  do  so. 
Among  domesticated  birds,  the  duck  was  for  several  years  the  only  species 
that  would  touch  it,  and  chickens  for  a  long  time  would  invariably  give  it 
the  go-by.  Last  year  I  stated  that  chickens  had  learned  to  eat  the  eggs,  and 
had  even  acquired  a  taste  for  the  young  larvae;  but  this  year  cases  are 
numerous,  in  various  parts  of  the  countiy,  where  the  beetles,  as  well  as  the 
larvce  and  eggs  have  been  devoured  by  them.  I  know  of  one  case  near  St. 
Louis  where,  with  a  few  specimens  of  the  common  May  Beetle,  no  less  than 
thirty-one  perfect  specimens  of  the  Colorado  Beetles  were  found  in  the  crop 
of  one  chicken ;  while  in  another  instance,  in  the  same  neighborhood,  the 
chickens  forsook  every  other  kind  of  food  for  these  nauseous  insects.  In 
these  instances  the  chickens  have  taken  naturally  to  the  new  food,  but  it 
has  been  shown  (See  Dr.  Brown,  Trans.  Ind.  Hbrt.  Soc,  1871,  p.  81)  that 
they  may  easily  be  taught  to  like  it,  by  first  shutting  them  up  and,  after 
denying  them  all  animal  food  for  about  ten  days,  turning  them  into  an 
infested  potato  field  and  keeping  them  there.  Indeed,  coops  may  be  taken 
into  such  a  field,  and  young  chickens  raised  there  to  good  advantage.  To 
these  birds  we  may  also  add  that  blithe  and  pretty  field  companion  whose 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


17 


services  as  an  insect  devourer  have  been  altogether  too  much  underrated — 
the  common  quail.  A  correspondent  of  the  Rural  New  Yorker  from  Onargo, 
111.,  found  six  Colorado  Potato  Beetles  in  the  crop  of  one  that  was  killed  on 
his  place.  Among  quadrupeds,  Dr.  LeBaron  has  shown  good  reason  for 
believing  that  the  skunk  likewise  preys  upon  them.  As  it  is  also  known 
to  destroy  great  quantities  of  the  common  AVhite  Grub,  and  to  clean  tomato 
patches  of  the  Tomato  Worm,  this  much  abused  beast  in  a  measure  compen- 
sates for  its  Avell  known  disagreeable  attributes. 

Among  spiders  we  may  mention  an  undetermined  species  of  Phalan- 
gium(Fig.  S  re-presents  P.  dorsatum,  Say).      These   animals   are   popularly 


[Fig.  3.] 


called  "__ Grand-Daddy-Long-Legs  "  in  this  couiitr}-,  but  are  also  known|]as 
"  Harvest-men "  and  "  Grandfather-Gray-Beards,"  in  some  parts.  They 
all  have  similar  habits,  being  carnivorous  and  seizing  their  prey  very  much 
as  a  cat  seizes  a  mouse ;  but  they  differ  from  other  sjiiders  in  that  they  bod- 
ily devour  their  victims,  instead  of  sucking  out  their  juices.  They  are 
known  to  devour  great  numbers  of  plant-lice,  and  Mr.  Arthur  Bryant,  of 
Princeton,  111.,  found  them  devouring  the  larvae  of  our  Colorado  immi- 
grants. 

But  the  most  important  of  our  auxiliai-ies  to  be  added  to  this  list  of 
natural  enemies  of  the  Doryphora  are  to  be  found  in  its  own  Class.  They 
consist  of  the  following  species  : 

The  15-Spotted  Ladybird. — This  may  be  known  as  the  large  15-spotted 
2 


18 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


Lrtdybird  (Mysia  15- 

'inmctafa,  Oliv.)    It  is 

the    largest    of    the 

ladybirds     that     we 

have,  and   the   oi\\y 

other  species  of  the 

Family  in  this  coun-     _      --  ^^^. 

try  that  is  larger,  is  ^-/^ 

the  Northern  Squash-beetle  (Epilachna  borealis) — a  species  which  has  the 

wing-covers  spotted  in  a  somewhat  similar  manner,  but  which  I  have  not 

yet  met  with  in  Missouri.     The  15-spotted  Ladybird  is  a  very  variable 

insect,  and  at  d,  e,  f  and  g  (Fig.  4),  are  represented  four  of  the  more  striking 

forms.     In  the  more  common  form  the  thorax  is  cream-colored  and  the 

wing-covers  cream-colored,  with  a  tinge  of  chocolate.     In  this  form  (d)  the 

black  spots  and  marks  are  consj^icuous.     In  the  next  form  (e)  the  thorax 

remains  the  same,  but  the  wing-covers  are  chocolate-brown  and  the  black 

ppots  ar.e  surrounded  with  a  paler  brown  annulation.     In  the  third  form 

(/)the  thorax  is  a  little  darker,  and  the  wing-covers  so  dark  that  the  spots 

Are  scarcely  perceptible;  while  in  the  fourth  form  the  whole  insect  is  of  a 

uniform  deep  brown-black  color. 

The  larva  of  this  beetle  (Fig.  4,  a)  is  jet  black,  with  six  rows  of  long 
spines  and  six  long  black  legs.  It  has  a  paler  yellowish  stripe  along  each 
«ide,  intercej^ted  by  two  bright  orange  spots  behind  the  legs,  and  there  is 
also  an  orange  sj)ot  on  the  back  of  the  flattened  first  joint  (c).  I  found  this 
black  fellow  devouring  the  young  potato  bugs  last  May  at  Allenton,  and  my 
friends  E.  B.  Eeed  and  Wm.  Saunders,  of  London,  Ontario,  have  found  the 
beetle  at  the  same  commendable  work  in  Canada.  When  about  to  change, 
this  larva  fastens  itself  to  the  plant  and  changes  to  a  cream-yellow  pupa, 
marked  with  black,  as  at  Figure  4,  b.  . 


The  Icy  Ladybird. — This  species  {Hippodamia  glacialis,  Fabr.)  which 
was  doubtless  so  named  from  occurring  so  far  north,  where  it  is  often  found 
under  ice  and  snow,  has  likewise  been  seen  in  great  numbers  carrying  on 
the  [same  commendable  work.  Figure  5  represents  it  of  the  natural  size, 
IFig.  5.]  the  wing-covers  being  of  a  bright  orange-red,  each  marked  behind 
with  three  black  spots,  the  two  upper  of  which  are  confluent.  The 
.  ,  head  and  thorax  are  black  marked  with  cream-yellow  as  in  the 
'^  illustration.  The  species  is  closely  allied  to  the  Convergent  Lady- 
bird (ditfering  principally  in  being  nearly  twice  as  large,  and  in  lacking  the 
spots  on  the  anterior  portion  of  the  wing-covers),  and  will  be  found  to  have 
similar  transformations.* 


The  Eing-banded  Soldier-bug. — The  third  of  these  new  friends  of  the 


♦See  1st  Rep.  Fig.  52. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


19 


f 


potato  grower  is  a  prettil}'  marked  in.seet — a  genuine 
Bug — belonging  to  the  same  extensive  group  (Scuttel- 
Jera  family)  of  the  true  Bugs  (Heteroptero)  as  the  8pined 
Soldier-bug,  which  is  now  so  \v(ill  known  for  its  efficiency 
in  thinning  out  the  ranks  of  our  potato  pest,  and  which 
was  illustrated  in  my  first  Report  (Fig.  54). 

The  Eing-banded  Soldier-bug  (Pen'Uus  circumcinc- 
tt<s.  Stal.)Avhich  is  illustrated  at  Figure  5  (b  showing  an  enlarged  view  of  its 
antenna  and  c  of  the  beak  with  which  it  sucks  the  juices  of  its  prey),  is  of 
a  rich  polished  brown  color,  marked  as  in  the  figure,  with  pale  yellow. 
Underneath,  on  the  venter,  there  is  a  large  yellow  patch  containing  four 
Mack  spots  quadrangularly  arranged,  and  there  is  a  border  of  yellow  extend- 
ing around  the  edge  of  the  whole  body.  It  is  a  not  uncommon  species  in 
Missouri,  and  was  found  by  Mr.  Eeed,  of  London,  Ontario,  preying 
voraciously  upon  potato  bugs. 

These  three  species  are  so  conspicuously  marked  that  they  can  be  easily 
recognized.     Wherever  found  let  them  be  kindly  dealt  with! 
The  fourth  species  to  be  added  may  be  popularly  known  as 

The  Dotted-legged  Plant-bug.— This  insect  (Eiischistus  pimctipes,  Say, 
Fig.  7)  is  minutely  speckled  and  of  an 
ochre-yellow  color,  and  so  closely  re- 
sembles the  Spined  Soldier-bug  that  I 
reproduce  the  illustration  (Fig.  8)  of 
this  last  to  contrast  with  it.  The  most 
obvious  features  whereby  to  distin- 
guish these  two  insects  are  those  fiir- 
iiished  by  the  figures,  namely,  the  more  flattened  form  of  the  Soldier-bug 
(Fig.  8)  and  especially  of  its  squarish  head,  compared  to  the  Plant-bug  (Fig. 
Tj;  and  the  sharp-pointed  thorax  of  the  former  compared  to  the  more  round- 
ed thorax  of  the  latter.  This  last  character  is  variable,  in  both,  so  that  spec- 
imens of  the  former  occur  with  the  thorax  rounded,  and  of  the  latter  with 
it  more  pointed ;  but  there  are  two  other  structural  diiferences  which  are  al- 
ways constant  and  can  always  be  relied  on  to  distinguish  the  two  insects.  If 
the  Spined  Soldier-bug  be  examined  underneath,  its  beak  (Fig.  8,  a)  will  be 
found  to  be  quite  stout,  especially  at  the  base,  and  between  the  hind  legs  at 
the  base  of  the  venter,  a  prominent  tooth  pointing  towards  the  head  will 
be  noticed.  This  last  feature  is  entirely  absent  in  the  Plant-bug;  while  the 
more  slender  beak  (Fig.  6,  c)  of  the  latter,  the  average  larger  size,  the 
black-dotted  legs,  and  the  absence  of  the  opaque  brown  streak  at  the  trans- 
parent and  glassy  tip  of  the  wing-cases,  or  hemelytra,  combine  to  distin- 
guish it  still  further  from  its  more  ferocious  simile. 

The  Dotted-legged  Plant-bug  has  heretofore  been  considered  a  purely 
vegetable  feeder,  and  its  being  caught  partaking  of  more  carnivorous  food 
must  be  considered  exceptional.  It  is  however  an  interesting  fact,  entomo- 
logically  considered,  and  shows  that  the  carnivorous  is  not  so  widely  sepa- 
rated from  the  herbivorous  habit  as  we  are  wont  to  suppose.     Many  other 


20  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

facts  of  a  similar  nature  might  be  cited,  some  of  which  have  been  already- 
mentioned  in  these  rej)orts ;  and  it  has  long  been  known  to  entomologists 
that  Bugs  of  this  particular  Scutellera  family  which  normally  are  plant- 
feeders,  will  yet  attack  other  soft-bodied  insects  when  opportunity  offers. 

According  to  Dr.  LeBaron,  there  is  some  evidence,  not  yet  sufficiently 
conclusive  however,  that  the  Tarnished  Plant-bug  (Rep.  If,  Fig.  83)  also 
feeds  on  the  Dorj^phora  larvfe. 

While  touching  upon  the  Spined  Soldier-bug,  it  will  be  well,  j^erhaps^ 
to  state  that  though,  with  all  true  Bugs,  its  larva  and  pupa  are  active,  and 
have  the  same  habits  and  general  form  of  the  mature  insect,  yet  they  differ 
so  much  in  coloration  and  pattern,  that  they  are  scarcely 
ever  properlj'  identified  and  have  often  been  sent  to  me 
as  a  new  Potato  bug  enemy  by  those  who  have  found 
them  boldl}^  carrying  out  theii-  naturally  voracious  in- 
^  -^  <^  a^  \^  stincts. 
The  eggs  of  this  Soldier  Bug,  as  I  have  good  reason  to  believe,  are 
pretty  little  bronze-colored,  caldron-shaped  objects,  with  a  convex  lid^ 
around  which  ciliate  fifteen  or  sixteen  white  spines  (Fig.  9,  c).  They  are 
neatly  placed  side  by  side  in  clusters  of  a  dozen  or  more,  to  leaves  and  other 
objects,  and  are  so  much  subject  to  the  attacks  of  a  minute  Hymenopterous 
parasite,  that  those  who  undertake  to  hatch  such  as  are  found  out  of  doors 
will  more  often  get  flies  than  bugs.  The  newly-hatched  bug  is  ovoid,  and 
shiny  black,  with  some  bright  crimson  about  the  abdomen.  In  the  full 
grown  larva  (Fig.  9,  b)  the  black  still  predominates  on  the  thorax  but  some 
four  yellowish  spots  appear,  and  the  abdomen  becomes  more  yellow- 
ish, though  still  tinted  with  red.  In  the  pu])a  (Fig.  9  a)  which  is  readily 
distinguished  by  the  little  wing  pads,  the  ochreous-yellow  extends  still  more^ 
and  finally,  with  the  last  moult,  the  black  disappears  entirely^  in  the  perfe  ct 
insect.  Throughout  the  immature  stages  the  shoulders  are  rounded,  and  not 
pointed,  and  the  antenna  or  feelers  have  but  four  joints  instead  of  five  as  in 
the  mature  bug,  while  there  are  but  two  visible  joints  to  the  feet  or  tarsi  in- 
stead of  three.  * 

We  have  been  taught  to  admire  the  muscular  power  of  the  lion,  which 
is  enabled  to  grip  and  toss  an  animal  larger  than  itself  with  its  powerful  neck 
and  jaws ;  but  feats  performed  by  these  young  Soldier  Bugs,  throw  the  lion's 
strength  completely  in  the  shade,  for  they  may  often  be  seen  running  nim- 
bly with  a  Boryphora  larva,  four  or  five  times  their  own  size,  held  high  in  air 
upon  their  outstretched  beak. 


♦These  facts  do  not  seem  to  be  t^enerallv  known,  but  I  believe  it  will  be  found  a  very  genemlrule 
that  iu  the  larval  and  pupal  slates,"  all  the  Scutelleridce  have  one  joint  less  to  the  antenna;  and  tarsi. 
Westwood  mentions  the  fact  with  reference  to  Pentatoma  riifipcs  of  Europe,  but,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
it  is  not  mentioned  bv  Douglas  &  Scott,  Amyot  &  Serville,  or  any  other  authors.  With  regard  to  the 
tarsi,  the  small  third  joint  may  perhaps  be  detected  upon  dissection,  especially  in  the  pupa,  but  the 
antenna;  are  never  more  than  ibur-jointed  in  such  species  as  I  have  had  opportunity  to  study  m  the 
preparatory  staires,  namely,  Arma  spinosa,  Dallas;  Brochymciia  annulata,  Fa.br .  •.  Stiretrxisfimbriatus, 
Say,  Euscliistus'^punctipes,  Sav.  It  is  the  second  joint  of  both  the  antenn;e  and  the  tarsi,  in  the  larva 
and  pupa,  which  elongates  and  divides  in  the  perfect  insect.  [Since  the  above  was  written,  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  examining  Mr.  Uhler's  collection  of  Hemiptera  at  Baltimore,  and  I  noticed  that  the 
same  trait  occurs  in  the  larva  and  pupa  oi  Rhaphig aster  and  Nazara.  Mr.  R.  had. also  noticed  thi^ 
physiological  peculiarity  of  the  Scvtelleridce. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


21 


The  fifth  additional  enemy  of  our  Potato  bug  is  the  Nebraska  Bee- 
killer  (Fromachus  Bastardii,  Loew.)  *  This  active  and  savage  two-winged 
fly  was  observed  by  Mr.  A.  E.  Whitney,  of  Franklin  Grove,  111.,  to  seize  and 
carry  off  the  mature  beetles,  as  we  are  informed  by  Dr.  LeBaron.  The  Mis- 
souri Bee-killer  (Asilus  Missouriensis,  Eiley)  would  doubtless  do  likewise, 
though  the  fact  has  not  yet  been  observed;  and  neither  of  these- flies  would 
be  likely  to  kill  Potato  bugs  enough  to  atone  for  their  pernicious  bee-killing 

propensities. 

The  sixth  is  the  Kansas  Bombardier  beetle  {Brachimis  Kansanns,  Lee) 
—an  insect  bearing  a  general  resemblance  to  the  Great  Lebia  (3d  Eep.,  Fig. 
41)  but  being  one-third  larger  and  more  lengthened,  and  with  the  wing-cov- 
ers of  a  duller,  less  polished  blue.  The  beetles  of  this  genus  all  have  the 
power  of  discharging  from  the  anus,  when  disturbed,  an  acrid  fluid  of  so 
volatile  a  nature,  that  upon  coming  in  contact  with  the  air,  it  tenuates  with 
an  explosive  noise  and  pungent  smell,  and  hides  the  beetle  in  a  bluish  va- 
por which  enables  the  little  artilleryman  to  effect  his  escape.  The  species 
in  question,  was  found  attacking  the  Colorado  Potato  bug  larvae,  by  Mr. 
Thos.  Wells,  of  Manhattan,  Kansas,  who  furnished  me  with  specimens  for 
identification. 

Lastly,  we  may;add  a  species  of  Eove-beetle,  belonging  to  the  genus 
Fhilonihus.  An  undescribed  species  of  this  genus  was  found  by  Dr.  Shimer 
maliciously  killing  the  Doryphora  larvse  in  one  of  his  breeding  cages.  ^There 
is  no  evidence  yet,  however,  that  it  follows  the  same  habit  when  free  in  the 
field.  The  particular  species  noticed  by  Dr.  Shimer  was  in  the  Walsh  cabi- 
net, which  was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  at  Chicago,  but  to  give  the  reader 
a  correct  idea  of  this  genus  of  insects  I  present  a  figure  of  Fhilonihus  apicalis, 
Say  (Fig.  10).  The  larva  are  active  and  voracious  and  bear  considerable 
resemblance  to  the  perfect  insects.  Figure  11  is  ta-  [Fig.  ii.] 
ken  from  Westwood  and  shows  that  of  Goerius  olens.  '/tV 
The  pupsB  are  quiescent  and  incapable  of  motion,  all  \>y/' 
"  the  parts  being  soldered  together  and  encased  almost  f^'Zl^ 
as  firmly  as  in  the  chrysalis  of  a  butterfly.  The  head 
and  pro-thorax  are  suddenly  bent  forwards,  the  former 
touching  the  breast  j  and  the  back  is  curiously  flat- 
tened. Figure  12  represents  the  pupa  of  an  allied 
insect*  found  ,in  the  ground  and  from  which  I  bred  Quedius 
[Fig.  1-2.]    molochinus,  Grav.     The  rove-beetles  are,  as  a  general  rule,  car- 

rrion  feeders,  preying  voraciously  on    decaying  animal  and  veg- 
etable substances ;  but  some  of  them  are  true  cannibals,  while  a 
few  are  even  parasitic.     Indeed  they  are  no  doubt  more  carnivor- 
ous than  is  generally  supposed.^ 
«        Thus  we  have  twenty-one  enemies  of  its  own  Class,  that  have 

•  See  first  Rep. ,  p.  168,  and  second  Rep. ,  p.  122. 

+  This  nuna  is  yeUowish-brown  in  color.  Dorsum  perfectly  flat  with  the  sides  compressed  and 
iiarrow-edffXFlrstTbdominal  joint  with  a  lateral  spine;  second  with  a  larger,  blunter,  roimded 
taWe-  elch  of  the  others  with  a  stiff  bristle :  apical  joint  with  two  converging  thorns.  Abdomi- 
nal joints  2,  3  and  4  with  a  tubercle  each  side  of  dorsum. 

+  It  is  well  known  that  these  larva;  are  diflicult  to  rear  to  the  perfect  state,  and  one  reason  no 
doubt  is  th^t  they  Ire  often  adephagous  in  habit,  and  are  too  generally  ti-eated  as  rypophagoiu* 


22  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

actually  been  observed  preying  on  the  Colorado  Potato-beetle,  a  round 
score  of  which  have  been  figured ;  but  the  one  true  parasite  is  undoubt- 
edly more  efficient  than  any  of  the  others. 


THE  CODLIISTG  MOTH,  AGAIN. 

A  few  additional  and  important  facts  in  connection  with  the  manage- 
ment of  this  insect,  have  come  to  light  during  the  year  just  past,  and  are 
worthy  of  record. 

Time  of  Year  that  the  first  Moths  appear. — To  make  the  state- 
ment answer  for  any  latitude,  what  was  said  in  my  first  Eeport  may  be 
safely  relied  on,  namely,  that  the  moths  begin  to  appear  as  soon  as  the 
apple  trees  are  in  bloom.  Egg-laying  commences  soon  after  apples  form. 
Of  course,  the  time  of  blossoming  vai"ies  slightly  with  the  variety ;  but  the 
time  of  issuing  of  the  moths  varies  still  more,  so  that  the  statement  holds 
good.  As  the  seasons  vary  from  two  to  three  weeks,  or  even  a  month,  in 
relative  earliness,  and  as  the  appearance  of  the  moths  varies  accordingly,, 
the  futility  of  giving  exact  dates  becomes  apparent. 

Time  required  for  its  Development. — Having  bred  some  moths  near)}' 
every  year  for  ten  yeai's,  in  different  localities,  I  can  safely  give  the  follow- 
ing as  the  average  length  of  time  required  in  the  adolescent  stages  of  the 
first  brood;  but  which,  of  course,  do  not  hold  good  in  the  second  brood,, 
which  hibei-nates : — Egg  state,  4 — 10  days ;  larva  or  worm  state,  25 — 30  days 
outside  and  3  inside  cocoon;  pupa  state,  12 — 18  days.  Little  can  be  gained 
by  isolated  experiments,  because  the  length  of  time  required  varies  accord- 
ing to  the  state  of  the  atmosphere,  temperature,  etc. 

Proper  Time  to  commence  applying  the  Bandage  around  the  Tree. — 
I  have  heretofore  given  the  first  of  June  as  the  proper  time  to  commence 
applying  the  bandages,  but  late  experience  would  lead  me  to  advise  their 
application  nearly  two  weeks  earlier.  For  reasons  already  stated  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  give  dates  with  any  degree  of  accuracy,  and  the  best  advice  that  ean 
be  given  is  to  have  the  bandages  on  the  trees  about  a  week  after  the 
first  Wilson's  Albany  strawberries  are  ripe.  It  is  of  no  use  to  put  them 
on  earlier  with  a  view  to  entrap  the  moths,  as  I  am  convinced  that  these 
cannot  be  entrapped  in  sufficient  numbers  to  make  it  pay.  The  bands 
should  be  removed  and  the  insects  destroyed  at  least  once  a  fortnight  from 
this  time  till  the  apples  are  all  off  the  tree. 

It  attacks  Peaches. — Ijast  year  (3rd  Eep.  p.  103)  I  gave  reasons  for 
believing  that  this  insect  had  attacked  peaches  in  some  parts  of  the  State, 
and  had,  according  to  Mr.  Huron  Burt,  infested  three-fourths  of  the  crop 
around  Williamsbui-g.  I  am  now  able  to  say  positively  that  the  insect  men- 
tioned is  the  genuine  Codling  Moth,  as  Mr.  Burt  has  since  furnished  me 
with  specimens  of  the  worms.     Thus,  Ave  have  a  second  example  in  this 

Goerius  olens  of  Europe  is  noted  for  it*  rapacious  character,  and  Philonthus  may  now  be  included  ia 
this  category.  Westvvood  (Int.  II,  p.  164)  cites  Velleius  dilatatus  us  parasitic  in  the  nests  of  Vegpii 
crabro,  and  other  smaU  species  of  the  genera  Dinarda  and  LojncchusaAs  residing  in  the  nests  of  ants. 
Mr.  Fred.  Smith  (ibid,  p.  365,  note)  found  a  species  of  Megarlhrus  \)M-a,sitic  on  the  larva  of  Saperda 
populnea  while  Alcochora  anthomyix,  Sprague  (Am.  p]nt.  II.,  p.  370)  is  parasitic  in  the  larva;  of 
Anthoinyia  brassica. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


2S 


same  species  of  an  insect  normally  confined  to  pip-fruit,  all  at  once  taking 
to  stone-fruit,  and  thus  acquiring  a  new  habit.  Yet,  so  far  as  \ve  now  know, 
the  stone-fruit-feeding  branch  is  yet  confined  to  plums  around  London,  Ont., 
and  to  peaches  around  Williamsburg,  Mo. 

The  kind  of  Bandage  that  is  best  for  the  Purpose. — There  has  been 
some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  best  form  of  bandage  to  be  used.     To 
be  thoroughly  effectual  and  durable  it  should  be  sufficiently  firm  in  texture 
that  it  cannot  be  too  easily  cut  through  by  the  jaws  of  the  worm,  or  drawn 
in  folds  and  wrinkles  by  its  silken  threads.     A  stout  and  narrow  piece  of 
cloth  or  canvas,  drawn  around  and  fastened  to  the  tree  by  a  tack,  is  per- 
haps the  simplest  form  of  bandage  and  the  most  quickly  fastened.     Mr.  Jas. 
Weed  of  Muscatine,  Iowa,  (Western  Pom.  Sep.  70)  uses  strips  of  cloth  1  1-2 
inches  wide.     But  every  one  must  decide  for  himself  what  will  be  cheapest 
and  most  expedient,  according  to  the  extent  of  his  orchard  and  the  facility 
with  which  he  can  procure  rags,  cloth,  haybands,  or  other  substances.     A 
good  bandage,  ready  made,  is  greatly  needed  in  the  country,  and  if  some 
enterprising  firm  would  manufacture  canvas  strips  about  six  inches  wide^ 
lined  on  one  side  with  four  inches  of  tow,  cotton  wadding,  or  some  other 
loose  material,  and  would  put  it  upon  the  market  at  a  reasonable  price  per 
yard,  there  would  be  an  unlimited  demand  for  it.     Such  strips  would  last 
for  years,  and  could  be  cut  of  any  desired  length,  drawn  around  and  tacked, 
with  little  labor,  to  each  tree ;  while,  by  smearing  with  tar  or  molasses,  it 
might  also  be  made  to  do  good  service,  after  the  apple  worm  season,  in  those 
orchards  infested  with  the  Canker-worm.     The  advantage  of  the  looser, 
thicker   inside   lining  (which   should   however   be   closely  and  compactly 
pressed)  would  be  that  it  would  enable  us  to  fill  up  all  the  inequalities  of 
the  bark,  so  as  to  absolutely  prevent  the  young  Canker-worms,  as  well  as 
the  moths,  from  ascending ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  would  furnish  a  most 
enticing  substance  for  the  Apple-worm  to  spin  up  in. 

New  methods  of  trapping.     Thomas  Wier's  Apple-worm  Trap. — Mr. 
Thos.  Wier  of  Lacon,  111.,  has  hit  upon  a  very  simple  device  for  alluring  the 

worms,  which  is  destined  to 
play   an    important    role    in 
'    counterworking   their    injur- 
r£  ies.     In  conjunction  with  his 
'    cousin,  Mr.  D.   B.   Wier,  he 
has   patented    the   trap,   and 
though  I   do  not   think  that 
the  patenting  of  such  simple 
devices  is  quite  in  accordance- 
with  a   progressive   horticul- 
tural spirit,  or  that  the  paten- 
'»  tees  will  find  it  a  very  profit- 
able undertaking,  they  have  a 
[    perfect  right  to  think  other- 
wise. 


24  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

It  was  too  late  in  the  season  when  the  trap  was  brought  to  my  notice, 
to  give  it  a  thorough  trial,  but  I  was  at  once  very  favorably  impressed  with 
its  usefulness,  and  what  little  I  have  seen  of  its  work  has  not  altered  that 
impression. 

The  trajD  (Fig.  13,  A  closed,  B  open,)  consists  simply  of  two,  three  or  more 
thin  pieces  of  board,  12  to  20  inches  in  length,  and  2  to  4  inches  wide, 
with  a  screw  (a)  through  their  center.  The  screw  must  be  long  enough 
to  be  firmly  driven  into  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  so  as  to  hold  the  boards  in  po- 
sition. The  boards  are  cut  out  on  each  side  of  the  screw,  as  at  c,  to  facili- 
tate their  separation  when  fastened  together  by  the  silken  threads  of  the 
worms,  and  so  as  to  better  expose  the  latter  when  the  trap  is  opened. 

The  advantages  of  this  trap,  to  my  mind,  may  briefly  be  stated  as  fol- 
lows, and  I  think  they  so  far  outbalance  the  disadvantages  that  it  may  be 
considered  the  best  trap  we  yet  have  :  It  is  cheap,  accessible  to  all,  easily 
placed  on  the  tree  and  removed  again ;  wood  forms,  perhaps,  the  most  nat- 
ural covert  for  the  worms ;  the  traps  may  be  collected  with  little  trouble  by 
the  barrowfull,  submitted  to  a  killing  heat,  in  one  way  or  another,  and  re- 
placed again ;  they  may  be  used  on  the  ground  as  well  as  on  the  tree.  Its 
disadvantages  are  few.  One  it  has  in  common  with  all  other  snares  or  traps 
for  this  insect,  namely,  that  it  can  never  exterminate  the  Codling  moth,  for 
the  several  reasons  given  in  previous  Reports.  Another  is  that  where  one 
only  is  used  it  can  be  attached  to  but  one  side  of  the  tree,  and  in  this  single 
respect,  notwithstanding  all  the  theories  of  my  friend  Wier,  it  must  always 
be  inferior  to  any  trap  that  encircles  the  tree. 

The  worms  will  spin  their  cocoons  between  the  inner  shingle  and  the 
tree  as  freely  as  between  the  shingles  themselves,  and  I  suspect  that  it  will 
be  found  less  tedious  and  cheaper  to  detach  the  traps  and  kill  the  worms  by 
wholesale,  than  to  open  them  on  the  tree.  Those  who  prefer  the  latter 
method,  will  be  pleased  to  learn  of  the  means  described  by  Mr.  D.  B.  Wier, 
who  says :  "  The  quickest  and  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  have  a  large  tin  pan 
bent  in  on  one  side,  so  as  to  fit  closely  to  the  trunk  of  the  tree.  When  you 
reach  the  tree  drop  upon  your  knees,  place  the  depression  in  the  pan  against 
the  trunk  of  the  tree,  hold  it  there  by  pressing  j'our  body  against  it,  and 
you  have  both  hands  free  to  open  the  trap.  When  opening  it  many  of  the 
pup£e  or  chrysalids  will  fall  into  the  j)an  and  some  of  the  worms.  Kill  the 
rest  or  scrape  them  into  the  pan.  The  trap  must  be  turned  clear  around,  as 
many  will  be  found  between  it  and  the  bark  of  the  tree.  A  person  will 
open  and  kill  the  worms  in  from  400  to  800  traps  in  a  day." 

The  inventor  informed  me  that  he  believes  his  trap  is  more  apt  to  come 
into  general  use  by  being  patented,  than  if  offered  without  price  to  the  pub- 
lic. If  in  his  hope  to  realize  a  fortune  from  it,  he  sends  out  agents  among 
the  fruit-growers  of  the  country,  I  am  not  sure  but  he  is  correct ;  especially 
if  such  agents  are  enabled,  by  proper  circulars  giving  a  true  and  condensed 
history  of  the  Codling  moth,  to  disseminate  important  information.  But 
the  danger  is,  that  patentees  are  sure  to  claim  too  much  for  their  pet 
creations.     This  fact  is  well  exemplified  in  the  present  instance,  for  already 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  25 

Mr  Wier  absurdly  claims  that  all  the  worms  descending  a  tree  will  be  en- 
ticed to  the  side  where  the  trap  happens  to  be  fastened,  and  the  label  pasted 
on  such  of  the  traps  as  have  so  far  been  sent  out,  commences  as  follows : 

THOS.  WIEE'S 

APPLE  WORM 

AND 

OXJRCXJLIO    TRAP, 

Which   catches  Apple   Worms,   Curculio,  and  every  species  of  insect  infesting 

Fruit.l!!!] 
The  love  of  gain  obscures  the  light  of  truth;  and  this  wonderful  power 
of  a  pair  of  shingles  to  catch  "  every  species  of  insect  infestmg  fruit,  is  alto- 
gether too  much  like  Mi-.  Quackenbosh's  patent  universal,  never-failmg 
Elixir  which  cures  all  diseases  that  possess  mankind  !  It  will  not  deceive 
the  well  informed,  but  the  glittering  of  its  panaceal  power  may  lure  the  un- 

sophisticated.  , 

Other  evils  will  likewise  result  from  the  sale  of  this  trap  under  such 
spurious  claims,  and  without  some  explanation  of  the  insect's  habits.  One 
ofthemmaybe  illustrated  by  the  following  dialogue,  which  is  not  alto- 
gether imaginary,  but  is  founded  on  an  actual  occurrence:  Agent  bam- 
greedy-his  desire  to  sell  rights  being  stronger  than  his  love  of  accur^j— 
meets  farmer  Glauball,  and  straightway  expatiates  upon  the  merits  of  the 
patent  trap.  He  shows  how  the  worms  gnaw  their  way  m  between  the 
shingles,  and  how  easily  they  may  be  destroyed.  "  Ach,"  cries  the  credu- 
lous German,  "und  is  it  treu  das  de  wurm  rader  eat  de  schmdel  als  de  ap- 
fel  "  "  Oh  yes  "  says  Gaingreedy,  "  screw  one  of  the  traps  on  to  this  tree, 
and  in  a  week  I  will  come  back,  and  you  will  see."  At  the  expiration  of 
the  week,  the  trap  is  opened,  and  upon  viewing  with  wonder  the  worms  that 
have  secreted  in  it,  Glauball  rapturously  exclaims,  "Mein  Gott,  das  ist  de 
best  ting  I  yet  see,"  and  purchases  the  right  to  use  much  quicker  than  he 
would  if  he  knew  that  the  worms  had  already  been  in  his  apples. 

It  may  be  claimed  that  so  long  as  men  can  be  induced  to  use  the  trap,  and 
kill  the  worms  regularly,  it  matters  little  whether  or  not  they  understand 
the  philosophy  of  its  use;  but,  barring  the  principle  at  stake,  the  spread  of 
error  can  never  be  fraught  with  any  continued  good;  and  as  errors  on  this 
subject  are  continually  creeping  into  our  best  horticultural  journals,  it  be- 
comes patent  that  it  is  not  the  credulous  German  alone  who  needs  correct 
rather  than  bogus  information. 

I  have  thus  indicated  the  mischief  that  may  be  done  by  over-estimating 
the  value  of  this  trap,  in  order  that  the  patentees  may  strip  it  of  all  appear- 
ance of  sham,  and  present  it  to  the  fi-uit-grower  for  what  it  is— a  very  useful 
and  important  device— and  not  extol  it  as  a  sure  Codling  moth  exterminator. 

Jarring.— It  is  well  known  to  all  those  who  have  had  any  experience 
with  this  insect,  that  the  young  apples  infested  with  the  early  brood  of 
larvffi  fall  much  more  readily  from  the  tree  than  the  more  mature  apples  in- 
fested with  the  later  brood.     This  fact  has  been  denied  by  those  whose 


26  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

interests  incline  them  to  theorize  in  a  different  waj',  but  the  bushels  of  wind- 
falls that  cover  the  ground  early  in  the  year,  under  trees  that  are  badly 
troubled  with  the  worms,  are  sufficient  attestation  of  the  fact.  Working 
upon  this  well  known  fact,  Mr.  Oliver  Chapin,  of  East  Bloomfield,  N.  Y.,  has 
been  in  the  habit  of  jarring  down  these  windfalls  and  then  collecting  them 
together  and  destroying  them.  He  has  been  able  by  this  means  to  preserve 
the  fruit  of  a  large  orchard  of  a  hundred  acres,  at  the  rate  of  about  one  acre 
an  hour,  with  two  men  and  a  boy.  An  interesting  account  of  his  method 
was  given  in  the  Country  Gentleman  of  the  25th  of  January  last ;  and  as  he 
has  also  proved  the  insect  to  be  double-brooded  in  that  latitude ;  and  in  or- 
der to  make  a  suggestion  or  tAvo,  I  copy  the  following  passages  from  the 
article  : 

Two  men  with  poles  usually  knock  off  the  wormy  specimens  about  as 
fast  as  one  boy  gathers  tTiem  into  a  basket.  Where  .they  are  very  numer- 
ous, more  boys  may  be  needed.  As  the  fruit  all  hangs  downward  on  the 
stems,  the  affected  points  may  be  easily  seen  from  the  ground,  by  the  exuda- 
tions from  the  "blossom,"  and  the  men  with  poles  know  where  to  strike.  The 
wormy  fruit  may  be  thrown  into  a  large  stream  or  pond  and  the  larvae  thus 
destroyed,  but  if  the  apples  float  ashore,  they  will  crawl  out  and  escape.  A 
kettle  of  hot  water  may  therefore  be  better. 

Mr.  Chapin  informs  us  that  he  has  tried  a  series  of  experiments  to  de- 
termine the  season  when  the  insects  commit  their  depredations.  The  earli- 
est winged  moths  which  he  has  found  appeared  on  the  4th  of  June.  These 
oame  from  the  cocoons  in  various  hiding  places  and  crevices,  where  they 
had  passed  the  winter.  About  the  15th  of  July  he  first  detected  the  presence 
of  the  worm  in  the  young  fruit  by  the  exudations  already  alluded  to.  They 
continue  appearing  for  some  weeks.  Hence  the  best  season  for  the  first  at- 
tack is  about  the  middle  of  July.  By  caging  the  insects,  and  watching  their 
transformations,  he  finds  that  a  second  brood  comes  out  early  in  August. 
He  consequently  attaches  great  importance  to  making  the  first  attack  in 
July  a  very  thorough  one.  By  doing  so,  but  few  insects  escape  for  the  sec- 
ond attack  on  the  fruit,  and  the  number  of  late  summer  specimens  is  much 
diminished,  so  that  instead  of  having  most  of  his  apples  spoiled  by  this  sec- 
ond brood,  as  would  otherwise  be'the  case,  very  few  are  injured.  He  finds 
that  the  moth  will  not  travel  far  in  search  of  a  place  to  deposit  her  eggs,  if 
there  happens  to  be  plenty  of  fruit  near  at  hand  for  this  purpose  ;  but  in  the 
absence  of  loaded  trees,  she  will  fly  to  an  indefinite  distance.  *  *  * 
He  does  not,  therefore,  fear  the  results  of  neglect  on  the  jDart  of  his  neigh- 
bors, so  long  as  they  raise  apples  enough  to  keep  their  own  moths  at  home^ 
although  it  would  be  better  for  all  to  make  common  cause  for  their  destruc- 
tion. 

I  have  italicised  those  passages  that  I  more  particularly  wish  to  call 
attention  to.  The  exudations  from  the  blossom  end,  twice  mentioned,  are 
not  indications  of  the  presence  of  the  worm,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  sure 
indications  of  its  absence  in  such  apples;  for  they  are  caused  by  the  exit  of 
the  worm.  The  middle  of  July  is,  therefore,  by  Mr.  Chapin's  own  showings 
a  little  too  late  to  commence  operations  most  successfully,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  he  will  find  it  more  profitable  to  commence  a  fortnight  earlier,  or 
about  the  first  of  July. 

In  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  operations  should  commence  by  the  middle 
or  end  of  May ;  and  those  who  use  the  rubber-tipped  \)o\q  or  mallet  for  the- 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  27 

Curculio,  will  find  it  just  the  thing  needed;  while  those  who  have  hogs  to 
feed  will  find  it  pay  to  boil  the  fruit  and  feed  it. 

Fires,  Lights,  Bottles  of  Liquid  as  Eemedies. — I  have  elsewhere  giv- 
en it  as  my  decided  opinion  that  neither  fires,  lights  or  bottles  of  sweetened 
water,  vinegar  or  of  any  other  liquid,  can  be  used  with  any  degree  of  suc- 
cess in  fighting  the  Codling  moth,  and  I  have  good  reasons  for  so  doing. 
During  one  whole  summer,  three  years  ago,  I  had  a  patent  moth  catcher, 
constantly  in  a  garden  surrounded  by  several  old  apple  trees  badly  infested 
with  this  insect,  and  I  never  caught  a  single  specimen  of  Carpocapsa  poino- 
nella.  The  trap  was  made  of  bright  tin,  with  an  inverted  cone  so  placed  in 
a  basin  that  I  could  attach  a  light,  and  fill  the  basin  with  sweetened  fluid. 
Again,  during  the  summer  of  1870,  I  was  in  the  habit  of  working  till  late  at 
night  in  an  ofiice  surrounded  by  apple  orchards  known  to  be  badly  infested. 
I  worked  by  the  aid  of  two  large  kerosene  lamps,  each  having  a  strong  re- 
flector, and  the  light  in  the  room  was  so  bright  as  to  form  a  constant  subject 
of  conversation  among  the  neighbors.  Insects  of  one  kind  and  another 
would  fly  into  the  room  by  hundreds,  and  on  certain  warm,  moist  eveninp;s 
would  beat  against  the  windows  with  such  rapidity  as  to  remind  one  of  tlio 
pattering  of  rain.  Yet  during  that  Avhole  summer  I  caught  but  one  or  two 
Codling  moths  in  that  room,  and  there  was  more  reason  to  believe  that  they 
had  bred  in  the  house  than  that  they  were  attracted  from  without.  At  the 
same  time  I  had  hung  up  in  an  orchard  close  by,  many  wide-mouthed  bottles, 
half-filled  with  various  liquids,  such  as  diluted  syrup,  sugar  water,  and  vine- 
gar more  or  less  diluted.  Every  two  or  three  days  these  bottles  would  contain 
great  numbers  of  insects,  which  were  critically  examined.  Many  of  them 
would  be  small  moths  of  one  kind  and  another;  some  of  them  larger  moths 
known  to  be  injurious,  and  many  other  insects — such  as  beetles,  true  bugs, 
wasps  and  two-winged  flies — that  were  beneficial.  Indeed,  there  were  al- 
most as  many  beneficial  as  injurious  species,  and  as  I  shall  presently 
show,  the  only  two  species  yet  known  to  prey  on  Carpocapsa  pomojiella , 
were  among  the  more  numerous  victilns  of  these  hanging  bottles.  From 
my  notes  I  find  that  but  three  Codling  moths  were  caught  in  these  bot- 
tles during  the  summer.  Indeed,  so  small  is  the  jji-oportion  of  Codling 
moths  which  I  have  caught  by  the  above  mentioned  process,  that  the 
chances  of  their  accidentally  flying  into  such  situations  are  about  as  great 
as  of  their  being  attracted.  I  might  add  further  experience  on  this  head, 
but  it  is  unnecessary.  Upon  showing  specimens  of  the  Codling  moth  to 
many  dozens  of  eminent  and  intelligent  fruit-groAvers,  who  have  had  to  <1() 
Avith  apple  orchards,  and  consequently  with  apple  worms,  most  of  their  lives, 
I  have  seldom  found  one  who  did  not  candidly  confess  that  he  had  never  l)c- 
fore  identified  the  insect;  and  under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  surprisini;- 
that  other  similar  moths  should  have  been  mistaken  for  the  genuine  ar- 
ticle. The  moth  is,  therefore,  occasionally  caught  in  such  traps,  and  iii 
the  face  of  other  intelligent  testimony  the  tact  cannot  be  denied,  though 
the  experience  on  this  head  of  non-entomologists  is  conflicting.  But 
whether  we  consider  that  the  few  so  caught  are  really   attracted,  or  are 


28  FOURTH   ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

captured  accidentally,  I  believe  that  the  methods  indicated  have  no  prac- 
tical value.  They  are  blind  ways  of  shirking  the  more  sure  and  efficient 
remedies. 

I  have  been  thus  explicit  as  to  these  would-be  remedies  because  my 
statement  "that  the  Codling  moth  was  not  attracted  (to  any  extent)  by 
light/'  has  been  recently  quoted  by  Mr.  J.  W,  Eobson  as  an  evidence  "that 
scientific  men  don't  know  everything."  It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  they 
did,  and  I  have  always  labored  under  the  impression,  somehow  or  other, 
that  they  were  the  last  to  claim  any  such  universal  knowledge,  and  that 
it  was  the  charlatan  alone  who  was  blessed  with  the  knowledge  of  ev- 
erything. In  the  latest  work  on  apple  culture  that  has  been  given  to 
the  public,  namely,  "  The  Apple  Culturist,  with  illustrations,  by  S.  E. 
Todd,"  we  naturally  look  for  all  that  is  new  and  important  about  this  in- 
sect, which  cuts  such  a  figure  in  apple  culture.  Alas!  what  do  we  find? 
The  descriptive  j^art  is  a  perfect  plagiarism,  almost  word  for  word,  from 
an  article  in  the  "  American  Entomologist,"  (Yol.  I,  pp.  112-114,)  all 
palmed  off  as  original;  while  under  the  head  of  remedies,  he  concludes 
his  advice  as  follows:  ''By  keeping  the  bottles  containing  sweetened 
water  and  the  pan  half  filled  with  thin  molasses,  with  a  lighted  lamp 
near  it  in  the  orchard  every  night,  in  good  order,  almost  every  insect 
will  be  trapped  in  a  few  days,"  and  this  excellent  (!)  advice  is  accompa- 
nied by  an  illustration  of  a  shallow  pan  with  a  kerosene  lamp  on  one 
edge  of  it,  and  "  flies  "  as  thick  as  a  swarm  of  bees  around  it. 

Natural  Enemies. — The  natural  enemies  of  the  Codling  moth  among 
birds  are  principally  the  Creepers  (Cer^Ai'a^og),  especially  the  Black-capped 
Tit-mouse.  The  Downy  woodpecker  guts  great  numbers  of  the  cocoons, 
while  the  Blue  bird  and  Crow  Black-bird  also  feed  upon  it,  according  to  Mr. 
Eobson.  Among  insects  two  Ichneumons — PJiygadeuon  brevis  and  Pachy- 
merus  vulnerator — have  been  bred  from  it  in  Europe,  *  but  no  enemies  have 
hei'etofore  been  kno  wn  to  attack  it  in  this  country.  I  have,  however,  dis- 
covered two  which  destroy  the  woums  while  they  are  leaving  the  fruit,  and 
which  in  all  pi'obability  seek  them  out  Avhile  in  the  fruit.  The  first  of  these 
is  the  larva  of  the 

[Fig.  u.]  ^  Pennsylvania  Soldier  Beetle  (CAaM- 

,  Uognathus  Pennsylv aniens,  DeGeer)  and 

ffP/    ^  '^M   VwV     "^^^Z    ^  reproduce  its  likeness  (Fig.l4,  a,  larva ; 

'^^     f  *«      I    7.  1        HSP     i^^  ^^  d^  g^  y^  g^  ji^  head  parts;   i,  beetle) 

P^  from  my  first  Report,  where  it  was  shown 
^  I  to  prey  on  the  larva  of  the  common  Plum 
*•  ^  Curculio.  This  larva  passes  the  win- 
ter in  a  nearly  full  grown  state,  feeds  ravenously  during  the  spring  and  early 
summer  months;  goes  into  the  ground  to  transform  and  makes  its  appear- 
ance as  a  beetle  during  August,  September  and  October,  when  it  is  met  quite 
abundantly  on  the  flowers  of  such  rich  pollen-bearing  plants  as  the  Golden- 
rod.  While  the  larva  is  such  a  voracious  cannibal,  the  beetle  feeds  solely  on 
the  honey  and  pollen  of  these  flowers,  and  it  is  eminently  fitted  for  this  pur- 

*  Taschenbere's  '  'Eiitomoloj'ie  fur  Gartner  and  Gartenfreunde . ' ' 


Vt' 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  29 

pose  by  the  lower  ja\V8  {maxillce)  being  prolonged  into  slender  extensile 
pilose  set®,  which  form  a  sort  of  tongue  analogous  to  the  tongue  of  moths 
and  butterflies. 

The  second  of  these  enemies  of  the  Codling  moth  is 

The  Two-lined  Soldier  Beetle,  {Telephorus  bilineatus,  Say). — This  is  a 
soft-winged  beetle  of  the  same  general  form  of,  and  closely  allied  to,  the 
[Fig.  15.]  preceding — both  species  belongingto  the  Family 

^  /^  ^^  &.  Telephoridce.  The  Two-lined  Soldier  Beetle  (Fig' 
S^C'  I^P  mi  ^^  ^'^  ^'^^  brown-black  wing-covers,  and  a  reddish- 
l^^v  1^  yellow  head  and  thorax,  the  latter  having  two 
^'^^  m  short  black  longitudinal  marks,  from  which  the 
'^'*^^  ^  ®  insect  takes  its  name.  The  underside  is  a  pale 
reddish-yellow,  with  a  dusky  band  on  the  metathorax ;  the  antennae,  feet, 
shanks,  tips  of  thighs  and  a  band  on  the  head,  between  the  eyes,  being 
also  dusky.  This  beetle  makes  its  appearance  much  earlier  in  the  season 
than  the  other,  being  found  as  early  as  April.  It,  also,  seems  to  be  princi- 
pally a  vegetable  feeder,  and  is  quite  common  with  us  crawling  over  the 
leaves  of  a  variety  of  trees,  I  have  repeatedly  jarred  it  down  with  the  Cur- 
eulio  catcher  from  Plum,  Peach  and  Apricot,  and  Dr.  A.  S.  Packard,  Jr., 
says  that  it  feeds,  in  the  East,  on  the  newly  expanded  leaves  of  the  Birch. 
Mr.  C.  E.  Dodge,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  informs  me  that  he  has  found  it 
eating  into  a  Lepidopterous  chrysalis,  a  trait  which  must  be  considered  ex- 
ceptional. 

The  larva  was  unknown  till  last  year,  when  Dr.  Packard  gave  a  figure 
and  description  of  it,  *  without,  however,  giving  any  specific  account  of  its 
habits.  I  have  bred  the  beetle  from  larvse  found  feeding  on  Apple  worms 
and  afterwards  nourished  upon  them;  and  as  the  larva  is  quite  frequently 
met  with  under  apple  trees,  among  early  wind-falls,  we  may  conclude  that 
it  has  a  partiality  for  the  in-dwellers  of  this  fruit;  though  it  doubtless  feeds 
also  upon  other  soft-bodied  animals.  It  is  more  usually  found  on  the  surface 
of  the  ground  under  the  fallen  fruit,  stones,  boards  or  other  substances ;  but 
I  have  found  it,  as  well  as  the  larva  of  the  Pennsylvania  species,  up  in  the 
branches,  and  on  the  hanging  fruit  of  apple  trees. 

Both  these  larvae  are  of  a  rich  velvety-brown  color,  and  that  of  the 
Two-lined  (Fig.  15,  a  natural  size;  b  head  and  first  two  joints  magnified) 
differs  from  the  Pennsylvania  species  in  having  more  conspicuous  black 
spots  along  the  body,  and  an  interrupted  white  line  along  the  middle  of  the 
back.  For  the  scientific  reader  I  give  below  a  technical  description  of  it : 
The  most  important  fiict  for  the  practical  man,  in  connection  with  what 
has  been  said,  is,  that  both  these  soft-winged  beetles — among  Nature's 
appointed  checks  to  the  increase  of  the  Apple  worm — were  quite  frequent- 
ly found  by  me  among  the  insects  in  the  bottles  suspended  among  apple 
trees ;  thus  showing  that  we  may  do  more  harm  than  good  with  such  bottles. 

*  First  Ann.  Rep.  on  the  luj.  and  Beneficial  Insects  of  Mass. ,  pp.  26-2S. 


30  FOURTH    ANNUAL   RFPORT    OF 

SUMMARY, 

The  Apple  worm  or  Codling  moth  is  an  imported  insect.  There  are 
two  broods  each  year,  and  the  second  passes  the  winter  within  the  cocoon  in 
the  larva  state.  Use  hogs  and  sheep  in  the  orchard  wherever  it  is  feasible 
to  do  so.  Place  no  confidence  in  lights  and  bottles,  but  rely  on  the  bandage 
system.  Have  the  bandages  in  place  a  week  after  the  first  Wilson's  Albany 
strawberries  ripen,  and  destroy  all  the  cocoons  underneath  them  every  two 
weeks  till  the  apples  are  harvested.  Be  sure  and  destroy,  as  soon  as  the 
ground  thaws  out  in  the  spring,  all  the  cocoons  found  around  storehouses. 
Urge  your  neighbors  to  combine  with  you  in  this  work. 

Telepuokus  bilixeatus,  Say. — Larva  (Fig.  15,  a) — Body,  12-joiiited,  joint  1  longest,  4  shoi'test, 
the  rest  of  about  equal  length;  flattened;  tapering  slightly  at  each  end;  velvety;  of  a  rich  deep 
brown  above,  pale  below ;  intersections  deep  and  broadening  from  sides  to  middle  of  dorsum ;  two  deep 
longitudinal  lateral  furrows,  and  two,  les.s  deep,  ventral  ones;  a  medio-dorsal  pale  line  continuous 
on  the  thoracic  joints  but  showing  only  on  the  .sutures  of  the  rest;  joints  2  and  3  each  with  a  large 
sunken,  suboval  brown  spot,  each  side  of  dorsum,  these  spots  with  a  pale  centre;  in  a  line  with  these 
on  all  the  abdominal  joints  but  last  is  a  more  or  less  distinct,  slightly  sunken,  pale  line,  and  still 
another  parallel  with  it  further  out  on  the  side.  Between  these  pale  lines,  on  every  joint  but  the 
last,  is  a  slightly  elevated,  dark,  bead-like  tubercle  which  might  readily  be  mistaken  for  spiracles; 
but  these  last  which  are  dark  and  quite  small  are  placed  on  the  anterior  edge  of  the  first  eight 
abdominal  joints,  in  the  upper  lateral  furrow,  and  between  the  first  two  thoracic  joints — there  being 
nine  pair  in  all;  anal  joint  with  a  moderate  pooleg.  Legs  rather  short,  pilose,  the  tarsus  terminating 
in  a  prominent  Jaud  sharp  claw.  Head  flattened,  divided  superiorly  a  little  beyond  the  middle  by  a 
transverse  suture,  the  basal  portion  of  an  opaque,  velvety,  sooty-black;  the  anterior  portion  polished, 
forming  three  well  defined  lobes,  with  the  anterior  edge  irregularly  broken;  eyes  prominent,  placed 
laterally  immediately  before  the  occipital  suture:  antenuie  inserted  in  a  deep  socket,  2-jointed,  the  2nd 
four  times  as  long  as  first  and  bearing  a  small  sub-joint  at  tip :  labrum  not  visible  [Packard  describes 
it  as  ' '  broad  and  perfectly  square  in  front,  with  a  medium  notch  dividing  the  edge  into  two  slight 
lobes."  As  Walsh  describes  that  of  ChauHognalhus  iis  being  retractile,  it  is  probably  retracted  in 
my  specimens  which  are  alcoholic] :  mandibles  falcate,  with  a  strong  tooth  a  little  beyond  the 
middle  of  the  inner  edge:  beneath,  the  anterior  edge  is  deeply  and  semi-circularly  cut  out:  mentum 
extending  between  maxillie  for  two-thirds  their  length:  maxillffi  large,  projecting  beyond  labium, 
especially  on  the  inside  where  they  seem  to  be  produced  into  a  slight  point;  maxillai-y  palpi  3-jtd. , 
the  second  twice  as  long  as  the  first,  the  third  rudimentary:  labium  small,  formed  Of  a  basal  quad- 
r.>lte  piece  and  two  palpigerous  pieces  that  are  soldered  together;  labial  palpi  2-jtd. ,  the  second  rudi- 
mental. 

Described  from  two  alcoholic  specimens. 

Dr.  Packard  describes  the  labial  palpi  as  3-jointed,  doubtless  considering  the  palpigerous  piece 
as  a  basal  joint.  He  makes  no  mention  of  the  stigmata,  and  as  Wnlsh  describes  the  closely  allied 
larva  of  Ckauliognaihus  with  11  pair,  which  is  certainly  anomalous;  and  as  Chapuis  and  Candeze  give 
to  Telephorid  larvae  but  9  pair,  I  have  very  critically  examined  my  specimens,  and  find  the  stigmata 
as  described  above. 


THE  PEEIODICAL  CICADA. 


It  will  be  well  from  time  to  time  to  note  the  appearance  of  this  inter- 
esting insect,  in  ditferent  parts  of  the  country,  so  as  to  see  how  far  its  chron- 
ological history,  as  given  in  my  first  Eeport,  is  correct.  The  time  for  the 
appearance  of  six  of  the  broods  has  passed  away,  and  I  will  reproduce 
what  was  said  of  them  in  1868,  and  append  such  facts,  confirmatory  or  oth- 
orwise,  as  have  come  to  my  knowledge  since. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  31 

BUOOl)  I.— S«^/cmdedm— 185-2,  1869. 

In  the  your  18()i>,  aivl  at  iuterviils  of  seventeen  years  thereafter,  they  will,  in  all  probability, 
a)i))enr  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  river.  According:  to  Dr.  .V.sa  Fitch  (X.  Y.  Kep.  1,  p.  40), 
they  appeared  there  in  18liS  and  18:5.'>,  and  accordinj;-  to  Dr.  Smith  they  occurred  in  F'rankliu,  Bristol, 
and  Hampshire  C(nintie.s,  ^Massachusetts,  in  1707,  '81,  1801,  '18, ':!.'•  and  '.Vi. 

The  genuineness  of  this  Brood  was  fully  established,  as  its  appearance 
in  Connecticut  in  1869  was  recorded  b}^  several  diiferent  journals. 


BROOD  11.  — Tr^dccim— 185(),  18G9. 

In  the  year  1860,  being  the  same  as  the  preceding,  they  will,  in  all  probability,  ajipear  in  Georgia, 
in  Habersham,  Kabun?  Muscogee,  Jasper,  Greene,  Washington  and  adjacent  counties,  having 
appeared  there  in  18-t;5  and  IS.^iG,  according  to  Dr.  Smith. 

True  to  time,  this  Brood  appeared  in  great  numbers  in  the  northv  est- 
ern  part  of  Georgia,  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  A.  E.  McCutchen,  of  Lafay- 
ette, Walker  county,  in  that  State.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  evidence, 
however,  which  goes  to  show  that  it  is  the  17-year  Brood  XXII  which 
occurs  in  the  northeastern  counties,  and  Mr.  Geo.  P.  KoUock,  of  Clarks] 
Habersham  county,  writes  that  the  "  locusts  "  were  not  there  in  1869,  bi 
they  swarmed  in  1868  and  1851.  Habersham  county  must  therefoi 
stricken  from  the  above  Brood  II,  and  perhaps  Eabun  also ;  while  Wi 
and  adjacent  northwest  counties  should  be  added. 

BROOD  \U..—Septemdecim^\m%,  1870. 

In  the  year  1870,  and  at  intervals  of  seventeen  years  thereafter,  they  will,  in  all  probi 
appear  in  what  is  known  as  the  "  Kreutz  Creek  Valley,"  in  York  county.  Pa.,  and  possibly 
ton  county,  Ohio,  and  Jo.  Daviess  county,  111.  Mr.  S.  S.  Rathvon,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  speal 
this  Brood  says;  ' '  Lancaster  county  is  bounded  on  the  southwest  by  the  Susquehanna  river,  t 
it  from  the  county  of  Y'ork,  along  the  northeastern  margin  of  which  there  is  a  mountain  ran 
iiig  down  to  the  river.  Along  that  slope  Cicadas  were  abundant  the  present  season  (1& 
XXII) .  But  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  range,  in  what  is  known  as  the  Kreutz  Creek  Valle; 
were  none.  They  appeared  last  in  this  Valley  in  1853,  and  previous  to  that  year  at  intervals  o 
teen  years  from  time  Lmmemorial."  Dr.  Smith  records  their  appearance  in  1853,  both  iu 
county,  Ohio,  and  Jo.  Daviess  county,  Illinois. 

From  all  that  I  can  learn,  this  Brood  is  invalid  and  has  no  existence. 
Mr.  Eathvon  foiled  to  record  its  appearance  in  1870  in  the  Kreutz  Creek  Yal- 
ley.  and  the  Eev.  Dr.  J.  G.  Morris  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  writes  positively  that 
it  did  not  apjjear.  He  says:  "Our  Lancaster  friend,  Eathvon,  was  a  little 
mistaken  in  presuming  that  this  would  be  the  year  of  the  appearance  of  the 
Cicada  in  Kreutz  Creek  Yallej-,  York  county.  Pa.  I  have  made  diligent 
inquiry  of  persons  familiar  with  that  district,  and  they  report  no  locusts. 
Now,  it  may  be  that  he  gives  that  title  to  a  district  different  from  that  which 
I  know  by  that  name  (for  I  was  born  in  that  vicinity),  but  the  Kreutz  Creek 
Yalley,  7  or  8  miles  east  of  York,  and  bordering  on  the  Susquehanna,  was 
iiot  visited  this  year  by  this  singular  Cicada." 

I  likewise  failed  to  hear  of  the  "  locusts,"  either  in  Yinton  county,  Ohio, 
or  in  Jo.  Daviess  county,  Ill>,  and  as  all  three  of  the  localities  are  restricted 
and  widely  sejjarated,  and  as  those  in  Illinois  and  Pennsylvania  are  within 
the  range  of  Brood  Y,  which  occurs  one  year  later,  the  insects  recorded  to 
have  appeared  in  the  localities  named  in  1853,  were  most  likely  precursors 
onlv  of  the  more  extensive  Brood  Y. 


32  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

BROOD  IV .—Tredecim—18o~ ,  1870. 
In  the  year  1870,  being  the  same  as  the  preceding,  they  will,  in  all  probability,  appear^in  Jack- 
son, Gadsden  and  Washington  counties,  Florida,  having  appeared  there,  according  to  Dr.  Smitli,  in 
1844  and '57. 

The  appearance  has  been  fully  confirmed,  and  as  the  following  commu- 
nication will  show,  the  Brood  extends  even  into  Alabama,  Mississippi  and 
Tennessee. 

Dear  Sir — The  13-yoar  Brood  of  the  Periodical  Cicada  mentioned  in 
your  first  Missouri  Eeport  (your  Brood  IV)  appeared,  according  to  predic- 
tion, in  northwestern  Florida  this  year,  extending  northward  over  Alabama 
and  a  good  portion  of  eastern  Mississippi,  and  into  Tennessee  as  high  as 
this  i^oint.  I  think  I  wrote  you  when  they  were  here.  They  wei-e  not  in 
great  numbers  at  any  point.  I  was  at  Mobile  at  the  time  of  their  appear- 
ranc^  there,  and  found  them  singing  quite  merrily  in  the  woods  below  the 
city.  I  J'  Parish  Stelle. 

Savannah,  Tenn.,  Sept.  2,  1870. 

BROOD  v.— Sep^ewdecnn— 1854,  1871. 

ear  1871,  and  at  intervals  of  seventeen  years  thereafter,  they  will,  in  all  probability, 

ound  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  extending  as  far  east  as  the  middle  of  the  State  of  Mich- 

d  west  an  unknown  distance  into  Iowa.     Also  in  Walworth  county  and  other  portions  of 

h^rn  Wisconsin,  and  southward  into  Illinois.     This  brood  is  equal  to  Dr.  Fitch's  Sixth.     It 

icls  all  over  Northern  Illinois,  and  as  far  south  as  Edgar  county,  and  its  appearance  in  1837  and 

swell  and  thoroughly  recorded.     In  Champaign  county.  111.,  it  overlaps  Brood  XVIII,  or  the 

icrn  Illinois  tredecim  brood,  while  it  also  interlocks  with  Brood  Xll^ {septcmdecim)  in  the  same 

hey  will  also  appear  in  the  same  years  in  the  southeast  by  eastern  part  of  Lancaster  county,  Pa. . 
lat  i^  called  the  "  Pequea  Valle\-,"  having  appeared  there  in  vast  munbers  in  1854. 
he  '  arliest  known  record  we  have  of  the  appearance  of  periodical  Cicadas,   is  in  Morton's- 
iiiul, ' '  in  which  it  is  stated  that  they  appeared  at  Plymouth,  Plymouth  county,  Mass. ,  in  the 
Now,  according  to  that  date,  one  might  be  led  to  suppose  that  this  recorded  brood  of  Mor- 
longed  to  this  Brood  V,  as  exactly  fourteen;  periods  of  seventeen  j^ears  will  have  elapsed 
on  1633  and  1871;  but,  strange  to  say,  we  have  no  other  records  of  this  brood  than  that  in  the 
i-uii^rial,"  whereas  there  are  abundant  records  of  their  appearing  one  year  later  in  the  same 
ly^^ffliralttyt  ever  since  1787.     There  is,  therefore,  good  reason  to  Vjelieve  that  the  visit  recorded  by  Mor- 
ton was  a  premature  one,  and  that  it  was  properly  due  in  1(134.     I  have  therefore  placed  it  in  Brood 
Vm,  and  have  little  doubt  but  that  if  records  could  be  found,  these  would  prove  the  Cicadas  to  have 
appeared  in  1651,  1668,  1685,  170-i,  1719,  1736,  1753,  and  1770,  as  they  did  in  1787,  1804,  1821,  18.38,  and 
1855. 

Throughout  the  country  mentioned  in  the  first  paragraph,  the  woods,, 
orchards,  cornfields  and  even  meadows  were  vocal  with  the  shrill  song  of 
these  seventeen-year  visitors.  I  was  absent  during  the  time  of  their  appear- 
ance, but  through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  LeBaron,  Mr.  Suel  Foster,  of  Mus- 
.  catine,  Iowa,  Mr.  H.  H.  McAfee  of  the  Wisconsin  Universit}^,  and  several 
other  correspondents,  I  am  enabled  to  fix  more  precisely  the  northern,, 
southern  and  western  boundaries  of  this  Brood.  Thus,  in  Wisconsin  we 
may  draw  a  line  from  Milwaukee  on  the  east,  gradually  southward  to  the 
middle  of  the  southern  line  of  AVaukesha  county,  then  making  a  sudden  dip 
to  the  centre  of  Walworth  county,  and  rising  again  a  little  above  the  south- 
ern line  of  Jeff'erson  county;  then  falling  a  little  below  Dane;  then  rising 
from  the  S.  W.  corner  of  Dane  to  the  X.  W.  corner  of  Iowa  count}-,  and 
from  thence  along  the  Wisconsin  river  to  its  mouth.  There  seems  also  to 
be  a  detached  branch  commencing  about  the  middle  of  the  northern  part  of 
Iowa  county  and  running  across  the  Wisconsin  river  into  Sauk  county.  In 
Iowa  the  boundary  line  extends  from  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  river,. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  33 

S.  W.  to  Vinton,  in  Benton  county ;  thenco  S.  E.,  skirting  the  Iowa  river,  to 
the  Mississippi  at  a  point  in  the  northern  part  of  Louisa  county — thus  em- 
bracing about  a  dozen  counties,  or  l-12th  part  of  the  State.  In  Illinois  the 
boundary  line,  in  a  general  way,  may  be  drawn  from  the  N.  W.  portion  of 
Mercer  county,  S.  E.  to  the  Illinois  river  at  Peoria,  W.  along  the  Toledo, 
Wabash  and  Western  railroad.  There  seem  to  be  detachments  extending 
further  south,  especially  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  State,  and  they  oc- 
em*red  as  far  south  as  Shelby  county.  In  Indiana  the  line  is  not  well  de- 
fined, but  includes  the  extreme  N.  W.  counties,  extending  as  far  south  as 
the  Kankakee  river.  In  Michigan  it  does  not  extend  north  as  far  as  St. 
Joseph  on  the  Lake. 

As  this  insect  can  only  appear  in  districts  which  were  timbered  or 
planted  to  orchard  17  years  ago,  it  follows  that  in  such  an  extensive  prai- 
rie country  as  that  within  the  limits  indicated,  the  Brood  must  be  very 
much  detached  and  scattered. 

They  did  not  appear  in  the  Pequea  Valley  in  Lancaster  county.  Pa. : 
at  least  I  have  been  unable  to  get  any  authentic  record  of  the  fact. 

From  all  I  can  learn  no  Cicadas  apj)eared  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  a  fact 
which  corroborates  my  view  expressed  in  1868,  that  the  visit  recorded  by 
Morton  in  1633  was  a  premature  one  and  that  it  was  due  in  1634 : 

BROOD  VI.— Tredecini— 1858,  1871. 
In  the  year  1871,  being  the  same  year  as  the  preceding,  and  at  intervals  of  thirteen  years  thereaf- 
ter, they  will,  in  all  probability,  appear  in  the  extreme  southwestern  corner  of  Mississippi  and  in  the 
adjoining  part  of  Louisiana.  Dr.  D.  L.  Phares,  ofNewtonia  (near  Woodville,)  Miss.,  says  that  in  1S53, 
they  extended  over  most  of  Wilkinson  and  part  of  Amite  coimties,  Mississippi,  and  East  and  West 
Feliciana,  La.  He  has  himself  witnessed  the  appearance  of  this  Brood  during  the  years  1832,  1845  and 
1858,  while  it  is  distinctly  remembered  by  aged  people  in  his  neighborhood  as  having  also  appeared 
there  in  the  years  1806  and  1819.  Dr.  Smith  gives  their  range  from  the  Mississippi  river,  east  to  a 
ridge  forty-five  miles  from  the  river  that  divides  the  State  north  and  south,  and  north  and  soutli  to 
the  bo'indaries  of  the  State;  recording  tliem  as  occurring  in  1806,  '19,  '32,  '45  and  '58. 

This  Brood  also  appeared  last  summer,  and  a  few  precursors  were  noticed 
in  1869,  but  none  in  1870.  I  quote  the  following  account  of  it  from  a 
letter  from  Dr.  Phares  :  "  A  few  males  began  to  appear  about  the  20th 
of  April.  Not  many  of  any  kind  came  out  till  the  7th  and  8th  of  May. 
On  those  two  days  from  5  1-2  till  8  p.  m.,  or  about  dark,  they  came  forth 
fi'om  the  earth  in  vast  numbers ;  and  in  large  numbers  from  that  time  for 
ten  days  more — the  last  I  noticed,  issuing  on  the  18th  of  May  and  being 
mostly  of  the  smaller  and  sometimes  darker  colored  individuals.  Perhaps 
three-fourths  of  those  coming  up  on  the  7th  and  8th  of  May  were  females. 
They  are  now  (May  22nd)  in  full  song,  and  I  notice,  with  others,  that  when 
my  large  bell  (412  pounds)  is  rung,  they  sing  with  redoubled  fury." 

Dr.  Phares  also  sent  me  a  large  number  of  specimens,  and  measure- 
ments to  show  that  there  is  a  variation  of  at  least  half  an  inch  in  the  expanse 
of  the  wings,  and  that  the  small  dark  form  which  has  been  named  Gassinii  is 
connected  with  the  larger  normal  form  by  infinite  grades.  He  is  more  con- 
vinced than  ever  that  the  small  form  cannot  be  a  distinct  species,  and  that 
there  should  be  no  C.  Gassinii  recognized ;  in  which  opinion  I  fully  concur. 

The  exj)erience  of  the  past  year  furnishes  nothing  new  beyond  what  I 
3 


34  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

gave  in  1868.  As  usual,  a  number  of  cases  of  stinging  were  reported,  and 
my  conclusion  that  such  stinging  is  caused  by  the  beak,  is  strengthened  by 
the  experience  of  Dr.  LeBaron.  It  was  quite  apparent  that  the  eggs  sel- 
dom, if  ever,  hatched  from  twigs  which  fell  oif  the  tree  and  became  dried. 
The  foregoing  record  clearl}^  proves  the  genuineness  of  five  out  of  my 
first  six  Broods,  the  third  being  the  only  one,  so  far,  which  must  be  re- 
jected. 

THE  GRAPE-YINE  COLASPIS,  AGAIN— Colaspis  flavida,  S&j. 

I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  ex- 
amining a  number  of  additional  speci- 
mens of  the  larva  of  this  insect,  which 
has  continued  its  injuries  to  strawberry 
roots  in  some  parts  of  St.  Louis  county 
and  of  South  Illinois ;  and  though  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  its  economy  as  set 
forth  in  my  last  Eeport,  I  find  it  necessary  to  revise  the  description  of  the 
larva  for  the  benefit  of  the  entomological  student.  As  stated  at  the  time,  my 
former  description  was  drawn  up  from  two  rather  poor  alcoholic  specimens, 
and  after  more  carefully  examining  a  great  number  of  good,  living  larva,  I  find 
that  description  not  sufficiently  accurate.  Upon  more  careful  study,  this  larva 
plainly  shows  its  Family  characteristics,  and  the  ventral  appendages  are  rarely 
as  prominent  as  previously  indicated  (Eep.  3,  Fig.  38),  being  in  reality 
but  largely  developed  tubercles  w^hich  the  larva  has  the  power  of  extending 
or  retracting.  The  following  description  should  therefore  replace  the 
other  : 

CoLASPis  FLAviDA,  Say— Larua— Color  yellowish.  Body  slightly  arched.  Anal  joints  smaUer 
than  the  others.  First  joint  horny  above  and  of  the  same  color  as  head.  Dorsum  with  about  tliree 
wrinkles  to  each  joint  and  sparsely  clothed  with  yellowish  hairs,  each  springing  from  a  minute 
rufous  polished  point.  Stigmata,  9  on  each  side,  rufous,  the  first  between  joints  1  and  2,  the  others 
placed  on  a  lateral  series  of  swellings,  commencing  with  joint  4.  Joints  4—11  inclusive,  each  with  8 
substigmatal  concolorous  shiny  plates  (Fig.  16,  a),  the  upper  row  lateral  and  divided  from  the 
second  by  a  longitudinal  depression :  the  second  row  forming  tubercles  which  are  reti-acted  or  pro- 
jected at  will.  Head  (Fig.  16,  6,  under  side;  c,  upper  side),  honey-yellow,  rounded,  slightly  flat- 
tened in  front;  epistoma  and  labrum  of  same  color:  mandibles  darker,  triangular,  with  the  inner 
edge  slightly  excavated  near  the  tip;  antenna3  apparently  two-jointed,  short  and  with  the  terminal 
joint  often  bifid;  maxillas  well  developed,  the  inner  lobe  furnished  with  strong  hairs;  maxillary 
palpi  prominent,  4-jointed;  labium  sub-obsolete;  labial  palpi  forming  simply  two  smaU  piliferous 
tubercles.  Legs  scaly,  pale,  setous,  and  terminating  in  a  brown  claw.  Anal  joint  not  horny  below. 
Length,  0.25—0.30  inch. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens . 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


35 


THE  HAELEQUIN  CABBAGE-BVG.—Strachia  [Murgantia']  histrionica, 

Hahn. 


(HetcroiJtera,  Scutelleridaj .) 

Prior  to  the  year  1870  the  insect 
■which  forms  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
was  not  known  to  occur  in  Missouri.  It 
has  of  kite  years  been  gradual!}^  travel- 
ing towards  us  from  the  more  southern 
States,  and  has  already  made  its  presence 
a  little  too  manifest  in  some  of  our  south- 
ern counties,  and  in  Kansas  I  have  met 
with  it  at  a  latitude  higher  than  St.  Louis. 
It  extends  to  Guatemala,  and  is  found  in 
Mexico ;  and  it  varies  very  much,  as  most 
species  are  found  to  do  when  their  geographical  distribution  is  studied.  As 
it  extends  southward  we  find  the  dark  colors  predominating,  and  becoming 
more  intensified  and  brilliant,  and  Stal  has  described  a  species  {Murgantia 
mnnda)  from  Mexico,  which  is  doubtless  but  a  geographical  race,  since  all  the 
intermediate  grades  occur  between  it  and  the  more  northern  form  of  histri- 
onica. My  friend,  Mr.  P.  E.  Uhler,  has  made  some  interesting  experiments 
on  the  species,  which  have  clearly  proven  that  when  reared  in  the  dark  the 
pale  red  parts  predominate ;  while  if  reared  in  the  bright  daj'-light,  the  dark 
blue  colors  predominate.  I  gave  a  short  account  of  it  in  the  American  Ento- 
mologist (Vol.  II.,  pp.  79,  80),  and  cannot  do  better  than  repeat  that  account 
here  with  such  modifications  and  additions  as  are  necessary  to  render  it 
more  complete. 

Cabbage-growers  in  the  North  are  apt  to  think  that  the  plant  which 
they  cultivate  is  about  as  badly  infested  by  insects  as  it  is  possible  for  any 
crop  to  be,  without  being  utterly  exterminated.  No  sooner  are  the  young 
cabbages  above  ground  in  the  seed-bed,  than  they  are  often  attacked  by  sev- 
eral species  of  Flea-beetles.  By  these  jumping  little  pests  the  seed-leaves 
are  frequently  riddled  so  full  of  holes  that  the  life  of  the  plant  is  destroyed ; 
and  they  do  not  confine  themselves  to  the  seed-leaves,  but  prey  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  also  upon  the  young  rough  leaves.  After  the  plants  are  set 
out,  the  larvas  of  these  insects  are  found  upon  the  roots,  in  the  form  of  tiny 
elongate  six-legged  worms.  Through  the  operations  of  these  subterranean 
foes,  the  young  cabbages,  especially  in  hot  dry  weather,  often  wither  away 
and  die;  and  even  if  they  escape  this  infliction,  there  is  a  whole  host  of  cut- 
worms ready  to  destroy  them  with  a  few  snaps  of  their  powerful  jaws;  and 
the  common  White  Grub,  as  we  know  by  experience,  will  often  do  the  very 
same  thing.  Suppose  the  unfortunate  vegetable  escapes  all  these  dangers  of 
the  earlier  period  of  its  existence.  At  a  more  advanced  stage  in  its  life,  the 
stem  is  burrowed  into  by  the  maggot  of  the  Cabbage-fly  {Anthomyia  bras- 
sicce) — the  sap  is  pumjDcd  out  of  the  leaves  in  streams  by  mjTiads  of  minute 


36  FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OP 

.  Plant-lice  covered  with  a  whitish  dust  (Aphis  brassicce) — and  the  leaves  them- 
selves are  riddled  full  of  holes  by  the  tiny  larva  of  the  Cabbage  Tinea 
(Plutella  cruciferarurn),  or  devoured  bodily  by  large  fleshy  larvae  of  the  differ- 
ent owlet  moths  or  of  the  white  butterflies  that  were  treated  of  in  my  second 
Eeport. 

Severe  as  are  these  inflictions  upon  the  northern^*  cabbage-grower, 
there  is  an  insect  found  in  the  Southern  States  that  appears  to  be,  if  possi- 
ble, still  worse.  This  is  the  Harlequin  Cabbage-bug,  so  called  from  the  gay 
theatrical  harlequin-like  manner  in  which  the  black  and  orange-yellow  colors 
are  arranged  upon  its  body.  The  first  account  of  the  operations  of  this 
very  pretty  but  unfortunately  very  mischievous  bug  appeared  in  the  year 
1866,  fi'om  the  able  pen  of  Dr.  Gideon  Lincecum,  of  Washington  county, 
Texas,  and  was  printed  in  the  Practical  Entomologist  (Vol.  I.  p.  110).  His 
remarks  are  to  the  following  effect : 

The  year  before  last  they  got  into  my  garden,  and  utterly  destroyed 
my  cabbage,  radishes,  mustard,  seed  turnips,  and  every  other  cruciform 
plant.  Last  year  I  did  not  set  any  of  that  Order  of  plants  in  my  garden.  But 
the  present  year,  thinking  the  bugs  had  probably  left  the  premises,  I  planted 
my  garden  with  radishes,  mustaitl,  and  a  variety  of  cabbages.  By  the  first 
of  April  the  mustard  and  radishes  were  large  enough  for  use,  and  I  discov- 
ered that  the  insect  had  commenced  on  them.  I  began  picking  them  off  by 
hand  and  tramj)ing  them  under  foot.  By  that  means  I  have  preserved  my 
434  cabbages,  but  I  have  visited  every  one  of  them  daily  now  for  four 
months,  finding  on  them  from  thirty-five  to  sixty  full-grown  insects  every 
day,  some  coujDled  and  some  in  the  act  of  depositing  their  eggs.  Although 
many  have  been  hatched  in  my  garden  the  present  season,  I  have  suffered 
none  to  come  to  maturity ;  and  the  daily  supplies  of  grown  insects  that  I 
have  been  blessed  with,  are  immigrants  from  some  other  garden. 

The  perfect  insect  lives  through  the  winter,  and  is  ready  to  deposit  its 
eggs  as  early  as  the  15th  of  March,  or  sooner,  if  it  finds  any  cruciform  plant 
large  enough.  They  set  their  eggs  on  end  in  two  rows,  cemented  together, 
mostly  on  the  underside  of  the  leaf,  and  generally  from  eleven  to  twelve  in 
number.  In  about  six  days  in  April — four  days  in  July — there  hatches  out 
fi'om  these  eggs  a  brood  of  larvae  resembling  the  perfect  insect,  except  in 
having  no  wings.  This  brood  immediately  begins  the  work  of  destruction 
by  piercing  and  sucking  the  life-sap  from  the  leaves;  and  in  twelve  days 
they  have  matured.  They  are  timid,  and  will  run  off  and  hide  behind  the 
first  leaf-stem,. or  any  part  of  the  plant  that  will  answer  the  purpose.  The 
leaf  that  they  puncture  immediately  wilts,  like  the  effects  of  poison,  and 
soon  withers.  Half  a  dozen  grown  insects  will  kill  a  cabbage  in  a  day. 
They  continue  through  the  summer,  and  sulficient  perfect  insects  survive 
the  winter  to  insure  a  full  crop  of  them  for  the  coming  season. 

This  tribe  of  insects  do  not  seem  liable  to  the  attacks  of  any  of  the  can- 
nibal races,  either  in  the  egg  state  or  at  any  other  stage.  Our  birds  pay  no 
attention  to  them,  neither  will  the  domestic  fowls  touch  them.  I  have,  as 
yet,  found  nO  way  to  get  clear  of  them,  but  to  pick  them  off  by  hand. 

To  give  some  idea  of  their  numbers  in  Texas,  Mr.  Benj.  E.  Townsend, 
of  Austin,  in  that  State,  wrote  me,  under  date  of  February  28,  1870,  that  he 
had,  within  a  few  days,  gathered  47,000  of  the  bugs. 

In  September,  1870,  I  received  from  William  E.  Howard  a  single  speci- 
men of  this  bug,  which  was  found  depositing  her  eggs  near  Forsyth,  in 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  37 

Taney  county,  and  this  was  the  first  announcement  of  its  appearance  in 
Missouri.  From  the  same  source  I  learn  that  last  July  myriads  of  the 
insects  appeared  on  the  cabbages  of  the  Hon.  Jesse  Jennings  in  that  county, 
and  that  the  plants  were  finally  ruined.  They  have  likewise  been  found  on 
the  grounds  of  Mr.  B.  F.  Lee,  in  Marshfield,  Webster  county.  Through  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Howard  and  of  Mr.  Townsend  I  have  received  a  number  of 
specimens  and  have  been  enabled  to  present  the  following  facts  in  its 
economy  : 

The  eggs  (Fig.  17,  c),  are  0.05  inch  long  and  0.03  inch  wide,  and,  as 
stated  by  Dr.  Lincecum,  are  usually  deposited  in  two  rows  of  about  half  a 
dozen  each,  and  they  are  beautiful  objects.  When  first  deposited  they  are 
of  a  light  green  color,  but  they  soon  become  white,  with  black  bands.  They 
may  be  likened  to  little  barrels,  for  though  the  sides  are  straight,  the  edges 
are  rounded  off  and  the  black  bands,  recalling  the  hoops,  and  a  black  spot 
near  the  middle,  recalling  the  bung-hole,  add  to  the  resemblance.  There 
are  two  black  bands,  the  upper  thicker  than  the  lower,  and  the  black  sj^ot  is 
just  above  the  lower  band  (Fig.  17,  d).  The  upper  edge  is  slightly  crenated 
and  drawn  a  little  over  a  convex  lid  which  is  marked  with  a  crescent-shaped 
black  spot  on  the  outside  (Fig.  17,  e).  .  The  inner  sides  by  which  the  eggs 
are  fastened  to  each  other  are  almost  entirely  black.  In  depositing,  the 
ovipositor  is  moved  from  row  to  row  in  a  zig-zag  line.  To  afford  a  passage 
to  the  young  larva,  one  of  the  heads  of  the  barrel — the  one,  of  course,  that 
is  not  glued  to  the  surface  of  the  leaf — is  detached  by  the  beak  of  the  little 
embryo  as  neatly  and  as  smoothl}'  as  if  a  skillful  cooper  had  been  at  work 
on  it  with  his  hammer  and  driver.  And  yet,  instead  of  emploj'ing  years  in 
acquiring  the  necessary  skill,  the  mechanic  that  performs  this  delicate  opera- 
tion with  unerring  precision,  is  actually  not  as  yet  born  into  this  sublunary 
world ! 

The  larva  (Fig.  17,  a)  is  of  a  uniform  pale  greenish  color,  marked  with 
polished  black  as  in  the  figure.  The  pupa  (Fig.  17,  h)  differs  from  it  only 
in  some  of  the  pale  marks  inclining  to  orange,  and  in  the  possession  of  con- 
spicuous wing-pads ;  and  they  both  differ  from  the  mature  bug,  not  only  in 
the  non-possession  of  wings,  but  in  their  antennae  being  but  4  instead  of  5- 
jointed,  as  they  afterwards  become. 

There  are  several  broods  of  this  bug  during  the  course  of  the  year,  and 
the  eggs  will  sometimes  hatch  the  third  or  fourth  day  after  deposition ; 
while  Mr.  Howard  informs  me  that  the  bugs  will  go  through  all  their  moult- 
ings  and  be  ready  for  reproduction  within  a  fortnight. 

The  mature  bug  (Fig.  17,  g  &h)iH  prettily  marked  with  polished  orange 
and  blue-black,  the  relative  proportion  of  the  two  colors  being  very  varia- 
ble and  the  orange  inclining  either  to  yellow  or  red.  Besides  cruciferous 
plants,  Mr.  Howard  has  found  it  feeding  on  a  variety  of  the  Pea. 

It  is  said  that  no  criminal  among  the  human  race  is  so  vile  and  de- 
praved, that  not  one  single  redeeming  featui-e  can  be  discovered  in  his 
character.  It  is  just  so  with  this  insect.  Unlike  the  great  majority  of  the 
extensive  group  to  which  It  belongs,  it  has  no  unsavory  bedbuggy  smell, 


38 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


but  on  the  contrary  exhales  a  faint  odor  which  is  rather  pleasant  than  oth- 
erwise, I  have  already  referred  to  the  beauty  of  its  coloring.  As  offsets^ 
therefore,  to  its  greediness  and  its  thievery,  we  have,  first  the  fact  of  its  be- 
ing agreeable  to  the  nose,  and  secondly  the  fact  of  its  being  agreeable  to  the 
eye.  Are  there  not  certain  demons  in  the  garb  of  angels,  occasionally  to 
be  met  with  among  the  human  8j)ecies,  in  favor  of  whom  no  stronger  argu- 
ments than  the  above  can  j^ossibly  be  urged? 

iSTo  remed}^  other  than  hand  picking,  is  yet  known ;  and  I  have  had  no 
opportunity  of  trying  the  effects  of  the  various  applications  such  as  salt^ 
ashes,  soot,  etc. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  Europe,  the  cabbage  grower  is  pestered 
with  a  bug  {Strachia  ornata,  Linn)  Avhich  bears  a  striking  general  resem- 
blance to  our  insect  in  color  and  ornamentation,  and  which,  as  I  was  assured 
by  M.  E.  Mulsant,  of  Lyons,  France,  has  the  light  parts  red  in  spring  and 
3^ellow  in  autumn. 


THE  ExiSCAL  LEAF-CRUMPLER— P%ciYa  *  lAcrohasis]  nebulo,  Walsh. 


(Lepidoptera,  Phycida?.) 


[Fig.  IS.] 


Such  is  the  name  given  to  an  insect 
which  is  quite  common  in  the  Western 
Jj  States,  and  which  also  occurs  in  Ontario, 
5^  but  does  not  seem  to  be  known  in  the 
Eastern  or  extreme  Southern  States.  It 
was  first  described  by  Mr.  Walsh,  in  the 
Prairie  Farmer  for  May,  1860,  p.  308. 

It  is  one  of  those  insects  Avhich  is 
hardly  noticed  while  carrying  on  its  most 
destructive  work;  for  it  is  most  vora- 
cious during  the  leafy  months  of  May  and 
June,  and  is  then  more  or  less  hidden  by 
the  foliage  of  the  tree  which  it  so  effect- 
ually helps  to  denude.  But  the  naked- 
ness of  winter,  though  it  does  not  reveal 
the  surreptitious  worm,  laj^s  bare  and  ren- 
ders  conspicuous   its   little    house,    and 


<Y  reasons  repeatedly  given,  I  retain  tlie  technical  name  first  given  to  this  moth  by  Mr.  Walsh. 
;ertainly  properly  referred  to  that  genus  as  characterized  by  Westwood  (Synopsis,  p.  113). 
lera  have  become  so  multiplied  of  late  rears,  that  many  of  the  older  and  earlier  erected  are  fast 


*For 
It  was  cert 

But  genera  have  become'  so  multiplied  of  late  rears,  that  many  • 

vanishing  from  our  classification.  None  but  the  specialist  can  undertake  to  keep  up  with  the  endless 
new  generic  characters  that  are  being  made,  too  otten,  to  my  mind,  on  the  most  trivial  ground*;  and 
none  but  the  specialists  are  particularly  interested  in  these  changes.  For  practical  purposes,  there- 
fore, unless  there  are  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  making  a  change,  it  is  best  to  adhere  as  much  as 
possible  to  those  names  by  which  notorious  insects  have  Ijecome  generally  known.  This  course  is  al- 
ways safe,  if  the  more  modern  genus  to  which  the  insect  should  be  referred  is  in  some  way  hinted  at, 
for  the  entomological  student.  Phycita  nebulo,  Walsh  is  Myelois  indiijinella,  Zeller,  as  I  am  informed 
by  the  latter  author  who  has  had  occasion  to  examim'  specimens  which  I  forwarded  to  him.  In  real- 
ity it  belongs  to  the  genus  Acrobasis  as  characterized  by  the  same  author  in  the  his  of  184S,  p.  60(3. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  39 

these  houses — these  larval  eases — whether  closely  attached  in  clusters  to  the 
twigs  as  at  Figure  18,  b,  or  hidden  in  a  few  seared  and  silk-sewed  leaves  a& 
at  Figure  19,  are  unerring  tokens  of  past  injury  to  the  tree,  and  symbols  of 
increased  injury  in  the  future,  unless  removed.  The  bunches  of  leaves  an- 
[Fig.  19.]  chored  to  the  tree  by  strong  silken  ca- 

bles and  breasting  defiantly  every  win- 
ter's wind,  are,  indeed,  significant 
insignia  upon  w^hich  is  written  in  char- 
acters, if  not  in  words — "  result  of  care- 
less culture  and  unpardonable  neglect." 
This  insect  sometimes  becomes  so 
prodigiously  multij)lied  in  young  or- 
chards or  in  the  nurser}'-,  as  to  seriously 
affect  the  health  of  the  trees ;  for  it  does 
not  confine  itself  to  the  leaves,  but  often 
in  early  spring  commences  on  the  swelling  buds,  attacks  the  young  fruit,  or 
gnaws  the  tender  bark.  Though  I  have  not  met  with  this  Leaf-crumpler 
in  Southern  Illinois,  it  nevertheless  occurs  throughout  our  own  State,  and 
is  quite  injurious  in  the  southwestern  counties.  There  is  but  one  brood  a 
year,  and  the  larva,  about  one-third  grown,  invariably  passes  the  winter 
protected  in  its  case.  At  this  season  of  the  year  it  is  always  of  a  deep  red- 
dish-brown color.  As  the  leaves  expand  in  spring  it  rouses  from  its  winter 
lethargy,  and  after  "heaving  anchor"— to  use  a  nautical  expression— by 
severing  the  silken  connections  of  its  case,  travels  in  search  of  food,  and, 
having  found  it,  secures  its  case  again  and  breaks  its  long  fast.  Toward  the 
end  of  May  it  acquires  its  growth,  when  the  earlier  brown  color  frequently 
takes  on  a  more  or  less  decided  deep  green  hue.  It  is  a  smooth  worm  with 
the  head  and  thoracic  joints  as  represented  at  c.  The  case  at  this  time  usu- 
ally presents  the  appearance  of  Figure  18,  a,  being  crooked  and  twisted 
like  a  little  horn,  gradually  enlarging,  cornucopia-fashion,  from  tip  to 
mouth,  and  reminding  one  strongly  of  a  piece  of  bird  dung.  It  is  formed  of 
the  worm's  excrement  and  other  debris,  interwoven  with  silk,  and  is  com- 
pletely lined  on  the  inside  with  a  carpet  of  the  last  named  material.  The 
worm  leaves  it  for  feeding  purposes  mostly  during  the  night.  The  chrysa- 
lis is  formed  inside  this  case,  and  the  moths  commence  to  make  their  appear- 
ance during  the  forepart  of  June,  and  later  as  we  go  further  north. 

The  moth  (Fig.  18,  d  and  Fig.  20,  c)  has  the  fi-ont  wings  of  a  pale  ash-gray 
color,  variegated  with  cinnamon-brown  and  dark  brown ;  while  the  hind 
wings  are  of  a  uniform  dusky-gray.  The  male  is  distinguished  from  the 
female  by  a  little  horn-like  tuft  on  the  basal  joint  of  the  antennse,  which  is  a 
characteristic  of  the  genus.  The  worms  hatching  from  the  eggs  deposited 
by  these  moths  are  about  one-third  grown  when  winter  sets  in,  and  they 
pass  this  season  as  already  described,  and  thus  the  insect  continues  from 
year  to  year  the  cycle  of  its  life. 

I  have  bred  this  insect  from  Apple,  Cheriy,  wild  and  cultivated ;  Plum, 
wild  and  cultivated  j  Quince,  and  Crab-apple,  and  have  noticed. the  cases  on 


40  FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

Peach.    Near  St.  Louis  it  has  been,  if  anything,  more  injurious  to  quince 
than  to  apple  trees.     Yet  it  does  not  seem  to  be  able  to  live  on  the  Pear. 

Remedies. — The  Pascal  Leaf-crumpler  is  one  of  those  insects  which, 
from  their  peculiar  habits,  are  easily  subdued.  The  orchardist  has  but  to 
bear  in  mind  that  it  is  single-brooded,  and  that  it  passes  the  winter  in  its 
case,  and  he  will  understand  that  by  collecting  and  destroying  these  cases 
in  the  dead  of  the  year  when  the  tree  is  bare,  he  effectually  puts  a  stop  to 
its  increase.  If  this  fact  were  more  generally  recognized,  .we  should  see 
fewer  of  these  insects  in  our  orchards  and  nurseries.  Whether  collected  in 
the  winter  or  pulled  off  the  trees  during  the  sj)ring  and  summer,  these  cases 
should  always  be  thrown  into  some  small  vessel,  and  deposited  in  the  centre 
of  a  meadow,  or  field,  away  from  any  fruit  trees.  Here  the  worms  will 
wander  about  a  few  yards  and  soon  die  from  exhaustion  and  want  of  food; 
while  such  parasites,  hereafter  mentioned,  as  are  well  developed  or  in  the 
pupa  state,  will  mature  and  eventually  fly  off.  In  this  manner,  as  did  Spar- 
tacus  of  old,  we  swell  the  ranks  of  our  friends  while  defeating  our  foes. 

When  so  simple  a  remedy  is  at  hand  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  seek  for 
others.  Applications  of  air-slacked  lime  to  the  tree  when  the  foliage  is 
moist,  have  been  urged  as  a  remedy  j  but  it  would  seem  that  the  worm  is 
too  snug  in  its  retreat  to  be  much  affected  by  any  such  dustings,  and  there 
is  scarcely  any  occasion  to  resort  to  any  other  than  the  simple  and  effectual 
remedy  suggested.  Because  empty  cases  are  found  after  such  applications, 
men  must  not  run  away  with  the  idea  that  the  inmate  has  been  scared  away ; 
for  there  is  always  a  certain  proportion  of  old  cases  which  are  emi)ty. 
These  stick  to  the  tree  long  after  the  moths  have  escaped  from  them,  and 
furnish  a  snug  retreat  for  some  other  insects.  The  female  Canker-worm 
particularly  is  fond  of  depositing  her  eggs  within  such  old  cases,  as  I  have 
frequently  found  them  crowded  with  such  eggs. 

Natural  Enemies. — In  Mr.  Walsh's  time  but  one  real  parasite  was 
known  to  infest  the  Leaf-crumpler,  and  that  was  a  little  two-winged  fl}', 
which  might  easily  be  confounded  with  the  common  House-fly.  It  has  not 
yet  been  described,  and  as  my  friend  Dr.  LeBaron  bred  it  on  seyeral  occasions 
the  past  year  and  has  undertaken  to  describe  it,  I  present  below  his  descrip- 
tion, as  kindly  furnished  me  for  use.  This  Tachina  larva  becomes  a  pupa 
within  the  case  of  its  victim,  and  Mr.  D.  B.  Wier  tells  me  that  it  was  so 
abundant  at  Lacon,  that  the  Leaf-crumpler  was  not  one-tenth  as  numerous 
in  1871  as  it  had  been  in  1870. 

Tachina  [ExoeIsta]  phycit^e,  LeBaron— Zmago.— Length,  0.20  inch.  Antennas  black,  third 
joint  twice  as  long  as  the  second;  face  silvery,  without  bristles  at  the  sides;  sides  of  the  front  silvery 
at  the  lower  part,  pale  golden  above;  the  middle  black  vitta  occupying  a  little  more  than  half  of  the 
width  of  the  inter-occular  space ;  frontal  bristles  continued  down  the  face  to  opposite  the  end  of  the 
second  joint  of  antennas;  palpi  blackish-brown;  eyes  hairy.  Thorax  black,  with  the  ordinary  ciner- 
eous stripes  scarcely  perceptible.  Abdomen  black,  varied  with  cinereous  at  the  base  of  the  segments; 
a  large  fulvous  spot  on  the  side  of  the  abdomen  occupying  nearly  the  whole  of  the  side  of  the  sec- 
ond segment,  half  or  more  of  the  third,  and  sometimes  ft  sraaU  spot  on  the  lirst;  bristles  on  the  mid- 
dle as  well  as  at  the  hind-margin  of  the  second  and  third  segments .  Venation  of  the  wings  of  the 
usual  type;  first  posterior  cell  almost  closed,  before  the  end  of  wing;  fourth  long  vein  slightly  curved 
after  the  angle;  fifth  long  vein  prolonged  to  the  margin;  hind  cross  vein  moderately  sinuous.  Tarsal 
claws  and  pulvilli  unusually  long. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  41 

Female  ?  A  single  specimen,  a  very  little  larger  than  the  others,  was  obtained  from  the  same  lot 
of  leaf-crumplers,  which  possibly  may  be  the  Q  of  the  same  species.  It  diflers  as  follows:  Front 
broader;  antennaj  dark  brown;  the  cinereous  markings  of  the  body  more  distinct;  the  tip  of  abdomen 
fulvous,  but  without  the  fulvous  spot  at  the  sides;  and  with  the  tarsal  claws  of  ordinary  length. 

This  species  appears  to  belong  to  the  subgenus  Exorista  of  Meigen,  closely  allied  to  Tachina 
proper,  and  difl'ering  from  it  chiefly  in  having  the  eyes  hairy,  and  in  the  presence  of  bristles  on  the 
middle,  as  well  as  at  the  hind  margin  of  the  second  and  third  abdominal  segments,  whereas  Tachina 
has  only  the  latter. 

Mr.  Wier  has  given  me  specimens,  said  to  be  bred  from  it,  of  a  small 
Ichneumon-fly  which  proves  to  be  Limneria  \_Banchus]  fugitiva,  Say.* 
It  is  a  small  black  species  with  the  legs  pale  yellow,  except  the  hind 
tibia?  which  are  white  with  black  base  and  tip,  and  the  hind  tarsi  which  are 
black  Avith  the  base  of  the  first  joint  white.  In  this  genus  the  terminal 
part  of  the  abdomen  is  compressed  laterally,  and  arched,  and  the  $  ovipos- 
itor is  so  short  that  it  does  not  extend  beyond  the  tij)  of  abdomen,  so  that 
the  sexes  do  not  differ  very  strikingly.  This  particular  species  infests  other 
insects,f  and  I  have  obtained  it  from  larvae,  at  Chicago,  111.,  as  well  as  at 
St.  Louis. 

Phycita  [Acrobasis]  nebulo,  Walsh  —  Imago. — I  reproduce  here  the  description  of  the  moth  in 
Mr.  Walsh's  original  words  :  "Expansion  of  wings  7-10.  Length  of  body  3-10.  General  color 
light  cinereous,  varied  with  dusky.  A  row  of  about  seven  subsemiluuar  or  linear  dark  spots  on 
outer-margin  of  fore  wing.  Then  one-fourth  of  the  distance  to  the  body  a  waving  light  cinereous  band 
parallel  to  the  exterior  margin,  marked  on  each  side  with  dusky  black.  Nearly  at  the  centre  a  much 
abbreviated  black  band.  Beyond  the  centre  on  the  costal  margin  a  subtriangular  dusky  black  .spot, 
the  apex  of  which  connects  with  the  apex  of  a  much  larger  subobsolete  triangular  brick  red  spot  which 
extends  to  the  interior  margin,  andisboundedou  the  outside  by  a  wavy  light  cinereous  band,  which  is 
again  bounded  by  a  wavy  dusky  black  band  proceeding  from  the  apex  of  the  costal  triangle.  Base  of  wing 
dusky  black,  enclosing  a  small  round  light  cinereous  spot.  Hind  wings  and  all  beneath  light  cinereous 
shaded  with  dusky,  the  fore  wings  darker.  Tarsi  dusky  with  a  narrow  light  cinereous  fascia  at  the 
apex  of  each  joint.  Hind  tibia  fasciate  with  dusky  at  the  apex,  sometimes  obscurely  bifasciate. 
Intermediate  tibia  fasciate  with  dusky  at  the  ceuti'e,  the  fascia  generally  extending  to  the  base,  but 
becoming  lighter.  Anterior  tibia  dusky,  with  a  narrow  apical  light  cinereous  fascia.  Palpi,  both 
labial  and  maxillary,  dusky. ' ' 

When  compared  with  other  closely  allied  and  resembling  species,  this  little  moth  may  be  charac- 
terized in  the  following  manner:  The  ground  color  of  the  front  wing  is  decidedly  bright  and  pale; 
the  discal  spots  are  almost  always  confluent,  thus  forming  an  abbreviated  transverse  bar;  the  dark 
markings  are  well  defined  and  the  triangular  dark  costal  spots  starting  from  the  inner  third  of  the 
wing  is  distinctly  relieved,  while  the  "brick-red"  (nearer  a  cinnamon-brown)  triangular  spot  which 
opposes  it  is  large,  so  that  the  space  it  occupies  on  the  inner  margin  is  nearly  as  wide  (generaUy 
within  one-third)  as  that  between  it  and  the  transverse  posterior  line.  The  lower  half  of  the  basal 
space  is  often  of  a  distinct  cinnamon-brown,  and  an  oblique  dusky  band,  which  Mr.  Walsh  has  not 
mentioned,  is  often  quite  distinct,  running  from  near  the  apex  to  the  brown  triangle,  where  it  connects 
with  the  inner  margin.  The  species  recalls,  in  facies,  the  European  Myelois  suavella.  In  a  suite  of 
specimens  bred  from  Apple,  Quince,  Plum  and  Cherry,  there  is  sufficient  variation  to  prevent  a  too 
rigidly  drawn  description,  but  the  above  characters  obtain  in  all  of  them,  and  such  variation  as 
occurs,  runs  in  the  direction  of  the  variety  presently  to  be  described. 

Larva — Brown  or  greenish  in  color.  Cj'lindi-ical.  Tapering  gradually  from  first  to  last  joint. 
Head  and  cervical  shield  darker  than  the  rest  of  body,  slightly  shagreened,  sparsely  covered  with 
long  hairs,  the  shield  quite  large,  convex,  and  occupying  the  whole  surface  between  stigmata — there 
being  in  front  of  the  latter  a  sub-cervical  dark  horuyplate.  Joints  2and3  wrinkled  as  at  Figure  18,  cthe 
fonner  with  two  rather  conspicuous  dark  dorsal  piliferous  spots.  The  other  joints  with  a  few  fine 
hairs,  the  stigmata  ijlainly  visible,  and  the  anal  covering  but  slightly  horny.  Legs  and  prolegs 
of  moderate  size  and  of  same  color  as  body. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens. 

Chrysalis — Mahogony-brown,  with  no  striking  character.  Abdomen,  especially  above,  with  very 
minute  punctures. 

*Ent.-of  X.  A.  II,  p.  "01. 

t  Mr.  J.  A.  Lintner,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  has  given  me  specimens  bred  from  Saturnia  maia,  Drury; 
Mr.  H.  T.  Bassett,  of  Waterbury',  Vt.,  specimens  bred  irora  Dryocampa  senatoria  Sni. ,  and  I  have 
bred  it  from  Dryocampa  stigma,'  Sm. ,  from  Euchate*  egle,  Harr,  and  from  ClUiocampa  sylvatica, 
Harr. 


42 


FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 


Vaeiety  nebulella  (Fig.  20,  e) . — I  have  bred  a  single  specimen  from  -wild  Crab  (Cralcegus) 
which  differs  in  some  essential  features  from  the  normal  form,  but  which  nevertheless  can  only  be 
considered  a  variety  of  it,  as  I  observed  no  larval  differences.  It  differs  in  the  more  uniform  and 
subued  tone  of  the  front  wings,  the  markings  being  more  suffused  and  indistinct;  but  principally  in 
the  relative  narrowness  of  the  space  outside  the  transverse  posterior  line  the  greater  consequent 
width  of  the  middle  area,  and  smallness  of  the  triangular  brown  spot — the  space  it  occupies  on  the 
inner  margin  being  scarcely  one-half  as  wide  as  that  between  it  and  the  transverse  posterior  line. 
The  discal  spots  are  also  separated. 

Described  from  one  good  specimen.  An  interesting  fact  connected  with  this  variety  is,  that  pre- 
cisely the  same  form  occurs  in  Europe,  as  I  found  a  single  specimen  in  the  cabinet  of  M.  J. 
Lichtenstein  of  Montijcllier,  France,  which  he  had  captured  in  that  vicinity,  and  which  he  allowed 
me  to  bring  home  for  comparison.  It  seems  to  be  rare,  even  there,  and  whether  indigenous  or  impoi"ted 
from  this  country,  is  a  question  yet  to  be  solved. 


THE  WALNUT  CASB-BEAEEE— ^cro6as«s  juglandis,  LeBaron. 

(Lepidoptera  Phycida3.) 


.  20.] 


There  are  several  other  worms 
tolerabl}'  common  with  us  which 
form  cases  very  much  like  those  of 
the  Rascal  Leaf-crumpler  just  de- 
scribed. One  of  these  which  is  tor- 
tuous and  crooked,  like  the  pre- 
ceding, is  found  attached  to  the  leaf 
of  the  Post  oak,  the  worm  skeleton- 
izing the  leaf  for  food.  Another, 
which  is  straight,  is  found  on  the 
Soft  maple,  the  inhabitant  drawing 
a  few  leaves  together  and  likewise 
skeletonizing  them.  The  moths  which  these  produce  are  not  yet  known  j 
but  there  is  a  straight  case-bearer  found  on  Hickory  and  "Walnut  which  pro- 
duces a  moth  so  much  resembling  our  nebido,  that,  though  the  insect  cannot 
be  considered  a  very  injurious  one,  I  am  led  to  give  a  brief  account  of  it  for 
l)urposes  of  comparison,  and  to  show  how  distinct  species,  with  constant 
larval  characteristics,  may  so  graduate  into  each  other  in  the  perfect  state 
as  to  render  knowledge  of  their  larval  habits  absolutely  necessary  to  dis- 
tinguish them. 

The  case  of  this  insect  (Fig.  20,  b)  is  invariably  straight,  and  the  excre- 
mentitious  grains  which  cover  it  on  the  outside,  are  very  closely  and  neatly 
woven  together.  It  is  attached  by  the  small  jDosterior  end  to  the  main  leaf- 
stalk, and  the  worm  draws  down  and  fastens  two  of  the  leaflets  to  hide  it, 
and  then  feeds  upon  them  from  the  point  to  the  base  (Fig.  20,  a).  The 
worm  differs  in  no  respect  from  that  of  nebulo,  excej)t  in  being  more  com- 
monly dark  greenish.  There  is,  in  all  probability,  but  one  brood  a  year, 
and  as  with  nebulo  the  larva  passes  the  winter  in  a  partially  grown  condi- 
tion; and  as  it  lives  during  the  simimer  on  a  comi)Ound  leaf,  it  very  wisely 
abandons  this  leaf,  and  anchors  its  case  firmly  to  the  more  enduring  twig, 
before  winter  sets  in. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  43 

The  moth  very  closely  resembles  nebulo,  as  may  bo  seen  by  referring  to 
Figure  20,  d,  which  shows  its  wing  characters,  the  colors  being  the  same.  In 
this  cut  I  have  given  two  subsidiaiy  sketches,  the  one  at  c  showing  the  typ- 
ical nebulo,  the  other  at  e  representing  a  crab  apple  feeding  variety  of  the 
same;  and  the  general  reader  will  readily  perceive  (providing  the  public 
printer -does  not  give  us  too  muddy  an  impression)  that  the  intermediate 
figure  (d)  differs  less  from  the  upper  (c)  than  from  the  lower  one  (e).  Yet 
the  differences  in  the  habits  of  the  larvae  show  that  the  Walnut  Case-bearer 
is  a  distinct  sj)ecies. 

AcROBAi?is  JUGLAXDis,  LeBarou. — (Fig.  '20,  d) — I  have  bi'ci.1  this  species  from  Hickory,  but  as  Dr. 
LeBarou  has  also  bred  it  abundaiitlj'  from  Walnut,  and  has  siguifled  his  intention  of  describing  it  in 
his  second  annual  Report,  I  adopt  his  proposed  name,  and  shall  content  mjself  with  pointing  out  tlu? 
manner  in  wliich  it  may  generally  be  distinguished  from  nebulo.  Firstly,  by  the  paler  basal  area  of 
the  front  wings,  which  is  sometimes  almost  white,  especially  near  the  costa,  and  by  the  head  and 
shoulders  and  sometimes  the  cf  antennal  horn  partaking  of  this  paler  color.  Secondly,  by  the  darker 
median  space,  the  dark  triangular  costal  spot  not  being  well  relieved  posteriorly,  but  extending  so 
as  sometimes  to  darken  the  whole  space.    Thirdly,  bj'  the  discal  spots  always  being  well  separated. 

Such  are  its  speciflc  characters  as  taken  from  3  hickory-bred  and  U  walnut-bred  specimens; 
but  of  the  former  there  is  1  which  when  placed  alongside  of  some  of  the  more  abnormal  specimens 
of  nebulo,  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  them,  and,  if  chosen  without  knowledge  of  its  larva, 
would  certainly  be  placed  with  them;  while  of  the  latter  there  are  two  which  nearly  as  closely 
resemble  the  variety  nebulella.  In  general  characters,  in  the  size  of  the  brown  triangular  spot,  and 
the  manner  in  whicli  tlie  inner  margin  is  divided,  juglandis  is  intermediate  between  nebulo  and  nebu- 
lella. In  one  of  the  hickory-bred  specimens,  the  general  color  is  quite  warm,  and  the  basal  area 
carneous  rather  than  white. 

iN'ATURAL  Enemies. — From  a  lot  of  parasites  bred  from  this  insect  by 
Dr.  LeBaron,  I  find  four  distinct  Ichneumon-flies.  Thi-ee  of  them  are  black 
with  legs  variously  marked  with  yellow  reddish  and  black,  and  they  all  be- 
long to  the  genus  Pimpla^  which  is  characterized  chiefly  by  the  joints  of  the 
abdomen  being  for  the  most  part  broader  than  long,  and  the  ovipositor  of 
the  female,  with  its  sheaths,  never  extending  more  than  the  length  of  the 
abdomen  beyond  its  tip.  The  fourth  is  a  yellow  fly  belonging  to  the  genus 
Perilitus,  and  as  I  am  kindly  informed  by  Mr.  E.  T.  Cresson,  is  a  ncAv  spe- 
cies.    I  therefore  describe  it  by  the  name  of 

Perilitus  iNDAGATOR,  X.  Sp— Imago— $,  Head  almost  glabrous,  transverse,  deep  honey-yellow, 
the  trophi  pale,  except  the  tips  of  jaws,  which  are  dusky;  ocelli  touching  each  other,  black;  eyes 
black,  very  large,  occupying  nearly  the  whole  side  of  face,  and  with  a  few  very  short  hairs;  antenure 
with  about  24  joints,  pale  fuscous;  reaching,  when  turned  back,  to  about  the  middle  of  abdomen. 
Thorax  honey-yellow  beneath  and  very  slightly  pubescent;  very  finely  pimctured  and  slightly  pubes- 
cent above ;  prothorax  honey-yellow  and  prominently  convex ;  mesothorax  with  lateral  and  posterior 
sutures  black;  metathorax  black.  Abdomen  with  the  pedicel  black  and  slightly  punctured;  depressed, 
narrow  at  base,  widening  behind,  slightly  pubescent  above;  the  other  joints  glabrous,  polished,  deep 
honey-yeUow,  the  second  joint  largest  and  as  long  as  all  the  subsequent  ones  together;  ovipositor  ex- 
tending about  the  length  of  the  abdomen  beyond  its  tip,  rufous  with  the  sheaths  black.  Leys  pale 
honey-yellow,  the  tarsi,  especially  at  tips,  slightly  dusky,  the  hind  femora  and  tibiaj  a  little  dusky 
towards  tips,  and  a  narrow  rufous  ring  at  base  of  former.  Wings  hyaline,  iridescent;  veins  brown; 
stigma  honey-yellow,  with  an  opaque  bi'own  eland;  two  cubital  cells,  the  outer  small,  sub-quadrate; 
the  radial  large;  one  discoidal,  long  and  narrow.     Length,  exclusive  of  ovipositor  O.IS  inch. 

Described  from  1  Q  bred  from  Acrobasis  juglandis,  LeB. 

♦These  are  PimpZa  co«5«i&i/or.  Say  (Ent  of  N.  A.  II,  p.  689,)  Pimpla  indagatrix,  Walsh,  Cress. 
(Trans.   Am.  Ent.  Soc.  Ill,  p.  146,)  and  Pi?npla  annulipes  Br.    (Hist.  Nat.  des  Ins.  Hym.  IV,   p. 


44 


FOURTH  ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 


THE  APPLE-LEAF  SKELETOOTZEE— Pm;)e?ia  Hammondi,  N.  Sp. 


[Fig.  21.] 


fLepidoptera,  Phycidoe.) 

The  leaves  of  apple  trees,  and  especially  of 
young  trees,  are  preyed  upon  by  such  a  host  of 
insects  that  their  histories  alone  would  furnish 
material  for  a  good  sized  volume.  The  little 
worm  which  forms  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
has  never  been  described,  and  yet  it  is  often- 
times so  injurious  and  its  work  is  so  intimately 
associated  with  that  of  one  or  two  other  species, 
with  which  perhaps  it  has  been  confounded, 
than  an  account  of  it  becomes  doubly  necessa- 
ry. Though  having  different  habits,  it  is  quite 
closely  related  to  the  better  known  Eascal 
Leaf-crumpler. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  the  foliage  of  trees  in  young  orchards,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  nursery,  often  wears  a  blighted,  corroded,  rusty  look,  and 
upon  carefully  examining  it  such  appearance  will  be  found  to  result  from 
the  gnawings  of  this  little  Skeletonizer.  A  badly  infested  orchard  or  nur- 
sery presents  such  a  decidedly  seared  aspect  that  it  attracts  attention  at  a 
great  distance ;  and  while  traveling  b}-  rail  1  have  often  pointed  out  the 
work  of  this  insect  and  felt  as  sure  of  its  presence  in  certain  orchards,  as 
though  I  had  closely  examined  the  trees. 

The  rusty  appearance  is  produced  by  the  worm  feeding  solely  on  the 
green  pulpy  parts  of  the  upper  surface  of  the  leaf,  and  thus  leaving  un- 
touched the  more  fibrous  frame-work.  In  some  cases  the  pulpy  portions  are 
eaten  off  very  thoroughly  so  that  nothing  remains  but  the  semi-transparent 
epidermis  below,  and  the  net-work  of  veins ;  but  more  usually  a  certain 
amount  of  the  parenchyma  is  left  and  this  it  is  which  acquires  a  bright  rust- 
red  appearance.  The  worm  always  covers  the  leaf  with  loose  tender  silken 
threads,  with  which  it  mixes  numerous  little  black,,  gunpowder-like,  excre- 
mentitious  grains ;  and  it  is  under  this  covering  that  it  feeds.  It  is  semi- 
gregarious,  either  living  alone  on  the  leaf,  or  in  company  within  a  bunch  of 
leaves  tied  together. 

The  worm  (Fig.  21,  a)  is  usually  of  a  brown  color  marked  on  the 
back  as  at  b,  but  it  varies  from  brown  to  pale  yellowish-brown  or  greenish. 
The  markings  are  pi-etty  constant,  however,  and  the  distinguishing  feature 
consists  of  four  conspicuous  black  shiny  tubercles,  with  a  pale  basal  an- 
nulation  near  the  head,  as  at  c. 

The  chrysalis  is  of  a  light  brown  color  with  no  striking  characters.  It 
is  generally  formed  among*  the  leaves,  in  a  very  slight  cocoon,  and  often  in 
the  folds  made  by  a  leaf-roller  which  is  generally  found  in  company  with 
it.  In  confinement  I  have  known  the  worms  to  go  below  ground  where 
they  cemented  their  cocoons  on  the  outside  with  grains  of  sand. 


THE   STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST.  45 

The  moth  expands  about  0.45  inch  and  has  the  front  wings  of  a  deep 
glossy  purplish-gray,  marked  with  two  transverse  pale  bands,  as  in  the 
figure  ((i).  It  may  be  popularly  known  as  Hammond's  "Knot-horn."  I 
first  received  specimens  of  this  worm  in  the  summer  of  1869,  from  Mr.  A. 
C.  Hammond  of  Warsaw,  and  \V.  T.  Nelson  of  Wilmington,  Ills.  My 
late  associate,  Mr.  AValsh,  had  intended  to  describe  the. species,  and  I  now 
carry  out  his  intention  by  naming  it  in  honor  of  Mr.  Hammond,  whose 
experience  with  it,  as  given  in  the  following  extracts  from  one  of  his  letters, 
will  throw  further  light  on  its  habits : 

In  August  and  September,  1868,  I  noticed  that  the  leaves  of  my  apple 
trees  were  oeing  destroyed  by  some  insect.  An  examination  revealed  the 
fact  that  the  mischief  was  caused  by  a  small  greenish  larva  about  half  an 
inch  long,  with  two  dark  stripes  on  its  back.  Their  mode  of  operating 
appeared  to  be*to  locate  themselves  on  or  near  the  end  of  the  twigs  in  commu- 
nities of  fi*om  three  or  four  to  a  dozen,  and  form  a  dwelling  place  by 
webbing  together  a  quantity  of  leaves  with  a  material  resembling  spider's 
web.     Within  this  shelter  they  live,  feeding  upon  the  leaves. 

In  June,  1869,  I  found  the  same  insect  at  work  in  my  orchard  in  great 
numbers.  At  this  time  the  apples  were  about  one-fourth  grown,  and  we 
found  that  the  worms  generally  inclosed  two  or  three  apples  within  the  mass  of 
leaves  and  that  they  were  feeding  upon  these  as  well  as  upon  the  leaves,  of 
course  causing  them  to  drop.  Their  ravages  wei-e  principally  confined  to 
a  few  vai-ieties.  The  yellow  Bellflower,  Winesap  and  Ben  Davis  appeared 
to  be  their  favorites.  They  had  caused  fully  one-half  of  the  fruit  to  fall 
from  several  hundred  trees  in  my  orchard. 

In  Europe  a  larger  species  of  a  closely  allied  genus  (Acrobasis  consoci- 
ella),  which  I  have  received  from  Mr.  P.  C.  Zeller  of  Prussia,  works  upon 
the  leaves  of  the  oak  in  very  much  the  same  manner  as  ours  does  on  those 
of  the  Apple  ;  and  it  is  one  of  those  insects  attended  by  a  companion  larva, 
Our  insect  seems  to  be  similarly  attended  by  two  companion  larvae,  namely, 
the  two  species  next  to  be  treated  of.  At  least  it  is  almost  always  found  in 
conjunction  with  them.  So  far  as  we  now  know  there  is  but  one  annual  brood 
of  the  Apple-leaf  Skeletonizer;  but  the  moths  issue  very  irregularly,  and 
the  worms  may  be  found  all  through  the  summer,  but  particularly  in  the 
fall,  as  long  as  the  leaves  remain  on  the  tree.  I  have  found  but  partially 
grown  worms  as  late  as  November — unfortunates  that  seemed  doomed  to  a 
wintry  death.  The  moths  commence  to  make  their  appearance  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  St.  Louis  by  the  first  of  May,  but  I  have  had  them  issue  as  late  as  the 
last  of  July. 

Eemedies. — This  insect,  like  a  good  many  others,  shows  a  decided  pre- 
dilection for  unthrifty,  tender  trees,  and  careful,  clean  culture  is  the  best 
preventive.  A  little  hand  picking  at  the  proper  time  will  do  much  to 
prevent  its  injuries,  and  I  incline  to  believe  that  it  may  be  extirpated  by  dust- 
ing the  trees  with  air-slacked  lime.  I  have  bred  from  it  two  small  Ichneu- 
mon-flies, one.  of  which  is  a  Microgaster ;  but  during  "my  absence  last 
summer  the  specimens  were  destroyed  by  mice.  The  larva  of  some  Lace- 
wing  fly  (CAri/so^a)  also  preys  upon  it,  and  its  round  white  cocoon  may  often 
be  found  among  the  skeletonized  leaves,  and  should  be  saved. 


il 


46 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


Pempelia*  Hajvimoxdi,  N.  Sp.  Imago  (Tig.  21,  d).— Average  expanse  0.48  inch.  Front  wings 
glossy  purplish-brown  with  two  silvery  gray  transverse  bands  dividing  the  wing  on  costa  in  about 
three  equal  parts,  the  basal  band  sharply  defined  outwardly  and  always  extending  to  inner  margin, 
the  posterior  band  never  extending  more  than  half  way  across  the  wing,  and  generally  not  more  than 
one-third,  illy  defined.  In  some  specimens  the  basal  transverse  band  is  quite  narrow,  with  the 
basal  space  a  shade  paler  than  the  median:  in  others  the  band  forms  a  double  line.  In  some  speci- 
mens also,  a  narrow  pale  transverse  line  outside  the  second  band,  and  a  pale  terminal  shade,  are 
visible.  Hind  wings  uniformly  paler  gi-ay.  Under  surface  glossy  gi-ay,  with  no  marks,  the  front 
wings  a  shade  darker  than  the  hind.  ^  differs  from  Q  in  the  basal  portion  of  the  antennse  being 
curved,  and  the  curve  filled  with  a  tuft  of  scales. 

DescrilK'd  from  munerous  bred  specimens.  The  species  has  the  general  facies  of  the  European 
Crijptoblales  bistriga,  which  is  a  larger  insect. 

Lar i-a.— Length  0.45—0.56  inch.  General  color  olive,  or  pale  green,  or  brown,  with  a  broad  dark 
stripe  along  each  side  of  back.  Tapers  slightly  both  ways,  joints  4-12  inclusive,  divided  into 
two  transverse  folds.  Freckled  with  numerous  pale  specks  and  with  piliferous  spots,  the  specks 
often  taking  the  form  of  two  pale  broken  lines  along  the  upper  edge  of  dark  stripe.  The  piliferous 
spots  are  pale  with  a  central  black  dot,  and  are  best  seen  in  the  dark  specimens .  On  joints  4-12 
inclusive  they  are  placed  4  in  a  square  on  the  middle  of  the  back,  and  four  more  each  side,  the  two 
upper  lateral  ones  being  on  the  anterior  fold,  the  stigmata  appearing  as  minute  rufous  specks  between 
them.  Both  these  spots  are  often  double.  The  third  lateral  spot  is  on  the  posterior  fold  and  the 
fourth  ;is  Isubventral  and  anterior.  The  hairs  proceeding  from  these  spots  are  long  and  setaceous. 
Head  horizontal,  freckled,  pale  behind,  tinged  with  green  in  front  and  with  a  few  long  hairs.  Joint  1 
also  freckled  and  with  a  large  black  piliferous  tubercle  with  a  pale  basal  annulation  and  in  range  with 
middle  of  dark  stripe.  Joint  2  with  similar  black  tubercles  with  a  white  centi-e  and  replacing  the 
uppermost  lateral  pale  spot.  There  are  but  two  of  the  small  pale  dorsal  piliferous  spots  on  this  joint 
(between  the  tubercles)  as  well  as  on  joint  3.  Beneath  immaculate,  except  that  the  thoracic  legs  have 
sometimes  a  few  dusky  dots. 

In  the  very  dark  specimens  the  head,  cervical  shield  and  anal  plate  remain  pale.  The  cervical 
shield  is  then  well  defined  with  four  small  piliferous  specks  at  anterior  edgae,  and  the  large  shiny 
tubercle  forms  the  extreme  anterior  angle . 

In  many  specimens  the  subdorsal  dark  stripe  is  obsolete  or  sub-obsolete,  but  even  then  the  four 
black  tubercles  on  joints  1  and  2  characterize  the  larva  sufficiently. 

Described  from  numerous  specimens. 

Pupa.— 0.24  inch  long;  rather  stout  and  short,  with  two  minute  diverging  spines  and  a  few  stiff 
bristles  at  tip. 


THE  GEEEN  APPLE  LEAF-TYEE.— To?Yria:  Cinderella,  N.  Sp. 

(Lepidoptera  Tortricid£e .) 


[Kig 


In  company  with  the  foregoing  Leaf  Skel- 
etonizer  may  almost  always  be  found  two  or 
three  different  sjiecies  of  small  green  worms 
which  aid  materially  in  withering  and  denud- 
ing the  leaves  from  young  aj^ple  trees.  These 
worms  bear  so  close  a  resemblance  to  each 
other  that  it  is  almost  imj^ossible  to  character- 
ize them.  Tbe  species  under  consideration  is 
of  a  uniform  yellowish-green  color,  with  the 
head  and  neck  horny  and  a  shade  more  tawny, 
the  head  being  marked  with  a  crescent-shaped 


*  Genera  ami  families,  so-called,  are  often  instituted  on  such  ti-ivial  and  even  variable  characters 
ara^ng  the  smaller  moths,  that  the  proper  placing  of  a  species  becomes  very  difficult,  and  ofttimes 
impossible.  As  Mr.  Walsh  informed  me  in  1S69,  specimens  of  this  moth  were  that  year  sent  to  the 
EnglLSh  microlepidopterist,  Mr.  H.  T.  Stainton,  who  referred  it  to  the  genus  Acrobasis  (See  Am.  Ent. 
I  p.  32) .  Upon  carefully  examiningmy  own  specimens,  I  found  that  the  antennal  characters  of  the 
(f  placed  it  ni  the  genus  Pempelia  rather  than  Acrobasis,  and  I  at  once  suspected  that  the  specimens 
sent  by  Mr.  Walsh  to  Mr.  Stainton  were  all  Q  .  Upon  conmiunicating  with  Mr.  Stainton  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  sending  him  the  (f,  my  supposition  was  verified.  But,  after  all,  as  the  late  Dr.  Clemens 
tritely  remarked,  our  system  of  classification  is  yet  '  'one  of  convenience  and  not  of  nature. ' ' 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  '*' 

black  mark  on  which  are  the  eyelets,  and  another  dusky  spot  at  base  on  the 
sides  (Fig.  22,  a).  It  webs  the  leaves  together,  generally  folding  a  single 
leaf  in  two,  and  living  within  the  fold.  Like  all  true  leaf-folders  it  is  very 
nimble,  and  ^vl•iggles  away  and  drops  to  the  ground  when  disturbed,  while 
the  Skeletonizer  makes  no  especial  effort  to  escape.  In  feeding,  the  Leaf- 
tyer  is  not  confined  to  the  parenchyma. 

This  worm  changes  to  a  chrysalis  within  a  fold  of  the  leaf,  lined  with 
eilk,  and  when  about  to  give  forth  the  moth,  works  its  way  partially  out  at 
one  end  (Fig.  22,  d.)  The  chrysalis  (Fig.  22,  b)  is  peculiar  from  having  a 
rounded  projection  in  front  of  the  head.  The  moth  (Fig.  22,  c)  is  amost 
unassuming  little  body  with  the  front  wings  of  a  dark  ash-gray  without  a 
shade  of  any  other  color,  the  hind  wings  paler. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  this  species  may  often  be  found  more 
numerous  than  the  Skeletonizer,  but  the  latter  predominates,  so  far  as  my 
experience  goes,  in  the  fall.  There  is  much  more  to  observe  yet  of  its  hab- 
its, and  I  now  merely  introduce  it  and  give  it  a  name  because  of  its  associ- 
ation with  the  preceding  species.  The  same  remedies  which  apply  to  that 
will  answer  for  this. 

ToKTRix  CiNDEKELLA,  N.  Sp.— JwiflS'o  (Tig. "22,  c)  .—Alar  expanse  exactly  1-2  inch.  Front  wings 
deeyi  glossy  ash-gi-ay,  immaculate.  Under  a  lens  they  have  an  irrorate  appearance,  while  in  cer 
tain  lights  some  of  the  scales  appear  to  form  a  series  of  darker  transverse  sinuous  lines.  Also  scat- 
tered over  the  wing  may  be  noticed  a  dozen  or  more  reddish  scales,  which  are  not  sufficient,  how- 
ever, to  destroy  the  uniform  immaculate  appearance.  Head,  mouth-parts,  antennre,  legs,  and 
abdomen  of  same  color.  Hind  wings  paler  and  semi-transparent.  Fringes  of  all  wings  concolorous . 
Under  surface  of  wiugs^jale  nacreous,  inclining  to  pale  fulvous  around  the  margins. 

Described  from  two  bred  specimens. 

Lirva  (Fig.  22,  a)  .—Length  0..W  inch.  Form  of  that  of  Acrobasis  nebula,  wrinkled  very  much  in 
the  same  manner.  Color  yellowish-green,  the  piliferous  spots  of  the  same  color,  but  readily  dis- 
tinguished by  their  polished  surface;  they  are  placed  in  a  transverse  row  on  thoracic  joints,  and  on 
joints  4—12  there  are  four  rhomboidaUy  on  dorsum,  two  laterally  on  the  first  fold  and  one  subventral. 
stigmata  between  the  two  lateral  spots,  and  yellowish.  Head  and  cervical  shield  gamboge-yellow; 
only  a  shade  darker  than  body;  labrum  and  two  basal  joints  of  antenna;  paler  or  white,  the  terminal 
joint  llro^vn;  ocelli  on  a  somewhat  crescent  "shaped  black  spot  (the  most  conspicuous  character) 
a  second  dusky  spot  at  base  of  head  laterally.    Legs  immaculate. 

Described  from  many  specimens. 

Pupa  (Fig.  22,  b)  .—Length  0.25— 0.30  inch.  Brown,  characterized  by  a  peculiar  rounded  projection 
from  front  of  head;  by  a  little  pointed  prominence  at  base  of  each  antennas,  and  each  side  of  penul- 
timate abdominal  joint ;  and  by  terminating  in  a  broad  suppressed  piece  which  produces  two  decurved 
hooks.  Posterior  rim  of  abdominal  joints  rasped  dorsally,  and  a  slight  rasped  dorsal  ridge  near  the 
anterior  edge  of  larger  joints.  Legs  reaching  only  to  end  of  wing-sheaths.  The  head-prominence 
vari'-~  in  size  and  slightly  in  form. 


THE  LESSEE  APPLE  LEAF-FOLDER.— Tor/n.r  waZjuorana,  LeBaron. 

(Lepidopter a ,   Tortric idre . ) 

This  is  the  name  given  to  a  small  pale  green  worm,  by  Dr.  LeBaron,* 
who  found  it  doing  much  damage  to  the  young  apple  trees  in  the  nursery 
of  Mr.  D.  B.  Wier,  of  Lacon,  111.,  in  the  summer  of  1870,  but  which  almost 
disappeared  in  1871.     In  habit  and  in  size,  form  and  color,  it  is  the  exact 

♦  First  Ann.  Rep.  on  the  Ins.  of  111.,  pp.  20—23. 


48  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OP 

counterpart  of  the  Leaf-tyer  just  described.*  The  chrysalis  is  also  similar, 
but  the  moth,  instead  of  being  uniformly  ash-gray,  is  of  a  bright  orange, 
but  of  exactly  the  same  size  and  equally  uniform  in  coloration  ;  so  that  by 
imagining  a  bright  golden  orange  instead  of  deep  ash-gray,  Figure  22,  c) 
would  answer  for  this  species. 

I  have  little  doubt  but  this  worm  is  also  very  generally  associated  with 
the  Skeletonizer,  as  I  found  the  latter  had  been  quite  abundant  in  Mr. 
Wier's  nursery  last  fall ;  and  it  very  probably  helped  in  some  degree  to 
cause  the  blasted  appeai-ance  of  the  nursery  which  was  attributed  solely  to 
the  Lesser  Leaf-folder  the  year  before. 

In  the  Prairie  Farmer  for  February  10th,  1872,  M.  Wier  gives  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  the  habits  of  this  Lesser  Leaf-folder : 

This  is  one  of  those  ephemeral,  and  as  we  might  sa}^,  local  insects,  that 
often  do  great  damage  at  some  point,  and  may  not  be  troublesome  again  in 
that  locality  for  years. 

Our  nurseries  were  scourged  with  it  during  the  summer  of  1870  to  so 
great  an  extent  that  from  the  twentieth  of  June  until  the  first  of  September, 
hardly  a  green  leaf  could  be  found  on  the  younger  trees. 

My  attention  was  first  called  to  it  in  the  fall  of  '63,  by  a  neighboring 
nurseryman,  who  wished  me  to  call  and  see  how  the  Codling  moth  (as  he 
termed  it)  had  injured  his  apple  seedlings. 

His  acre  or  more  of  seedlings  could  have  looked  no  worse  if  they  had 
been  sprinkled  over  with  dry  straw,  and  burned  over,  yet,  as  was  the  case 
in  our  nursery,  there  was  scarcely  a  Tortrix  to  be  seen  the  succeeding  sum- 
mer, and  his  seedlings  made  a  very  strong  growth.  I  next  saw  it  In  my 
nursery  in  June  '64,  when  it  swept  over  a  large  lot  of  two-year-old  apple 
trees  in  June,  but  did  no  serious  damage,  as  there  appeared  to  be  but  one 
brood.  It  was  next  seen  as  stated  above  about  the  12th  of  June,  1870, 
involving  the  entire  apple  nursery  here,  and  more  or  less  the  orchards.  At 
that  time  the  caterpillars  were  about  half  grown,  but  were  not  numerous 
enough  to  do  serious  damage.  They  commenced  to  change  to  chrysalids' 
about  the  20th  of  June,  and  in  three  to  four  days,  the  little  bright  oi-ange 
moths  were  flitting  around  amongst  the  trees,  depositing  the  eggs  for  another 
brood  of  worms.  The  eggs  soon  hatched,  and  as  the  second  brood  of  worms 
was  at  least  one  hundred  times  more  numerous  than  the  first,  the  trees  soon 
began  to  show  signs  of  damage.  I  did  not  determine  positively,  but  I  am 
quite  certain  that  this  brood  changed  to  moths  in  about  thirty  days,  or  the 
20th  of  July,  and  they  at  once  laid  their  eggs,  increasing  perhaps  fifty  fold 
(enemies  had  begun  to  prey  upon  them).  They  matured  about  August  20th, 
and  laid  eggs  for  another  brood,  about  equalling  the  second.  These  so  far 
as  I  could  see  were  all  killed  by  frost,  that  were  not  destroyed  by  their  nat- 
ural enemies,  when  about  two-thirds  grown. 

The  first  thing  that  will  be  noticed  where  it  is  present,  is  that  in  look- 
ing along  nursery  rows,  leaves  will  be  seen  with  large  reddish-brown  spots 
on  them.  A  close  examination  will  show  that  these  leaves  have  been  folded 
upwards  until  their  edges  met,  and  are  closely  fastened  together  with  fine 
silken  threads.  Grasp  the  leaf  between  the  thumb  and  finger,  open  it  care- 
fully and  a  small,  greenish,  ver}^  lively  caterpillar  will  be  found  between 
the  folds,  and  if  you  do  not  grasp  the  leaf  so  as  to  squeeze  it,  the  worm 
will  wriggle  out  and  fall  to  the  ground.  It  has  a  pale,  amber-brown  head, 
and  in  many  individuals  the  whole  body  is  of  a  brownish  tint,  especially  on 

*  Specific  diflferences  may  yet  be  discerned,  as  Dr.  LeBaron  has  not  very  minutely  cliaracterized 
his  larva. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST, 


49 


the  anterior  portion,  and  when  near  mature.  We  do  not  usuall_y  observe 
the  caterpilhir  until  well  ^^•own,  for  the  reason  that  when  first  hatehed  it 
appears  to  be  in  the  centre  of  the  opening  bud,  out  of  which  it  eats  the 
heart,  and  of  course  stops  the  growth,  leaving  generallj'  only  three  to  four 
leaves  to  expand.  It  soon  chooses  one  of  these  and  folds  it  up  as  above, 
and  tlien  feeds  on  its  upper  cuticle,  which  makes  the  conspicuous  brown 
blotches  on  the  exposed  side,  or  under  side  of  the  leaf.  One  leaf  is  gener- 
ally more  than  sufficient  to  feed  the  caterpillar.  When  mature  it  lines  the 
sides  of  the  leaf  with  soft  white  silk,  and  changes  to  a  dark  mahoganj^- 
brown  chrysalis j  about  three-tenths  of  an  inch*  long,  slender  and  lively; 
its  most  distinguishing  point  is  a  little  knob  terminating  its  anterior  extrein- 
ity.  In  a  few  days  these  chrysalides  change  to  bright  orange-colored  moths, 
three-tenths  of  an  inch  long  and  spreading  their  wings  about  half  an  inch. 

There  is  no  noxious  insect,  that  has  "come  unde'r  my  observation,  that 
is  more  difficult  to  combat  successfully  than  this.  There  appears  to  be  no  way 
of  getting  at  it  with  any  of  the  remedies  usually  employed  for  destroying  such 
insects.  While  it  is  young  it  is  too  inconspicuous  to  be  seen,  and  'is  always 
covered  by  a  close  web,  or  hid  in  the  folds  of  the  young  leaves,  and  when 
It  becomes  larger  it  is  snugly  sealed  up  between  the  folds  of  a  leaf,  at  all 
times  out  of  reach  of  liquid  or  dr}'  applications. 

The  only  remedy  that  I  can  suggest  is  the  tedious  one  of  looking  over 
the  trees  about  the  time  the  first  brood  of  larva?  are  coming  to  maturity,, 
carefully  picking  the  injured  leaves  off",  with  the  worms  in  them  and  destroy- 
ing them.  Yet  the  little  things  are  so  delicate,  and  so  easily  destroyed  by 
natural  causes,  that  our  labor  in  doing  this  Avould  be  more  than  half  the 
time  thrown  away,  for  the  reason  that  a  first  brood  is  no  sure  sign  that  there 
will  be  a  second,  and  a  second  that  there  will  be  a  third;  the  weather  must 
be  continuously  dry  and  hot  for  them  to  breed  to  a  noxious  degree.  Thus, 
we  had  here  ten  times  as  numerous  a  first  brood  the  spring  of  1871  as  we 
had  the  spring  of  1870;  yet  the  last  season  they  did  but  little  harm,  while 
the  year  before  they  swept  everything  before  them.  Yet  these  two  seasons 
were  quite  similar  in  this  neighborhood,  and  the  difference  in  their  ravao-es 
can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  hypothesis  that  being  numerous  two  years  ' 
in  succession  in  the  same  place,  their  natural  enemies  bred  up  also,  an<l 
destroyed  them. 


THE  APPLE-LEAF  BVCCVLATJilX-Bucculatrix  pomifoUelhi,   Clew. 

(Lepidoptera  Tineida;.) 

This  is  a  small  insect  hitherto  com- 
paratively little  known,  and  which  yet 
attracted  some  attention  during  the  past 
two  years.  It  was  sent  to  the  office  on 
several  occasions  for  name,  and  was 
found,  though  by  no  means  abundantly. 
in  several  orchards,  and  more  espe- 
cially in  that  of  Mr.  T.  E.  Allen  of 
Allenton.  It  cannot  be  classed  as  a 
very  injurious  insect  with  us,  but  to 
illustrate  how  unduly  multiplied  it  may 

time  become,  and  the  importance  ofa  proper  knowledge  of  its  habits.  I 

4 


at  any 


50  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

will  quote  the  following  paragraph  which  was  addressed  last  spring  to  the 
Rural  New    Yorker: 

While  visiting  the  grounds  of  I.  M.  Babcock  &  Sons  in  Brighton,  near 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  we  entered  a  tield  of  eight  hundred  apple  trees  in  the  very 
zenith  of  their  bearing  capacity,  loaded  down  with  the  finest  of  winter  fruit. 
But  mv  attention  Avas  directed  to  the  branches  of  the  trees,  which,  to  my 
utter  surprise,  were  thoroughly  lined  with  these  insects  or  minute  worms 
inclosed  in  their  silk-like  cocoon,  and  tightly  attached  to  the  small  branches 
which  you  will  readily  perceive;  also  the  leaves  of  the  trees  are  infested 
with  a  similar  worm  incased  within  the  leaf,  from  one-fourth  to  one-half  an 
inch  in  length — what  some  Avould  call  the  leaf-rollers.  The  effect  of  their 
ruinous  work  on  the  trees  is  to  almost  denude  them  of  their  leaves,  and 
greatly  to  diminish  the  future  prospects  for  fruit.  Now,  Mr.  Editor,  through 
the  Rural  New  Yorker,  we  shall  look  for  some  solution  of  the  nature  and 
character  of  this  most  formidable  enemy  that  has  appeared  upon  our  apple 
trees.  I  send  you  a  branch  that  has  the  insects  on,  and  the  leaf  which  I 
believe  contains  the  parent,  which  is  the  cause  of  all  the  mischief.  "Will  you 
have  this  subject  investigated  b}'  competent  hands,  and  report  through  the 
Bnral  ? .         ' 

H.  N.  Langworthy. 

The  little  worm  which  is  the  cause  of  such  mischief  feeds  externally 
tipon  the  leaf,  and  is  quite  active,  letting  itself  down  by  a  web  when  dis- 
turbed. It  measures,  when  full}^  grown,  nearly  one-half  inch  in  length,  and 
is  of  a  dark  green  color,  with  the  joints  swollen  so  as  to  look  like  a  series  of 
beads,  with  a  small  head  held  horizontal!}',  and  with  sparse,  short  hairs  over 
the  body.  It  has  the  normal  complement  of  legs,  namely,  ten  false  and  six 
true  ones.  When  full  grown  it  spins  a  dirt}'  white  cocoon,  which  i«  charac- 
terized by  being  ribbed  longitudinally  (Fig.  23,  h,  represents  one  enlarged). 
Within  this  cocoon  it  soon  assumes  the  pupa  state,  in  which  state  it  is  of  a 
dark  brown  color,  rough-punctured  on  the  back,  and  with  a  smooth,  pol- 
ished anal  cap.  The  pupa  works  itself  partly  out  of  the  cocoon  and  gives  forth 
a  little  moth  (Fig.  23,  c,  enlarged,  the  hair  lines  showing  the  natural  size), 
which  is  of  a  dirty-white,  or  gray  color,  marked  with  brown  as  in  the  figure. 
It  was  first  described  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 
of  Philadelphia,  for  1860,  p.  211. 

In  this  latitude  the  worm  does  its  principal  damage  during  the  montli 
■of  September,  and  the  greater  number  of  cocoons  are  formed  during  the 
latter  part  of  that  month  and  during  October.  The  moths  commence  to 
issue  in  April,  and  immediately  deposit  their  eggs  on  the  tender  leaves. 
Fresh  cocoons  I  have  found  as  early  as  the  first  of  June,  and  there  are  at 
least  two,  and  perhaps  more,  broods  of  the  worm  during  the  year. 

Remedies. — The  great  peculiarity  of  this  insect  is  its  habit  of  forming 
its  little  ribbed  cocoon  in  company  on  the  bark — a  habit  which  at  once  give? 
us  the  mastery  over  it;  for  as  the  pupa  remains  in  the  cocoon  all  through 
the  winter,  we  can  make  war  upon  it  at  any  time  during  that  season.  When 
the  insect  is  abundant  these  cocoons  will  absolutely  cover  the  smaller  twigs  in 
the  manner  shown  at  Figure  23,  a  ;  and  they  will  be  found  even  on  the  larger 
branches  and  trunk.  Anything  applied  to  the  tree  with  the  object  of  kill- 
ing these  pupfe,  must  be  of  an  oily  nature,  so  as  to  readily  soak  through  the 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


51 


oocoon.  I  have  expci'imoutally  proved  that  an  application  of  kerosene  oil 
is  death  to  them,  and  thuugli  I  have  had  no  opportunity  of  testing  it  on  an 
■extensive  scale,  I  have  little  hesitancy  in  advising  its  use,  or  that  of  linseed 
oil.  Alkalies  might  also  be  tried.  The  best  time  to  apply  the  remedy 
■would  doubtless  be  in  March,  when  tree-growth  recommences;  but  it 
must  not  be  delayed  beyond  the  end  of  that  month,  when  the  moths  com- 
mence to  issue.  The  most  expedient  way  of  applying  the  kerosene  would 
be  by  aid  of  a  force  pump  and  spray  machine  or  atomizer,  and  it  would  pay 
well  to  first  vigorously  prune  a  tree  that  is  badl}'  infested.  The  kerosene 
will  not  injure  the  tree  if  applied  in  a  diluted  form;  and  it  may  be  «o 
applied  b}'  means  of  the  spray  machine. 

The  only  other  injurious  insect  known  to  form  cocoons  in  company  is 
a  little  species  belonging  to  the  same  genus  (B.  thuieUa,  Pack),  which  is 
described  by  Dr.  A.  S.  Packard,  Jr.,*  as  being  common  on  the  leaves  of 
A  cedar  tree  (I  presume  the  Eed  Cedar  is  intended),  but  whose  cocoon  is 
smooth  instead  of  ribbed.  This  species,  which  I  have  not  met  with,  is 
preyed  upon  by  a  minute  Chalcis-fly,  allied  to  the  genus  Eulophus,  and  our 
apple-leaf  Bucculatrix  is  similarly  attacked  by  some  such  parasite,  as  many 
of  the  cocoons  may  be  found  with  minute  round  holes  at  one  end,  through 
which  such  parasites  have  issued. 

BrccuLATRix  POMIFOLIELLA,  Clem.— Larva. — Cylindrical  and  subnioniliform;  tai)ers  anterioilv 
and  posteriorly ;  with  punctiform  points  and  isolated  hairs ;  first  segment  with  rather  abundant  dorsa  I 
hairs ;  thoracic  feet  three ;  abdominal  four  and  very  short,  terminal  one  pair.  Head  small ,  ellipsoidal , 
brown:  body  dark  yellowish-green,  tinged  witli  reddish  anteriorly;  hairs  blackish  and  short.— 
Oeinens. 

Pupa. — O.l'i  inch  long.  Amber-brown.  Head  often  ending  in  a  little  point.  Dorsum  sha- 
greened,  except  a  hind  rim  on  each  joint  which  is  slightly  ridged  and  smooth.  Penultimate  joint 
longest  and  most  slender.  Apical  joint  blunt,  with  au  anterior  carinated,  transverse  ridge  above 
and  sometimes  forming  a  point  at  each  side.  Legs  reaching  to  penultimate  joint:  wing  sheaths 
(which  are  paler)  to  the  preceding  one. 


THE   APPLE-TWIG  BORE^— Bostrichus  [Amphicenis']  bicavdatns,  Say 


(Coleopetra,  Ptinida;) 


(Kig.  24.]  There   is  a   little    brown 

cj-lindrical  beetle,  which  is 

so  common  in  Missouri,  and 

is  so  veiy  ajjt  to  attract  the 

notice  of  nurserymen,  tha^ 

numerous  specimens  are  re- 
ceived at  my  office  every  spring  and  fall.  I  have  jiassed  it  by  unnoticed  in 
previous  reports,  in  hope  of  completing  its  natural  history  before  treating 
of  it;  but  to  satisfy  the  numerous  inquirers,  I  present  the  above  figures 
with  the  accompanying  short  account  of  the  beetle. 


»  First  Ann.  Rep.  on  the  Inj.  and  Bsn.  Ins.  of  Mass.  p.  24. 


52 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


It  is  a  modest  looking  dark  brown  insect,  varjnng  from  l-5th  to  2-5ths  of 
an  inch  in  length,  the  thorax  rounded  and  rough-punctured,  especially  in  front 
where  it  is  produced  into  two  little  horns,  and  covered  with  small  rasp-like 
prominences.  The  wing-covers  are  also  rough-punctured,  and  while  in  the 
female  (Fig  24,  a)  they  have  but  a  slight  keel-like  elevation  at  the  hind 
end,  they  are  furnished  in  the  male  (Fig.  24,  h)  Avith  two  little  horns,  from 
which  characteristic  the  specific  name  (two-tailed)  is  derived.  The  species- 
is  not  mentioned  by  Harris,  and  does  not  occur  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard^ 
but  is  found  in  the  whole  countiy  between  the  Alleghany  and  Eocky 
Mountains,  becoming  more  and  more  common  as  we  progress  westward, 
and  being  most  common  in  the  States  immediately  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
Its  range  southward  is  at  least  as  far  as  Texas. 

The  holes  made  in  the  twigs,  generallj-  have  their  entrance  just  above  a 
bud  or  fork  as  at  Figure  25,  c.  I  have  never  known  this  insect  to  bore  more 
than  one  and  a  half  inches  into  the  twig  (Fig.  25,  d),  and  the  holes  are  gen- 
erally made  downwards,  and  in  wood  of  the  previous  year's  growth,  though 
I  have  seen  them  exceptionally  bored  upward  and  in  three-year-old  wood. 
The  beetles  seem  to  prefer  some  varieties,  such  as  Benoni  and  Eed  June,  to 
other  varieties  of  the  Apple,  and  though  they  likewise  occur  in  grape,  pear 
and  peach  stems,  I  have  never  found  them  in  those  of  the  crab  apple. 

Both  the  male  and  female  beetles  bore  these  holes,  and  may  alwaj-s  be 
found  in  them,  head  downwards,  during  the  winter  and  spring  months. 
The  holes  are  made  for  food  and  protection,  and  not  for  breeding  purposes. 
Indeed,  common  as  this  insect  is,  its  preparatory  stages  are  entirely  un- 
known, and  that  person  who  will  ascertain  its  larval  histor}-,  will  confer  » 
favor  on  the  community.  I  have  bred  a  very  closely  allied  species  (Sinoxy- 
lon  hasillare,  Say),  which  not  only  inhabits  the  wood  of  apple  trees,  but  is 
found  in  that  of  peach  and  hickorj^  trees  and  in  grape  canes.  Its  larval 
habits,  which  I  shall  presently  illustrate,  will  throw  some  light  on  those  of 
our  Apple-twig  Borer. 

Indeed,  according  to  Mr.  S.  H.  Kriedelbaugh,  of  Clarinda,  Iowa,*  both 
sexes  of  this  last  have  be«n"  found  in  company  during  the  winter,  in  the 
sai>wood  of  "forest  trees j"  and  though  we  are  not  informed  as  to  the  par- 
ticular kind  of  forest  trees,  j^et,  since  the  Oak  is  the  most  common  in  our 
forests,  we  may  infer  that  this  tree  is  intended,  among  the  rest.  The  j^roba- 
bilities  are,  therefore,  that  our  Twig  Borer  breeds  under  the  bark  of  oak 
trees,  and  that  it  is  in  such  situations  that  we  must  search  for  its  larva,  t 
That  it  so  breeds  in  the  forest  and  not  in  the  orchard,  is  rendered  still  more 
probable  Avhen  we  consider  that  its  larval  habits  have  so  long  evaded  de- 

*  Western  Pomologist,Vio\ .  '71. 

t  It  maj^,  and  doubtless  docs,  breed  in  other  kinds  of  wood  besides  oak.  I  have  often  found  the 
beetles  boring  into  grape-canes  for  food  and  shelter,  with  no  other  indications  of  breeding  in 
them,  than  we  And  in  apple  twigs  similarly  bored.  Dr.  Henry  Shimer,  in  a  communication  to  the 
American  Entomological  Society,  in  September,  1868,  speaks  of  finding  them  in  grape-canes,  and  he 
also  tound  certain  larvie  in  such  canes,  which  he  conjectured  were  the  larvae  of  bicaudatus.  But, 
notwithstanding  Dr.  Packard  (Guide  p.  472),  in  speaking  of  the  species,  briefly  describes  its  larva 
which  he  received  from  Dr.  Shimer,  it  is  evident  that  the  latter  gentleman  has  given  no  proof  of  the 
soundness  of  his  conjecture,  and,  as  he  informs  me  by  letter,  he  cannot  now  find  his  notes  on  the 
subject.  And  since  so  far  as  it  goes,  the  description  accords  with  the  larva  of  Sinoxtjlon  basillare. 
Say,  which,  as  I  shall  presently  show,  inhabits  grape-stems;  the  probabilities  are  that  Dr.  Packard's 
description  was,  in  reality,  from  this  last  named  species. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


53 


tection.  We  may  furthermore  infer  that  it  comes  to  maturity  late  in  the 
summer,  and,  flying  into  our  orchards  and  vineyards,  the  beetles  bore  into 
twigs  during  the  fixll.  Here  winter  overtakes  them,  and  they  hibernate  in  the 
holes,  some  of  them  dying;  but  most  of  them  surviving  till  spring,  when 
they  continue  feeding  for  a  while,  and  afterwards  repair  to  the  forest  again 
to  propagate  their  kind.  I  have  caught  both  sexes  flying  as  early  as  the 
middle  of  March,  during  genial,  sunny  weather. 

The  bored  twigs  most  always  break  off  by  the  wind,  or  else  the  hole 
catches  the  water  in  spring  and  causes  an  unsound  place  in  the  tree.  If  the 
twig  does  not  break  ofi",  it  withers  and  the  leaves  turn  brown.  The  only 
way  to  counteract  the  injuries  committed  by  this  beetle,  is  to  prune  the  in- 
fested twigs,  whenever  found,  and  take  great  care  to  burn  them  with  their 
contents.  It  is  in  the  nursery  that  most  injury  is  done,  as  the  -insect  is  sel- 
dom numerous  enough  in  an  orchard  of  large  trees  to  more  than  cause  what 
the  philosophic  orchardist  has  been  w^ont  to  term  "a  good  summer  pruning." 

The  genus  Bostrichus  was  formerly  considered  the  type  of  a  Family  (Bos- 
TRICHID.^;,)  to  which  older  authors  referred  our  insects;  but  the  family  is  now 
generally  united  with  the  Ptinid.e,  to  which  hicaudatus  is  consequently 
referred. 


INSECTS   INJURIOUS   TO   THE   GRAPE-VINE. 

In  continuing  the  articles  under  this  head,  considerable  space  is  devoted 
in  this  Eeport  to  the  Grape  root-louse,  as  it  is  deemed  of  most  importance. 
As  illustrative  of  the  habits  of  the  Apple-twig  Borer,  I  will,  however,  first 
introduce — 

THE  RED-SIIOULI)ERED  ^l^ OXXIjO^— Sinoxylon  basillare,  8ay. 

(Coleopti'i-a,  Ptiuidre.) 


This  insect  is  not  so  commonly  seen 
in  the  beetle  state  as  is  the  preceding,  but 
unfortunately  it  is  much  better  known  in 
its  larva  state;  and  as  it  belongs  to  the 
same  Family  and  is  very  closely  allied  to 
the  Apple-twig  Borer,  its  habits  in  the 
early  stages  may  serve  as  an  additional 
<»  clue  to  those  of  its  close  ally,  and  the  ac- 
companying figures  of  the  larva  and  pupa  of  the  Sinoxijlon,  may  be  consid- 
ered illustrative  of  the  general  appearance  which  the  yet  unknown  larva 
and  pu])a  of  the  Bostrichus  will  present.* 


.f  nJP''fc"  ^'•I-"*"?'',^"!^'''}"^^'  l}"^^"?'!-.  tliit  because  the  larva  of  Sr>0T2//07!  iasi/Zare  has  lejrs,  that 
ol  Bostrichus  bicauiatus  has  legs  also;  for  niiny  Bos/nc^iis  hirva;  are  known  to  be  legless. 


54 


FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


This  beetle  (Fii^.  26,  c)  is  black,  but  easily  recognized  by  having  a  large 
reddish  spot  at  the  base  of  each  wing-cover.*  It  measures  about  I-5th  of 
an  inch.  The  antennse  and  palpi  are  rufous.  The  thorax  is  punctured  and 
armed  with  short  spines  in  front.  The  wing-covers  are  rough-punctured^ 
and  have  the  appearance  of  being  cut  off  obliquely  behind,  the  outer  edge 
of  the  cut  portion  being  armed  with  three  teeth  each  side.  The  larva  (Fig. 
26,  a)  is  a  yellowish,  wrinkled,  arched  grub  with  a  very  small  head.  Tin- 
thoi'acic  joints  are  swollen  and  furnished  with  six  small  legs. 

The  ])upa  (Fig.  26,  b)  is  formed  in  the  galleries  gnawed  by  the  larva. 
Ft  is  pale  yellowish,  and  exhibits  the  characters  of  the  futui'e  beetle.    ' 

Last  spring  Dr.  0.  W.  Spaulding,  of  Kirkwood,  brought  me  certain 
grape  stems  which  were  being  badly  gouged  under  the  bark  and  bored  more 
or  less  in  the  heart,  by  a  small  grub.  He  met  with  such  injui'ed  grape-stem* 
([uite  frequently,  and  feared  that  the  insect  which  caused  the  trouble  might 
become  a  serious  impediment  to  grape-growing.  The  beetles  most  numer- 
ously reared  from  these  canes  proved  to  be  the  Ked-shouldered  .Sinoxylon.-j- 

Dr.  Harris  (Lij.  Ins.  p.  92),  and  Dr.  Fitch  after  him  (3d  Eep.  §  158)^ 
speak  of  this  insect  as  living  in  the  trunk  of  the  Shagbark  hickory,  boring 
holes  straight  towards  the  heart  of  the  tree,  and  changing  to  the  pupa  state 
at  the  inner  ends  of  their  burrows.^  But  this  is  not  the  height  of  its 
offense,  for  I  have  found  it  boring  into  apple  trees,  and  Mr.  J.  M.  Beecher, 
of  J^ewport,  Franklin  count}',  has  forwarded  me  a  number  of  specimens 
with  the  statement  that  he  finds  them  penetrating  to  the  heart  of  the  trunk 
and  main  branches  of  some  of  his  peach  and  apple  trees,  and  they  have 
caused  the  death  of  two  of  the  former  and  one  of  the  latter  kind. 

The  only  way  to  get  rid  of  this  pest  is  to  burn  the  infested  wood. 


SiNOXYLOX  IJ.VSir.I.AKi;, 

[Fig.  :i7.] 


-Lirva  (Fig.  37,  head  and  thoracic  joint.s  enlarged) — Color  yi-Uow- 
ish.  Body  smooth,  arched  and  wriukletl  ti-ansversely.  Tho- 
racic joints  much  enlarged,  the  prothoracic  being  slightly  horny 
iit  the  anterior  margin  a1)ove.  Six  setoiis  legs  carried  forward 
clo.se  to  the  bo<ly,  the  lirst  jiair  (Fig.  27,  c)  bent  closely  under 
the  head,  the  .second  pair  (d)  longer  and  straight,  the  third  pair 
(c)  short.  Stigmata!),  and  very  ditlicult  to  detect.  Head  small, 
liorny,  rounded,  rather  dar)|er  tlian  body:  antennie  conspicu- 
)us,  3-jointed;  epistoma  dark  brown,  not  as  wide  aslabrum; 
'abrum  dark  brown,  rounded,  covered  and  fringed  with  stifi' 
lairs;  mandibles  stout,  jet  black,  triangular,  edges  entire  (b 
.eitreseuting  them  when  open) ;  maxilhe  very  .small  with  an  elon- 
gated basal  piece,  and  an  inner  lol)e  covered  with  hair;  maxil- 
lary palpi  with  two  indistinc/t  joints;  labium  inconspicuous  with 

no  palpi  apjiarenf .     Length  ().:J0  inch. 

r)escribe<l  from  three  alcoholic  si)ecimeus. 

Pupa  (Fig.  -US,  b)  .—Yellowish,  elongate,  with  all  the  parts  of  the  future  beetle  distinct,  the  head 

at  right  angles  witli  thorax,  the  aatenn;e  laid'straight  under  the  thorax,  the  last  pair  of  legs,  except 

the  tar.si  hidden  under  the  wingsheaths.     Length^0.;50  inch. 
Described  from  se%'eral  specimens. 

*  Some  specimens  occm'  which  are  entirely  black,  the  reddish  spots  being  ob.solete;  but  they  ai-e 
excei)tional. 

t  [  have  also  reared  from  similar  cAnea ',CalUdium  anoanttm.  Say,  and  Dr.  Shimer  in  the  i)aper 
alluded  to,  on  page  'ri,  states  that  he  has  likewise  bi-ed  this  species  as  well  as  Lyctus  opaculus,  Lee. 
I  have  also  hrvA  Elaphidion  parallclum.  Lee.  abundantly  from  such  canes. 

I  Dr.  Geo.  H.  Horn  (P.  K.  S.  1'.  [,  j).  2!))  also  refers  to  this  larva  as  infesting  hickory  trunks, 
but  neither  of  these  authors  give  any  tlescription  of  the  larva. 


TllK    STATK    ENTOMOLOGIST.  DO 


On  the    Cause   of   Deterioration   in   some    of    our    Native    Grape-vines,    and    one    of    the 
probable  reasons  why  European  Vines  have  so  generally  failed  with  us. 

THE  GRAPE-LEAF  GXLJj-hOll^E— Phylloxera  vitifolia'*  Fitch. 

The  experience  of  the  ])ast  year,  eiiubles  me  to  add  iiuicli  of  interest 
and  importance  to  last  year's  account  of  the  above  insect.  This  experience 
has  already  been  made  public  in  an  article  ])ublished  in  the  Rural  New 
Yorker,  and  reproduced  in  the  Rural  IP'orW  of  St.  Louis.  I  am  pleased  to 
know  that  the  views  there  set  forth  receive  the  indorsement  of  such  an  ex- 
perienced and  practical  nuui  as  Mr.  Geo.  llusmann,  the  well  known  i;-rape 
authority  in  our  State,  and  editor  of  the  vineyartl  department  of  the  last- 
named  journal,  f 

It  is  well  known  that  nearly  all  the  varieties  of  the  European  grape- 
vine (^Vttis  vinifera)  have,  in  the  end,  proved  valueless  when  introduced  and 
cultivated  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States.  The  majority  of  them 
grow  well  at  first,  and  a  few  exceptional  cases  might  be  mentioned  where 

•This  is  the  .specilic  lumu-  ))y  wliicli  [  last  year  gave  au  account  of  this  grape-vine  insect;  and  I 
employ  it  again  for  that  very  reason,  and  for  the  further  reason  that  it  is  the  name  most  familiar  to 
the  American  reader.  I  have  alreadv  given  aiy  opinion  (.'Srd  Re;.>.  j).  i)5,  note)  that  though  the 
name  is  objectionable,  it  ought  jierhaps"  to  be  retaine<l.  It  is  <louljtful,  howt'ver,  whether  many  other 
entomologists  will  agree  with  m.';  and  while  I  l)elieve  in  carrying  out  the  "law  of  priority"  to  its 
fullest  extent,  consistent  with  reason,  tliere  are  many  cases'  where  it  must  give  way  to  that  of 
"accord."  The  present  is  perhaps  just  such  a  case;  for"aside  from  the  technical  objection,  Pr.  Fitch 
knew  so  little  of  the  insect's  true  characters,  when  he  named  it,  that  he  cannot  be  said  to  have  de- 
scribed it,  and  did  not  refer  it  to  its  proper  genus  which  was  already  erected  to  receive  it.  His  name 
will,  therefore,  doubtless  give  way  to  that  of  Phylloxera  i'a.s/fl/n>,  "which  I'lanchou  first  gave  to  the 
root-inhabiting  form,  and  which  "has  generally  been  recognized  ain'oad.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
Westwood's  name  Peritymbia  vilisana,  which  was  also  jjroposed  for  the  same  insect  in  1868,  in  a  com- 
munication to  the  Ashmolean  Society  of  Oxford,  P^ngland. 

While  1  would  not,  therefore,  carry  out  the  "law  of  jirioritj'"  too  relentlessly,  I  have  no  sym-r 
pathy  or  patience  with  a  certain  mo<lern  system  of  attaching  to  an  insect  the  name 'of  the  author  "who 
erects  the  last  new  genus,  instead  of  that'of  the  desci-iljer  of  the  si)ecies.  This  pernicious  system — 
which  if  not  frowned  down,  will  lead  to  utter  confusion  and  land  us  in  al)solute  chaos — seems  to  be 
getting  moi-e  and  more  fashional)le  among  naturalists  in  thir.  country,  and  I  regret  to  say,  among 
some  entomologists.  T'hat  man,  in  my  opinion,  is  no  true  naturalist,  who  can  iiass  through  the 
museums  of  this  country  and  witness' the  manner  in  which  the  names  of  tlie  older  authors  are 
ignored,  without  feeling,-;" of  just  indignation!  He  will  very  naturally  look  upon  it  as  an  attempt  on 
the  part  of  modern  ingrates  to  rob  well-earned  and  long- worn  laurels"  from  the  older  authors,  whose 
spirits  still  survive,  if  their  bodies  are  prevented  Ity  the  grave,  from  I'ebuking  the  insult.  Aside 
from  the  moral  injustice  of  such  a  rule,  it  is  Inirtful  to  any  science  in  its  j)ractical  application;  for, 
as  genera  multiply,  the  student  will  tlnd  increasing  ditliciilty  in  referring  to  original  descriptions; 
whereas,  by  the  old  established  rule,  the  describer's  name  i.s  an  infallil)le  index,  ni  lists  or  cata- 
logues, such  as  that  of  Colcoplcra  hy  I.eConte,  and  that  of  Bombycida  by  Cirote  &  Robinson,  where 
the  synonyms  arc  given,  this  ditliciilty  does  not  present  itself,  though  the  moral  objection  remains. 
As  the  science  of  entomology  groMs,"aiul  .synonymy  multiplies,  it  will,  in  my  opinion,  become  more 
and  more  necessary  to  attach  the  author's  name  to  a  species  in  ordinary  works,  and  any  system 
which  will  require  a  continual  changing  of  authorship  should  not  be  countenanced.  Species— how- • 
ever  much  they  may  be  changed  and  modilied  in  the  course  of  ages— have  for  all  the  purposes  of  the 
naturalist  a  permanency  which  under  the  old  rule  Avould  render  our  specilic  nomeiudatiire  like 
permanent,  and  secure  it  against  constant  change;  whereas,  genera — though  in  the  projier  sense  they' 
may  have  a  similar  permanency — are,  for  all  practical  i)ur|)oses,  more  the  creatiiHis  of  man  than  of 
Nature;  and  as  they  have  been  unstable  and  changeable  in  the  past,  so  they  will  be  in  the  future,  and 
our  generic  nomenidature  will  ever  have   an  indehnite,  protean,  insecure  character. 

In  Europe  this  system  is  almost  universally  ostracised;  and — let  botanists  and  ornithologists  do 
as  thev  please — it  is'to  be  hoped  it  will  not  grow  in  favor  among  entomologists  in  America.  It  was 
not  followed  liy  any  of  the  older  authors,  and  I  am  glad  to  know  that  some  of  our  leading  living 
entomologists, 'including  Dr.  (i.  II.  Horn,  Mr.  K.  T.  Cressou,  Mr.  P.  K.  Uhler,  Mr.  J.  A.  Lintner, 
Dr.  Asa  Fitch,  and  Dr.  LeIJaion,  are  opiiosed  to  and  do  not  ailopt  it.  In  these  Kejiorts— how- 
ever prevalent  the  contrarv  fashion  may  become — I  shall  always  attach  to  the  species  the  name  of 
its  first  describer;  and  shall  never  clian'ge  the  orthography',  even  of  a  name  that  may  be  gramma t- 
icallj"  objectionable,  until  corrected  by  the  author  himself.  " 

t  Mr.  Husmannsavs  :  (Rur.  IK. ,  Nov.  18,  1871);  "  We  copy  the  following  from  the  Tlura/ .Veic  I'or^-- 
cr,  and  think  it  one  of' the  most  interesting  |)ajiers  we  have  read  for  a  long  time — one  that  will  be  of 
more  use  to  the  vintner  in  his  selection  of  varieties,  and  throw  more  light  on  the  deterioration  of  for- 
merly healthy  varieties  than  anything  that  has  been  said  or  done  lately.  Tlie  grape  growers  of  the 
country  owe  I'rof.  Itiley  a  debt  of' gratitude  for  his  thorough  and  scientific  investigation  of  this  sub- 
ject." 


50  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

some  of  them,  such  as  Black  Hamburg  and  Chasselas,  have  even  fruited 
successful]}^  for  many  years,  especially  when  isolated  or  trained  against 
walls;  while  they  more  generallj^  do  well  when  isolated  in  cold  houses. 
But  the  general  truth  of  the  first  statement  holds  good.  It  is  also  well 
known  that  some  of  our  native  vines,  which  for  a  while  were  universal  fa- 
vorites on  account  of  their  productiveness,  vigor  and  other  excellent  quali- 
ties, have  of  late  years  sadly  deteriorated.  Among  such  the  Catawba  was 
for  a  long  time  the  popular  grape;  but  its  cultivation  is  now  entirely  aban- 
doned in  many  parts  of  the  Mississippi  Valle}-,  and  even  at  Hammondsport 
and  other  parts  of  New  York,  and  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  where  it  is  still  largely" 
cultivated,  I  learn  from  experienced  grape-growers  that  it  is  fast  on  the  de 
•cline. 

This  deterioration — this  failure,  has  been  attributed  to  a  variety  of 
causes,  for  in  the  absence  of  anything  definite  and  ascertainable  to  keep  it 
within  bounds,  the  speculative  turn  of  our  minds  is  sure  to  have  full  scope- 
and  grasj^ing  at  every  shadow  of  probability,  leave  no  possible  theory  un- 
searched.  As  in  all  such  cases,  also,  the  mind  gets  lost  in,  and  is  satisfied  to 
vaguely  rest  with,  the  theory  least  provable;  and  to  some  occult  and  mys- 
terious change  of  climate  we  are  at  last  satisfied  to  attribute  the  change 
though  if  the  meteorological  records  were  carefully  examined,  they  would 
probably  show  no  difference  in  the  mean  annual  condition  of  our  climate 
during  the  past  half  century. 

It  is  very  natural  to  suppose  that  vines  of  European  origin  should  be 
less  hardy  in  this  country  than  our  native  varieties,  that  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Spanish  Chestnut,  the  English  G-ooseberry,  etc.,  etc.,  there  is  something  in 
our  climate  which  precludes  their  flourishing  as  well  here  as  there.  I  would 
by  no  means  deny  that  such  is  the  case,  for  it  is  this  verj^  comparative  ten- 
derness which  predisposes  them  the  more  to  the  destructive  agent  of  which 
I  am  about  to  speak.  Yet  when  we  consider  that  in  some  parts  of  Europe, 
where  the  Vine  flourishes,  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  are  as  great  as  here  ; 
that  we  possess  a  great  variety  of  soil  and  climate,  and  that  by  covering  and 
other  modes  of  protection  in  winter,  we  maj^,  where  necessary,  counteract 
the  rigor  of  the  latter — it  would  appear  that  we  certainly  have  attributed 
too  much  to  climatic  influence :  and  such  a  view  is  strengthened  by  the  fact 
that  our  native  varieties,  if  free  from  the  insect  which  forms  the  subject  of 
his  article,  usually  do  well  when  cultivated  in  Europe,  and  further  that  the 
Vitis  vinifera  is  not  a  native  of  Europe,  but  of  western  Asia. 

The  above  reflections  are  of  a  genei-al  character,  but  apply  more  par- 
ticularly to  the  great  State  of  Missouri,  which  is  admitted  to  be,  in  many 
parts,  eminently  adapted,  both  by  soil  and  climate,  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
Vine. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  the  European  vines  do  well  in  California,  out- 
side of  and  beyond  the  more  favorable  clime  in  that  portion  of  the  continent, 
is,  no  doubt,  because  the  insect  which  here  aflects  them,  like  many  other 
species  common  on  this  side  of  the  Itocky  Mountains,  has  not  yet  crossed  to 
the  other  side.  If  such  is  the  case,  our  California  neighbors  should  take 
warning  from  Europe,  and  guard,  if  possible,  against  an  invasion. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  57 

The  announcement  that  I  have  at  hist  ascertainotl  one  of  the  principal 
causes — if  not  the  sole  cause — of  this  decline,  and  tlial,  knowing  the  cause, 
we  may  in  a  measure  obviate  it,  will  doubtless  cause  many  a  grape-grower 
to  wonder.  Some  may  even  pooh-pooh  the  idea,  and  deem  it  impossible 
that  they  have  so  long  remained  in  ignorance  of  so  important  a  flict,  that  a 
*' bug-hunter"  should  discover  it  at  last.     Let  the  facts  speak.  * 

This  destructive  agent  is  none  other  than  the  little  insect  we  are  now 
treating  of. 

The  general  history  of  the  louse,  and  the  habits  of  the  gall-inhabiting 
type  were  sketched  in  my  last  Report,  and  need  not  be  repeated. 

FURTHER    PROOF    OF    THE    IDENTITY'    OF    THE    AMERICAN    INSECT    WITH    THE 

EUROPEAN. 

That  the  two  are  identical  there  can  no  longer  be  any  shadow  of  a 
doubt.  I  have  critically  examined  the  living  lice  in  the  fields  of  France, 
and  brought  with  me,  from  that  country,  both  winged  male  and  female 
specimens,  preserved  in  acetic  acid.  1  find  that  the  insect  has  exactly  the 
same  habits  here  as  there,  and  that  winged  specimens  which  1  bred  last  fall 
from  the  i-oots  of  our  vines,  accord  perfectly  with  those  brought  over  with 
me.  In  the  different  forms  the  insects  assume,  in  their  work,  and  in  every 
other  minutia — the  two  agree. 

AVHY    I    CONSIDER    THE    GALL-LOUSE    AND    ROOT-LOUSE    IDENTICAL. 

Firstl}',  wherever  this  insect  has  been  noticed  in  England,  both  the 
gall-inhabiting  and  root-inhabiting  types  have  been  found.  In  France  the 
galls  occur  abundantly  on  such  of  our  American  varieties  as  are  subject  to 
them  here,  while  a  few  have  occasionally  been  found  on  their  own  varieties. 
Secondly,  I  have  successfully  transferred  the  leaf-lice  on  to  the  roots,  while 
M.  Y.  Signoret  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  leaf-galls  from  lice  hatched  on  the 
roots.  Thii'dly,  the  winged  form  obtained  by  Dr.  Shimer  from  the  galls  in 
this  country  agrees  in  its  characters  with  those  from  the  roots.  Fourthl}^, 
the  nodosities  on  the  roots  are,  as  alread}"  stated,  perfectly  analogous  to 
the  galls  on  the  leaves,  and  differ  only  in  just  such  a  manner  as  one  would 
expect  from  the  difterence  in  the  plant  tissues — a  view  greatly  strengthened 
by  the  fact  that  when  the  gall-lice  are  forced,  by.  their  excessive  numbers, 
to  settle  on  the  tendrils  or  leaf-stalks,  the}^  produce  swellings  and  knots 
apjDroaching  more  nearly  to  those  on  the  roots  than  to  the  galls.     These 

•It  is  really  amusing  to  witness  how  the  facts  here  set  forth  have  l)een  received  by  those  who 
never  spent  ten  minutes  investiuatioii  of  the  subject  in  their  lives.  In  the  silkworm  disease  that  has 
of  late  years  been  so  ju'evalcnt  in  Kurope,  M.  Pasteur,  after  the  most  painstaking  and  elaborate  ex- 
periments, at  which  he  sacriliced  liis  health,  unraveled  its  mysteries,  gave  to  the  world  the  true  pa- 
thology ot'pebrine,  and  what  is  m')re,  showed  how  it  might  be  eradicated.  Yet,  as  I  shall  show  fur- 
ther oii,  the  men  most  interested  Were  very  slow  to  believe  the  hard,  dry  facts  which  liad  been 
.snatched  from  the  unknown,  and — never  having  studied  the  case  themst'lves — were  more  inclined  to 
consider  the  disease  as  snni'thing  mysti'rious— something  altogether  beyond  man's  un<lerstanding, 
and  consequently  unontroUaljle.  I'll  •  m^st  ignorant  are  ahvay.s  the  m  )st  skejitical!  I  might  men- 
tion several  parties  who  h  ive  e.vpressed  their  opinion  thit  the  Pkijlloxera  has  no  connection  with  dis- 
ease or  decline  in  the  Vine.  To  such,  I  simply  say :  examine  for  yourselves,  before  giving  an  opinion. 
Others  wh  nn  I  might  m -ntion  go  to  the  other  extreme  and  assert  that  it  must  be  the  cause  of  mildew, 
oidium,  etc. ,  and  witlioiit  any  good  reason  jnit  a  similar  opinion  in  my  mouth.  To  these  last,  1  say : 
Ilv-ad  aright,  do  not  misconstrue,  aii<l  by  no  in-ans  jump  to  conclusions! 


■>^  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

facts  sufficient]}^  attest  the  identity  of  the  two  types,  and  we  have  here 
another  case  of  an  insect  possessing  two  distinct  habits.  It  is  also  like 
many  others  of  its  Family,  polymorphic,  /.  e.,  it  exists  in  different  forms ; 
yet  we  have  to  do  with  but  one  species. 


FURTHER  FACTS    RESPECTING    THE    HABITS    OF   THE    KOOT-INHABlTINd    TVPE. 

The  young-  hatched  from  the  eggs  on  the  roots  are  absolutely  uadis- 
tinguishable  from  those  hatched  in  the  galls;  and  the  gravid  apterous  female 
differs  in  no  respect  whatever  from  the  mother  gall-louse.  There  is,  how- 
3ver,  a  different  egg-depositing  form,  which,  as  it  moults,  becomes  tubercled, 
ind  more  elongated  or  pear-shaped,  as  shown  at  Figure  28,  j.  Some  of 
Ihese  tubercled  individuals  remain  without  wings,  while  others  seem''to  be 


KxpLAXATiON  OF  Fkutre  HS.—n,  shows  11  healthy  i-oot;  b,  one  on  wlik-h  the  lice  are  working-, 
presenting  the  knots  and  swellings  cansed  by  their  puuctures;  c,  a  root  that  has  been  deserted  by 
cm,  and  where  the  rootlets  have  coninienced  to  decay;  d,  d,  d,  shows  how  the  lice  are  found  on  the 
rgcr  roots;  e,  female  pupa,  dorsal  view;  /,  same,  ventral  view;  g,  winged  female,  dorsal  view;  h, 
me,  ventral  view;  i,  magnitied  antenna  of  winged  insect;  j,  side  view  of  the  wingless  female,  lay- 
g  eggs  on  roots;  k,  shows  how  the  punctures  of  the  lice  cause  the  larger  roots  to  rot. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  o9 

destined  from  the  iivst  to  acquire  wings.  The  young,  after  attaching  them- 
selves, become  in  a  measure  stationary,  and  remind  one  very  much  of  young 
bark-lice.  The  fine  hair-like  setfe,  which  in  their  functions  and  elasticity 
are  analogous  to  our  tongue,  become  loosened  from  the  more  fleshy  ros- 
trum or  sheath,  as  shown  at  Figure  28,  j,  and  are  often  so  firmly  inserted 
into  the  root  that  the  louse,  if  disturbed  from  its  place,  generally  hangs  by 
them.  Three  of  the  threads  of  this  tongue  ai'e  sufficiently  conspicuous,  but 
there  should  be,  from  analogy,  four.  The  females  on  the  roots  seem  to  be  less 
prolific  than  those  in  the  galls,  and  their  eggs  if  anything  are  rather  larger. 
These  eggs  arc  always  of  a  bright  yellow  color,  and,  on  the  dark  root,  are 
detected  with  the  naked  eye  as  i-eadily  as  the  lice,  which  become  darker  or 
of  a  dull  orange  as  they  grow  older. 

The  insect  is  found  on  the  roots  in  all  stages  during  the  summer  months. 
In  the  winter  it  is  found  dormant,  principally  in  the  larva  state,  and  no  eggs 
are  to  be  seen.  With  the  circulation  of  the  sap  in  spring,  the  activity  ot 
these  young  recommences,  and  in  a  short  time  afterwards  eggs  are  depos- 
ited again.  At  this  season  the  punctures  of  their  little  beaks  produce  very 
decided  swellings  and  an  excess  of  moisture  at  the  wounded  parts.  The 
winged  forms  are  by  no  means  uncommon  and  commence  to  issue  from  the 
ground  perhaps  as  eai-ly  as  July.  When  I  last  examined  the  roots  before 
\ny  departure,  or  about  the  middle  of  May,  no  pupae  were  found;  but  Avinged 
insects  were  obtained  as  early  as  July  in  France,  and  aftei-  my  return  I  had 
no  difficulty  in  obtaining  all  I  wished,  especially  during  the  latter  part  of 
September.  The  pupa?  are  easily  recognizable  with  a  good  lens,  by  the  lit- 
tle dark  pad-like  wing-sheaths  at  the  sides  of  the  body  (Fig.  28,  e,f) — and  the 
sexes  may  even  be  distinguished  at  this  stage  by  the  greater  constriction 
of  the  bod}"  near  these  pads  in  the  female,  compared  to  the  male,  her  abdo- 
men being  larger.  Before  giving  forth  the  winged  insect,  these  pnpas  Ijecome 
quite  restless  and  active,  and  in  a  state  of  nature  they  no  doubt  issue  from 
the  ground. 

The  winged  female  (Fig.  28,  g,  h),  seems  to  be  much  more  common  than 
the  male,  and  is  distinguished  by  her  more  lengthened  abdomen — the  wings, 
when  closed,  extending  not  much  more  than  its  length  beyond  the  tip, 
while  in  the  male  they  extend  more  nearly  three  times  its  length.  The 
dusky  thoracic  band  is  not  so  distinct  and  the  abdomen  is  more  produced 
at  the  a-pex  in  the  male;  and  there  is  also  a  slight  difference  in  the  venation 
of  the  wings  of  the  two  sexes*,  which  venation  is  best  seen  in  the  fresh 
specimens,  as  it  becomes  in  a  measure  obsolete  in  drying.  In  \hc  abdo- 
men of  the  female  two  or  three  large  eggs  are  jDlainly  visible,  especiallj^ 
after  being  soaked  in  acetic  acid.  The  two-jointed  tarsus  or  foot  is  also 
plainly  visible  in  such  specimens,  and  I  have  found  the  joint  movable,  while 
M.  V.  Signoret,  of  Paris,  has  obtained  the  skin  of  the  tibia  or  shank  with 
the  basal  joint  of  the  tarsus  hanging  to  it.  Prof.  Westwood  also  refers  to  a 
short  basal  tarsal  joint  in  the  gall  insect  which  he  described.  These  facts, 
trivial  as  they  may  appear,  are  very  important  in  a  scientific  view,  as  they 
forever  settle  the  differences  that  have  existed  as  to  the  proper  systematic 
position  which  the  louse  occupies. 


0  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 
SUSCEPTIBILITY    OF   DIFFERENT   VINES    TO   THE   ATTACKS    OF   THE    LOUSE. 

I  have  carefully  examined  a  great  many  different  kinds  of  vines  within 
!  circuit  of  thirty  miles  of  St.  Louis,  as  well  as  in  Cole,  Jefferson  and  Boone 
oimties,  in  this  State,  and  the  summary  which  follows  indicates  the  sus- 
eptibilit}^  of  the  different  varieties  to  this  disease.  There  ma}'  be  objec- 
ion  on  the  part  of  some  persons  to  the  placing  of  some  of  the  varieties  in 
he  following  tables;  and  the  opinions  both  of  botanists  and  vine-growers 

re  so  at  variance  that  I  shall  give  in  the  subsidiary  note*  mj'  reasons  for 

i 

1  *  Classification  of  the  N.  A.  Gkape-vixes. — In  few  genera  of  plants,  is  it  more  necessary  tc 
^cumulate  abundant  material  in  order  to  arrive  at  correct  chissiflcation,  than  in  the  genus  Vitis. 
he  .species  are  with  rtillioult}'  delined,  a.s  thej'  vary  in  a  marked  manner  in  dill'erent  sections  of  the 
)untry ;  and  the  foliage  of  the  same  individual  vine  often  varies  greatly  at  dillerent  ages  and  seasons . 
^•eserved  leaves  are  not  alone  to  be  trusted,  therefore,  but  every  stage  of  growth  must  be  considered, 
om  the  wood  to  the  diflerent  leaves,  the  blossom,  bunch,  berry  and  even  the  seed,  which  in  its 
lapc,  and  especially  in  the  development  of  its  raphe  (or  cord)  furnishes,  according  to  Dr.  Engel- 
.ann,  some  of  the  most  permanent  distinguishing  traits  between- the  species. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  not  a  single  real  species  has  been  addeil  to  those  belonging  to  the  old 
'rritory  of  the  United  States,  east  of  the  Mississippi  river,  since  the  time  of  Linnicus  and  Michaux; 
lough  Rafinesque,  LeConte,  and  perhai)s  others,  have  attempted  to  distinguish  agreat  many  more. 
\    The  number  of  Grape-vines  bearing  edible  fruit,  *  now  considered  sijecies  by  the  best  botanists, 
■  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  is  limited  to  9.     They  may  l)e  tabulated  as  follows: 

Vhien  which  are  of  prncticdl  consequence,  an  having  yielded  our  different  cultivated  vari- 
eties. 

1.   V'lTis  Labuusc.^.,  Linn.     Northern  Fox. 

i.       "     ^5:stivai,is,  3Iichx.     Summer  Grape. 

?,.       "     ripauia,  Miclix.     River  Bank  Grape. 

I.       "     vulpixa,  Linn.     Southern  Fox,  or  Miiscardine. 

r.     fines  of  less  eonseq.uence,  and  which  have  thus  far  given  no  cultivated  varieties. 

5.  ViTis  CORDIFOLIA,  Michx.     Winter  or  Frost  Grape. 

6.  "      (.'alifoknica,  Benth.     Confined  to  California. 

7.  "     AiiizoxicA  Engelm.     Similar  to  the  last. 

3.       "     CAXDICANS,  Kugelm.     Mustang  Grape  of  Texas. 

!).       "     iiuPESTuis,  Scheele.     Bush  Grape  or  Sand  Grape. 

Of  these  9  species  only  4  grow  wild  in  our  own  State,  viz:  cestivaUs,  cordifolia,  riparia,  and  >■«- 
Uris.  '  ^ 

I  In  stating  last  year  (3rd  Rep.  p.  90)  that  our  cultivated  (Varieties  had  been  referred  to  four  species, 
eluding  cordifolia  and  omitting  riparia,  I  followed  the  later  editions  of  Gray's  Manual,  in  which  the 
tter  is  considered  as  a  variety  of  the  former.  The  reasons  for  adopting  a  dilTerent  course  will  be 
tuid  in  the  following  synopsis  which  has  been  kindly  prepared  for  me  bj'  the  author: 

I  THE  TRUE  GRAPE-VINES  OF  THE  OLD  UNITED  STATES. 

r  BY  DR.  GEORGE  ENGELMAXX,  OF  ST.  LOUIS. 

I  I.  Crrajte-vines  with  loose  hark  (at  last  separating  in  shreds),  climbing  by  tlie  aid  of 
anched  tendrils,  or  (in  JVo.  4)  scarcely  climbing  at  all. 

Berries  small,  3 — 6  or  rarely  7  lines  in  diameter;  seeds  obtuse,  icith  the  raphe  {or  cord)  more  or  less  promi- 
nent (except  in  No.  4)  over  the  top.     All  the  species  of  this  group,  just  like  the  Euro>pean  grape-vine,  ex- 
'  hittit  onieeU  grown  shoots  a  regular  alternation  of  two  leaves  each  having  a  tendril  (or  its  equivalent, 
an  inflorescence) ,  opposite  to  them,  and  a  third  leaf  unthout  such  a  tendril. 

1.  ViTis  CORDIFOLIA,  Michaux — Usually  tall,  climbing  high,  trunks  not  rarely  6 — 9  inches  in  di- 
leter.  Leaves  middle  sized,  heart-shaped,  mostly  entire  or  rarely  slightly  tri-lobed,  with  shallow 
r>ad  teeth,  usually  smooth  and  shining  on  both  sides,  the  young  ones  sometimes  slightly  downy  be- 
v;  berries  among  the  smallest;  in  large  bimches,  black  without  a  bloom,  maturing  late  in  the  fall, 
lally  with  only  one  short  and  broad  seed  marked  by  a  prominent  raphe. 

This  is  a  common  pkmt  especially  of  the  river-bottoms,  and  well  known  under  tlie  name  of  Winter 
il)e.  Frost  grape  or  Chicken  grape.  It  is  found  from  New  England  to  Texas,  and  westward  to  the 
stern  limits  of  the  wooded  part  of  the  Mississiijpi  valley.     In  this  valley,   at  least,  the  fruit  has  a 


♦There  are  a  few  species  forming  the  sections  (or  according  to  others,  genera)  Cissus  and  Amp  elop- 
Which  are  now  classed  with  Vitis;  but  they  bear  no  edible  iruit,  and  are  otherwise  easilv  distin- 
shed  from  the  ti-ue  Grape-vines. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  6 

80  placing  them.  I  am  familiar  with  the  views  of  many  of  the  leadinj 
grape-growers  of  the  country,  and  have  had  an  opportunity  of  studying 
the  genus  hy  the  excellent  herbarium  of  Dr.  Engelmann.  It  is  gratifyin; 
to  know,  therefore,  that  the  position  given  to  such  cultivated  varieties  a 
obtain  in  this  herbarium,  agrees  with  that  given  to  them  by  leading  grape 
growers — the  views  of  the  botanist  and  the  practical  man  coinciding. 

When  we  find    it  so  difficult  to  properly  separate  the  wild  species,  av 
can  no  longer  wonder  at  the  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  man^^ 

stronyly  iind  even  futiiUy-iinimatic  taste.     No  cultivated  varieties  of  the  species  are  known. 

2.  ViTis  Rii'AiUA,  iV(c7ini/,r— Mostly  a  smaller  plant  tlian  the  last,  but  with  larger  and  more  o 
less  cut-lolied  glabrous  shining  (or  rarely  when  young,  slightly  downy)  leaves,  the  lobes  long  an 
pointed ;  the  teeth  also  m  >re  pointed  than  in  cordifolia  ;  berries  as  small,  or  usually  larger  than  in  th 
last,  mostly  with  a  bloom,  in  smaller  bunches,  mostly  lor  2  seeded;  seeds  with  a  less  promlnen 
raphe . 

This  species  prefers  thickets  or  rocky  soil  on  river  banks  and  extends  as  far  west  and  south  as  th 
last,  and  much  farther  north,  being  tlie  only  grape-vine  in  Lower  Canada,  where  it  is  found  even  C 
miles  north  of  Quebec.  The  northern  form,  in  Canada,  northern  New  York  to  Michigan  and  Nebras 
ka,  has  fewer  and  larger  berries  in  a  bunch  and  is  easily  distinguished  from  V.  cordifolia.  Th 
southwestern  form,  however,  approaches  more  closely  to  this  last  species,  with  which  Prof.  Gray  inth 
later  editions  of  his  Manual  has  united  it.  The  fruit  ripens  earlier  than  that  of  cordifolia,  and  is  rauc 
pleasanter.  In  St.  Louis  a  variety  found  on  the  rocky  river  banks  is  brought  to  market  in  July.  ^ 
number  of  cultivated  varieties  are  referable  to  this  species,  among  which  the  Taylor  Bullit,  the  Deh 
ware  and  the  Clinton,  are  the  most  prominent. 

3.  ViTis  AESTIVALIS,  Michaux:  Smaller  than  the  first,  climbing  over  bushes  and  smaller  trees 
leaves  large,  of  firmer  texture  than  the  preceding  ones,  entire,  or  often  more  or  less  deeply  and  ob 
tusely  3 — j  lobed,  with  short  and  shallow,  l)rciad  teeth ;  when  young  always  very  woolly,  mistly  brigh 
red  or  rusty;  at  last  smoothish  but  dull  and  never  shining  like  the  preceding  ones;  berries  usuall 
larger  than  in  both  others  and,  when  well  grown,  in  compact  bunches,  coated  with  a  distinct  bloom 
seeds  usually  2  or  3,  with  a  very  prominent  raphe. 

This  is  the  well  known  Summer  grape  common  throughout  the  middle  and  southern  States,  usuall 
found  on  uplands  and  in  dry  open  woods  or  thickets,  maturing  its  fruit  in  September.  It  is  the  mo; 
variable  of  our  grape-vines  and  hence  has  seduced  superficial  observers  into  the  establishment  of  nu 
merous  nominal  species.  A  form  with  large  leaves  which  retain  their  rusty  down  at  full  maturit 
has  often  been  mistaken  for  Labrusca,  which  does  not  grow  in  our  State.  Anolher  form,  more  bush 
than  climbing,  with  deeply  lobed  rusty-downy  leaves  and  very  sweet  fruit,  is  Vitin  Lincecumiioi  th 
sandy  soil  of  Louisiana  and  Texas.'  This  species  assumes  a  peculiar  form  approaching  T'.  cordifoli 
through  its  smaller  black  berries  without  bloom  and  in  larger  bunches,  when  it  gets  into  shady  wood 
with  rich  soil.  Another  form  Avith  ashy-white,  doM'nj-,  scarcely  lobed  leaves,  and  fruit  like  the  las 
mentioned,  which  grows  in  our  bottoms,  often  climbing  high  trees,  or  growing  over  bushes  on  th 
banks  of  lakes,  I  have  distinguished  by  the  name  oicinerea.  It  is  not  alwaj'S  easy  to  distinguish  sue 
torras  from  the  other  species  and  perhaps  less  so  to  unite  them  under  the  single  species,  cestivalis,  iin 
less  the  essential  characters  above  enumerated  be  closely  attended  to,  and  the  numberless  gra4|iu 
transitions  from  one  form  into  the  other  be  watched.  I 

We  cultivate  many  varieties  of  this  valuable  species,  the  most  important  of  which  are  the  Virgii 
ia  Seedling,  the  Cynthiana  and  the  Herbemont.  \ 

4.  ViTis  Rui'ESTRis,  Schcele:  A  small  bushy  plant,  often  without  any  tendrils,  rarely  somewhj; 
climbing;  leaves  small  (2 — 3  inches  wide)  mostly  broader  than  long,  heart-shaped,  scarcely  ever  slight 
ly  lobed,  with  broad  coarse  teeth  and  usually  an  abruptly  elongated  point,  glabrous,  and  of  a  rathe 
light  green  color;  berries  middle-sized,  on  very  small  bunches;  seeds  mostly  3 — I,  obtuse,  with  a  ver 
delicate  raphe. 

This  very  peculiar  gi-ape-vine  is  found  only  west  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  Missouri  river  t 
Texas  and  westward  probably  to  New  Mexico.  In  our  State  where  it  is  called  Sand  grape,  and  in  Ai 
kansas,  it  grows  on  the  gravelly  banks  and  over-flowed  bars  of  miuntain  streams;  in  Texas  also,  o 
rocky  plains,  whence  the  Latin  name;  it  is  there  also  known  under  the  name  of  Sugar  grape.  Its  lu.: 
cious  fruit  ripens  with  us  in  August. 

It  is  nowhere  yet  in  cultivation  but  may  in  future  prove  of  value.  \ 

b.     Berries  large,  7 — 9  or  even  10  lines  in  diameter;  raphe  scarcely  visible  on  the  more  or  less   deepi 

notched  top  of  the  seed. — These  plants  on  well  grown  shoots  bear  a  tendril  opposite  each  leaf  with  oni 

rare  and  irregular  intermissions. 

5.  ViTis  Labrusca,  Linnceus:  Plants  usually  not  large,  climbing  over  bushes  or  small  treet 
though  occasionally  reaching  the  tops  of  the  highest  trees,  with  large  (4—6  inches  wide)  and  thiol 
entire  or  sometimes  deeply  lobed,  very  slightly  dentate  leaves,  coated  when  young  with  a  thick  rust) 

i 


62  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

of  our  cultivated  varieties;  for  some  of  them  have  become  so  modified  that 
the}-  furnish  scarcely  any  indication  of  their  parentage.  If  those  grape- 
growers  who  take  interest  in  such  matters  will  send  specimens  of  siieh  cul- 
tivated varieties  as  they  wish  to  properl}'  classif}-,  to  Dr.  Engelmann,  eithei- 
directh'  or  through  me,  they  will  at  least  get  the  opinion  of  one  who  is 
good  authority,  and  such  action  may  he  mutually  i)rofitable.  Sjjecimens 
should  be  sent  at  flowering  time,  and  should  include  the  whole  shoot  with 
full-sized  and  young  leaves,  blossom,  and  tendril ;  and  after  the  fruit  is  ripe 
a  bunch  of  the  berries  and  seeds  from  the  same  stock  should  follow. 

The  proj)er  classification  of  our  different  varieties  is  of  more  import- 
ance, in  this  connection,  than  would  at  first  appear.  Since  the  publication 
of  some  of  the  facts  set  forth  in  this  article,  a  few  enterjirising  French  grape- 
growers,  in  the  districts  desolated  by  the  louse,  have  conceived  the  idea  of 
importing  from  this  country  such  varieties  as  are  most  exempt  from  the 
attacks  of  the  Phylloxera,  and  M.  LeFranc,  the  Minister  of  Agriculture,  has 
likewise  expressed  his  intention  of  so  doing.  Already  a  number  of  varie- 
ties, and  especially  Cunningham,  Ilerbemont,  Norton's  Virginia,  Concord, 
Hartford  Prolific,  Clinton  and  Martha  have  been  shij^ped  to  M.  J.  Leen- 
hardt,  of  Montpellier,  France;  and  others  to  Switzerland,  by  Messrs.  Isidor 
Bush  k  Co.  If  America  has  given  this  plague  to  Europe,  why  should  she 
not  in  return,  furnish  her  with  vines  which  are  capable  of  resisting  it  ?  At 
least  nothing  but  good  can  come  of  the  trial,  for  though  our  grapes  are  gen- 
erally sneered  at  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  we  have  made  such  rapid 
improvements  in  viticulture  during  the  last  ten  years,  that  they  scared}' 
know  anything  of  our  better  kinds ;  and  many  of  those  which  do  well  in 

or  eometimes  whitish,  wool  or  down,  which  in  the  wild  plant  remains  on  the  lower  side,  bnt  almost 
disappears  in  the  mature  leaf  of  some  cultivated  varieties;  berries  large,  in  rather  small  or  middle- 
sized  bunches,  bearing  3  or  3  or  sometimes  4  seeds.   -^ 

Tliis  plant,  usually  known  as  the  Fox-grape  or  Northern  Fox-grape  is  a  native  of  the  eastern 
slope  of  the  continent  from  New  England  to  South  Carolina,  where  it  prefers  wet  thickets;  it  extends 
into  the  Alleghany  mountains,  and  here  and  there  even  down  their  western  declivity,  but  is  a 
stranger  to  the  Mississippi  Valley .  The  most  important  varieties  of  this  grape-vine  now  cultivated  in 
our  country  (such  as  the  Catawba,  Concord,  h-abella,  Ilar/ford  Prolific,  and  dozens  of  others)  are  the 
oflspring  of  this  species;  they  are  all  easily  recognized  by  the  characters  above  given,  and  mo 
readily  by  the  peculiar  arrangement  of  the  tendrils  as  above  described. 

IJ.  Grape-vines  with  a  firtnly  adhering  barJc,  which  does  not  scale  off;  tendrils  almost 
ahvai/.s  simple;  berries  very  large  (7 — 10  lines  in  diameter) ,  very  few  in  a  bunch;  seeds 
with  transverse  wrinkles  or  shallow  yrooves  on  both  sides. 

H.  ViTis  V0LPINA,  Linnceus:  Bushy,  or  sometimes  climbing  high,  with  small  (2  or  at  most  3 
inches  wide)  rounded,  heai-t-shaped,  firm  and  glossy  dark  green  leaves,  smooth  or  rarely  slightly 
hairy  (;n  the  under  side,  with  coarse,  large  or  shallow  teeth. 

'I'his  southern  species,  known  under  the  name  o{  Southern  Fox-grape,  Bullace,  or  Bullet-grape  is, 
found  along  water-courses,  not  further  north  than  North  Carolina  and  Arkansas,  and  may  possibly 
straggle  into  southeastern  Missouri.  Some  of  its  cultivated  varieties,  especially  the  white  Scupper- 
nong,  are  highly  esteemed  in  the  South  but  do  not  perfect  fruit  in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis. 

I  recognize  only  three  other  species  of  true  grape-vines  in  the  territories  of  the  United  States .  The 
most  remarkable  of  these  is  the  Mustang  grape  of  Texas,  Vitis  candicans,  Engelm.  (F.  Mustangensis, 
Buckley),  with  rather  large,  rounded,  almost  toothless,  rarely  deeply-lobed  leaves ;  white  woolly  on 
the  under  side,  bearing  large  berries,  which  in  its  native  country  are  now  beginning  to  be  made  into 
wine.  Vitis  Californica,  Bentham,  the  only  wild  grape  of  California,  has  rounded  downy  leaves,  and 
small  berries,  and  is  not  made  use  of  as  far  as  known.  Vitis  Arizonica,  Engebn.  similar  to  the 
last,  l)nt  glabrous,  with  middle-sized  berries,  reported  to  be  of  a  luscious  taste.  Neither  of  these 
show  a  prominent  rai)he  on  the  seed,  so  that  this  character  is  peculiar  only  to  the  first  3  species 
h«-e  enumerated. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


63 


Missouri  will  doubtless  succeed  in  France.  Such  of  our  vines  as  have 
already  been  cultivated  there  are  often  differently  classified  by  their  writers 
to  Avhat  they  are  by  American  authors,  and  confusion  consequently  ensues. 
Thus,  one  of  my  correspondents,  M.  Laliman,  of  Bordeaux,  who  has  cul- 
tivated a  number  of  them  for  several  years,  classes  the  Clinton  and  Taylor 
as  a'.^tivalis,  and  the  Norton's  Virginia  and  Delaware  as  Labrusea* 

I  will  now  indicate  the  susceptibility  of  different  varieties  to  the  disease. 
Vitis  vinifera   (European). — All  European  varieties  with  roots  badly 
affected.     In  many  instances  decomposed  and  gone,  with  the  vines  about 
dead.     No  leaf-galls. 

T^  riparia  (River  Bankj.  Clinton. — Leaf-galls  extremely  abundant. 
Jioot-lice  only  moderately  so.  Taylor— Where  leaf-galls  are  few,  i-oot-lice 
abundant;  where  galls  are  abundant,  fewer  root-lice.  Delaware — A  few 
leaf-galls 5  lice  abundant  on  roots.  Othello  (hybrid  with  vinifera)— Both 
leaf-galls  and  root-lice,  the  latter  tolerably  numerous.  Louisiana  (some 
say  a  seedling  of  vinifera,  others  again  believe  it  aestivalis)— Leaf-<^ii\h  and 
root-lice,  but  neither  bad.  Alvey— Few  leaf-galls;  plenty  of  root-lice. 
Cornucopia  (hybrid  with  vi7iifera)—'No  leaf-galls;  roots  badly  affected  with 
lice.  Wild  vine — Numerous  leaf-galls  and  a  few  root-lice;  much  in  same 
condition  as  Clinton. 

V.  aestivalis  (Summer).  Cunningham— No  leaf-galls,  but  a  few  root- 
lice.  Cvnthiana — Occasionally  a  few  galls;  lice  abundant  on  roots.  The 
vine  has  a  vigorous  growth  ajid  the  roots  are  large  and  strong.  Ilerbemont 
— A  few  leaf-galls,  and  scarcely  any  root-lice.  Norton's  Virginia— No  leaf- 
galls,  but  some  root-lice. 

T".  Labrusea  (Northern  Fox).  Isabella,  or  seedlings  of  Isabella— No  leaf- 
galls  ;  a  few  root-lice  :  roots  strong  and  vines  flourishing.  Martha — No 
leaf-galls;  very  few  root-lice.  Hartford— No  leaf-galls;  very  few  root-lice. 
Concord— No  leaf-galls;  scarcely  any  root-lice.  Almost  entirely  exempt, 
lyes— No  leaf-galls ;  lice  tolerably  abundant  on  roots.  North  Carolina— No 
leaf-galls;  very  few  root-lice.  Maxatawney— No  leaf-galls;  root-lice  quite 
abundant.  Creveling— A  few  leaf-galls;  root-lice  abundant.  Catawba— 
No  leaf-galls;  root-lice  ver}'  numerous,  abounding  even  on  the  largei 
roots  as  on  the  European  vines.  Goethe  (hybrid  with  vinifera) — No  leaf 
galls,  but  lice  on  roots  very  numerous.  In  the  vineyards  of  Messrs.  Isidoi 
Bush  &  Sons,  of  Bushburg,  Mo.,  this  vine  was  very  vigorous  and  thrifty  in 
1869  and  1870,  but  has  done  poorly  the  present  year.  Dracut  Amber— No 
leaf-galls;  few  root-lice.  Wilder  (hybrid  with  vinifera)— No  leaf-galls;  not 
many  root-lice.  Challenge  (hybrid  with  vinifera— No  leaf-galls;  roots  af 
fected  but  moderately.     Diana— No  leaf-galls,  but  plenty  of  root-lice. 

Y.  vulpina  (Southern  Fox  or  Muscadine) — As  it  is  not  grown  in  this  local 
ity.  being  considered  absolutely  worthless  here,  I  know  little  about  it. 

From  this  experience  it  would  appear  that  no  vines  of  those  named,  art 
entirely  free  from  the  attacks  of  the  root-louse;  but  that  the  European  va 
rieties  are  most  susceptible  to  it — the  Northern  Fox,  next  in  order,  th€ 

•  Kttule  ^ur  les  clivers  Pliyllcixera,  ft  leur  medications. 


64  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

Eiver  Bank  grape  next,  and  the  Summer  grape  the  least  affected.  It  would 
likewise  appear  that  galls  are  occasionally  found  on  all  of  the  species  ex- 
cejit  the  EurojDean,  and  as  they  have  in  a  few  instances,  been  found  on  thisi 
species  in  Europe,  it  cannot  be  considered  entirely  exempt.  *  Nevertheless, 
in  general  terms,  the  River  Bank  grape  must  be  considered  the  species  which 
the  gall-louse  jJi'efers.  Exj)erience  on  this  point  Avill,  no  doubt,  vary  in  dif- 
ferent jDarts  of  the  country,  and  more  extended  experience  may  modify  some 
of  these  deductions. 

We  thus  see  that  no  vine,  whether  native  or  foreign,  is  exempt  from 
the  attacks  of  the  root-louse.  Yet,  on  the  principle  that  a  small  dose  of  poi- 
son may  prove  harmless  or  even  beneficial  where  an  over-dose  will  kill,  we 
find  that  a  small  niimber  of  root-lice  produce  no  serious  effects  upon  the 
vine ;  and  that  it  is  only  where  they  are  very  numerous,  and  cause  not  only 
the  fibrous  roots,  but  even  the  larger  ones  to  Avaste  away,  that  their  evil 
effects  are  perceptible.  With  most  of  our  native  vines  when  the  conditions 
are  normal,  the  disease  seems  to  remain  in  the  former  mild  state,  and  it  is 
only  with  the  foreign  kinds,  and  with  a  few  of  the  natives^  under  certain 
conditions,  that  it  takes  on  the  more  acute  form. 

In  France,  according  to  M.  Laliman,  the  American  varieties  which  have 
resisted  the  root-louse  best  are  the  Clinton,  Taylor,  Herbemont  (known  there 
as  Warren),  and  some  others  which  are  considered  valueless  here,  such  as 
Pauline,  Elsimboro,  Lenoir,  Mustang  of  Texas,  and  a  kind  of  York-Madeira  ; 
while  those  which  su.cconib  are  Isabella,  Scup^jernong,  Concord,  Norton's 
Virginia,  Maxatawn}',  Hartford  Prolific,  C^nthiana,  etc.  This  exjierience 
differs  a  little  from  ours,  but  shows  that  the  Labruscas  suffer  most  there 
also. 

MEANS  OF  CONTAGION  FROM  ONE  VINE  TO  ANOTHER. 

The  young  lice,  whether  hatched  upon  the  roots  or  in  the  galls,  are 
quite  active  and  crawl  about  for  some  time;  and  that  they  will  spread  from 
one  vine  to  another,  either  under  ground  upon  the  roots  or  on  the  surface 
of  the  ground  during  the  night,  is  highly  probable.  Such,  however,  cannot 
be  the  mode  of  spreading  from  one  vineyard  to  another;  for  were  it  so,  the 
malady  could  not  possibly  have  assumed  such  proportions  in  so  short  a  time, 
as  it  has  done  abroad.  One  method  of  transport  is  upon  the  i-oots  of  seed- 
lings and  cuttings,  but  the  insect  cannot  in  this  manner  find  its  way  to  an 
old  vineyard,  and  there  must  be  still  another  means.  Here  we  come  to  that 
part  of  the  natural  history  of  our  louse  which  must  assume  the  form  of  hy- 
pothesis until  further  observations  shall  be  made.  In  this  country  the  mal- 
ady is  general,  but  in  France,  where  it  is  still  spreading  from  one  place  to 
another,  they  have  a  good  opportunity  to  watch  its  progress ;  and  Planchon 
finds  that  it  always  commences  at  certain  circumscribed  points  and  spreads 
from  these  points  in  more  or  less  regular  circles.  There  is  no  way  of  ac- 
counting for  these  nuclei — these  starting  points  in  the  center  of  an  old  vine- 

*  Since  this  was  written  I  have  been  informed  by  Mr.  Glover,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
that  the  leaves  of  certain  Kurojiean  vines,  in  green-house,  such  as  Muscat  Hamburcj  and  Madam  Pince- 
were  crowded  with  the  galls,  even  as  late  as  December;  and  that  they  had  begun  to  spread  on  to  Son- 
ora  and  the  Due  de  Malacojf', 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  *)£> 

yard  that  never  showed  signs  of  the  disease  before,  except  on  the  hypothe>>i8 
of  the  winged  insect  having  flown  there  and  started  the  colony. 

We  have  alrcad}'  seen  that  certain  individuals  of  the  root-inhabiting 
type  become  winged.  Why  these  individuals  become  winged  while  others 
never  do,  is,  perhaps,  not  for  us  to  understand.  Signoret  ventures  the  La- 
niarckian  suggestion  that  the  need  of  quitting  roots  that  are  already  de- 
stroyed may  be  one  reason,  and  the  pupaj  are  certainly  found  more  particu- 
larly on  badly  infested  roots.  All  plant-lice  multiply  agamically  during  the 
summer  months  while  they  are  abundantly  nourished,  but  towards  winter 
when,  by  this  mode  of  reproduction,  and  by  the  diminishing  nutriment  in 
the  dying  foliage,  the  lice  become,  so  to  speak,  exhausted,  then  lo  and  be- 
hold winged  males  and  females  apjicar !  Numerous  other  facts  in  insect  life,, 
such  as  the  production  of  drone  bees  solely  from  unfertilized  eggs,  etc.,  indi- 
cate that  the  Avinged  male  may  be,  in  some  way  or  other,  connected  with  defect- 
ive vitality;  and  Mr.  Thomas  Meehan,  of  the  Gardeners'  Monthly,  has  so  ire- 
quently  observed  such  to  be  the  case  with  plants,  that  he  considers  it  a  law 
"  that  with  a  weakened  vitality  .comes  an  increased  power  to  bear  male  flow- 
ers."* But  this  throws  no  light  on  the  production  of  winged  females,  and 
here,  as  in  thousands  of  other  instances,  nature  tells  us  })lainly  to  be  sat- 
isfied with  the  tacts  without  the  explanation. 

Our  winged  female  is  a  reality !  What,  then,  are  her  functions?  In 
the  breeding  jars  she  invfiriabl}*  flies  towards  the  greatest  light,  and  her  large 
compound  eyes,  and  ample  wings  indicate  that  she  was  made  for  the  light 
and  the  air.  AVe  have  also  seen  that  she  is  burdened  with  two  or  three  eggs 
only,  and  m}'  opinion  is  that  after  meeting  her  mate,  her  sole  life  duty  is  to . 
fly  off  and  consign  her  few  eggs  to  some  grape-vine  or  grape-bud,  and  that  the 
lice  hatching  from  these  eggs  constitute  the  first  gall-producing  mothers. 

I  am  led  to  this  opinion  by  the  fact  that  about  the  middle  of  May.  in 
looking  for  the  galls,  1  always  find  but  two  or  three  to  a  vine,  and  general- 
ly but  one  to  a  leaf  These  vernal  galls — as  one  would  expect  from  the 
greater  vitality  of  the  young  from  fertilized  eggs,  and  the  gi-eater  succuleucy 
of  the  leaves  at  that  season — are  miich  larger  than  the  ordinary  summer 
form,  and  generally  have  a  decidedly  rosy  tint  on  one  side.  Similar  galls 
have  also  been  found  in  France.  Just  as  many  other  insects  prefer  cei'tain 
species  of  plants,  or  even  certain  varieties  of  a  species,  so  our  winged  P/'i/l- 
loxera  shows  her  preference  for  the  Clinton  and  its  close  allies.  She  occa- 
sionally deposits  her  eggs  on  other  varieties,  as  I  have  found  the  large  ver- 
nal galls  on  Concord,  Hartford  Prolific,  etc.,  and  it  follows  that  she  must 
do  so  whei-e  no  riparia  vines  occur.  But,  exce^jt  on  the  varieties  of  the 
latter  species,  the  young  lice  hatching  from  her  eggs  do  not  seem  h:>  be 
capable  of  forming  galls,  on  the  leaves,  but  make  straightway  for  the  roitts. 
Onl}'-  in  this  manner  can  we  account  for  the  galls  abounding  so  much  more 
on  some  varieties  than  on  others. 

Some  persons  may  wonder  how  a  minute  insect  with  such  delii  ate 
wings,  braced  with  so  few  simple  veins,  as  those  possessed  by  our  Phylloxera 

*Proc.  Am.  Asd.  Adv.  Sci.,  1869,  i'.  AiO. 

5 


66  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

can  manage  to  flj"  through  the  air  to  any  great  distance;  and  those  wlio 
have  not  witnessed  them  in  flight  are  very  apt  to  underrate  their  power  of 
volitation.  There  is  a  conical  gall  very  common  on  the  upper  surface  of  the 
leaves  of  our  Shell-bark  hickories.  This  gall  is  made  by  a  louse  very  closely 
allied  to  our  Grape-leaf  gall-louse  and  was  named  Phylloxera  carycefolice 
by  Dr,  Fitch.  *  This  louse  occurs  abundantly  in  the  winged  form,  and  fur- 
nishes an  excellent  illustration  of  the  power  of  the  insects  of  this  genus  to 
fly.  Let  any  one  watch  these  wiiiged  gall-lice,  as  they  issue,  during  some 
warm  day  in  June,  from  the  fimbriated  mouth  of  their  gall,  and  he  will  be 
struck  with  astonishment  at  the  facility  and  jjower  with  which  they  fly  ofl". 
They  are  no  sooner  out  of  the  gall  than  the  wings  commence  to  vibrate  so 
as  to  become  invisible,  and  the  insect  suddenly  darts  away  with  wonderful 
force.     They  must  likewise,  often  be  carried  great  distances  by  the  wind. 

Again,  it  would  at  first  sight  seem  almost  impossible  for  the  female  to  de- 
posit her  loose  eggs  which  have  no  viscous  property,  upon  a  swaying  leaf; 
but  this  very  feat  is  accomiDlished  by  another  little  louse  of  the  same  genus,| 
which  may  be  found  dejiositing  its  eggs  all  through  the  summer  months, 
on  the  under  side  of  the  leaves  of  our  young  Post  oaks. 

PROBABLE    REASON    WHY    ITS    INJURIES    ARE    GREATER   IN  EUROPE  THAN  WITH  US. 

It  is  a  well  recognized  fact  amiong  careful  observers,  that  in  the  natural 
state  there  is  greater  harmony  between  the  fauna  and  flora  of  a  countrj- 
than  in  the  more  artificial  state  that  civilized  man  "induces  by  cultivation. 
Through  a  long  series  of  ages,  the  species  least  able  to  contend  in  the 
struggle  for  life,  "go  to  the  wall,"  until  at  last,  by  a  process  of  elimination, 
the  balance  is  struck  and  we  find  the  animal  and  plant  world  well  adapted 
and  adjusted  to  each  other.  For  this  reason  the  native  vines  which  now 
flourish  in  this  country  are  those  which  have  fought  the  long  battle  in  the 
past  and  have  best  resisted  the  enemy.  They  are,  in  short,  best  adapted  to 
the  circumstances,  and  by  their  more  vigorous  nature  resist  the  hypertrophy 
of  the  bark  caused  by  the  punctures  of  the  lice,  and  form  new  bark  under 
it.  The  Eurojjean  vines,  on  the  contrary,  are  not  onl}-  of  a  more  highly 
improved  and  tender  character,  but  have  not  been  accustomed  to  the  dis- 
ease. They  consequently  succumb  more  readily,  on  the  same  principle  that 
many  diseases  that  are  comparatively  harmless  among  civilized  nations, 
acquire  greater  virulency  and  play  fearful  havoc  when  introduced  among 
savage,  or  hitherto  uncontaminated  peoples. 

There  may  be  other  reasons,  such  as  the  different  modes  of  culture  and 
difterence  of  soil ;  for  in  the  French  districts  so  badJy  affected  the  vinos  are 
either  grown  with  a  single  stake  or  no  stake  at  all,  and  their  soil  is  gener- 
ally- much  poorer  than  ours.  In  America,  also,  we  know  that  there  are  sev- 
eral natural  enemies  of  the  louse,  and  these  checks  have,  in  all  likelihood, 
never  been  imported  into  Europe  with  their  prey.     That  the  louse  will  in 

*Kep.  III.  §  lOG. 

t  This  is  a  species  of  PhtjUojrera  which  is  yet  undescribed,  bat  which  M.  J.  Lichtenstein  proposes 
to  call  Ph.  Rileiji.  It  infests  the  haves  of  our  Post  oak  very  much  in  the  same  mauuer  as  the  European 
Ph.  quercus  infests  their  oaks — causing  a  simihirly  pale  speckled  appearance  of  the  upper  side  of  tiie 
leaves.     It  differs  from  all  desci'ibed  si)ecies  in  the  great  length  and  prominence  of  the  tubercles. 


THE    STATK    ENTOMOLOGIST.  67 

time  tiud  enemies,  ami  lose  its  acute  power  of  doing  harm  even  in  Europe, 
is  highly  probable ;  and  M.  Planohon  has  already  noticed  that  the  infested 
vines  in  the  later  invaded  departments  of  Gard  and  Herault  retained  a  com- 
I^aratively  greener  color  than  in  that  of  Vaucluse,  first  invaded.  Such  has 
been  the  history  of  the  Hessian  tly  and  a  number  of  other  insects  imported 
into  this  country.  These  are  the  exphmations  1  venture,  and  whether  they 
be  generally  accepted  or  not,  the  facts  remain. 

OUTWARD   AND    MORE   VISIBLE    EFFECTS    OF    THE    ROOT   DISEASE. 

As  long  as  the  lice  are  confined  to  the  more  fibrous  roots  Avhich,  in  a 
measure,  are  renewed  each  year,  the  vines  show  ho  decided  outward  signs 
of  the  malad}^,  w^hich  may  then  be  considered  in  its  incipient  stage.  As 
they  become  multiplied  and  fasten  on  to  the  larger  roots,  their  work 
becomes  more  visible  in  a  sickly,  yellowish  ai^pearance  of  the  leaf ;  and  a 
reduced  growth  of  the  vine  is  the  result.  A4  the  roots  waste  away  these 
symptoms  become  more  acute,  and  at  thie  stage  of  the  disease  the  lice  have 
generally  left,  so  that  when  the  vine  is  about  dying  it  is  often  difficult  to 
find  any  trace  of  the  cause  of  death.  On  the  rotten  roots  little  eight- 
legged  mites  are  frequently  met  with,  and  they  are  also  to  be  found  in  the 
galls.  They  may  always  be  distinguished  from  the  true  lice  by  their  white, 
or  dirty-white,  color. 

PRACTICAL   SUGGESTIONS. 

Last  year,  from  the  knowledge  we  then  had  of  this  insect  in  this 
countr}-,  1  recommended  the  destruction  of  the  Clinton  vine,  where  other 
and  better  varieties  succeeded  as  well.  This  advice  was  given  in  order  to 
get  rid  of  the  galls,  and  wherever  it  has  been  followed  it  has  had  the  desired 
effect.  It  was  given,  however,  under  the  impression  that  the  lice 
would  not  attack  the  roots  except  where  the  leaves  were  covered  with 
galls ;  whereas,  in  truth,  the  roots  would  ap})car  to  be  less  affected  (at  least 
during  the  grooving  season)  where  the  leaf-galls  are  abundant  than  where 
they  are  scaix-e;  while  they  may  be  absolutel}"  ruined  where  no  signs  of 
galls  exist.  Consequentlj'  there  is  no  longer  any  urgent  need  of,  or  good 
reasons  for,  destroying  our  Clinton  vines.  By  doing  so  we  may  diminish 
the  number  of  galls,  but  we  can  never  exterminate  the  root-lice.  Future 
experiments  will  no  doubt  show  that  good  results  will  attend  the  grafting 
of  such  varieties  as  are  known  to  be  most  seriously  aftected,  on  to  the  roots 
of  less  susceptible  varieties. 

The  insect  should  be  especially  watched,  as  it  is  apt  to  be  most  trouble- 
some, on  poor,  gravelly  or  clayey  soils.  •  In  deep,  rich  soils  I  think  therQ  is 
less  danger.  In  France  it  has  been  found  to  be  less  troublesome  on  sandy 
soils,  and  in  my  studies  I  have  alwa3\s  noticed  that  minute,  soft-bodied 
insects  do  poorly  in  sand.*  The  greater  the  growth  of  vine  the  greater  the 
growth  of  root,  and  consequently,  vines  that  are  trained  on  walls  and 
which  thus  more  nearh*  approach  the  wild  state,  or  which  are  rendered  vig- 
orous by  a  rich  soil,  are  least  susceptible  to  the  disease. 

*In  examining  vine  roots  this  fall  iu  som:.'  parts  of  Kortlu-rn  Ulinois,  whei-e  sand  formed  a  proni- 
inent  portion  of  the  soil,  1  found  very  few  root-lice,  except  on  Cordifolia  vines  whose  leaves  had 
been  covered  with  galls.  Even  on  these  the  general  healthfulness  of  the  roots,  indicatecl  that  they 
had  not  been  infesteil  during  the  sumiiiL^r,  and  that  the  lice  had  all  come  from  the  last  galls  of  the 
season. 


68  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

REMEDIES. 

Destruction  of  the  GtALL-lice. — From  what  we  have  already  seen,  we 
may  justly  infer  that  this  insect  cannot  of  itself  spread  from  one  vineyard 
to  another  without  going  through  the  gall-producing  jDhase;  and  a  few  galls 
on  the  leaves  are,  no  doubt,  invariably  the  first  signs  of  its  advent,  by  nat- 
tural  means,  into  a  vineyard  not  previously  attacked.  By  natural  means, 
I  mean  without  the  aid  of  man's  assistance,  b}'  which  they  are  introduced 
from  one  place  to  another  on  the  roots.  If  these  galls,  therefore,  could  only 
be  found  and  destroyed,  it  would  be  one  way  of  effectually  heading  off  the 
evil ;  and  in  a  new  vineyard  a  little  vigilance  in  searching  for  these  galls 
might  save  much  subsequent  loss  and  labor.  I  shall  not  treat  here  of  the 
natural  enemies  of  the  louse,  which  are  of  such  a  nature  that  they  cannot 
be  practically  controlled  and  increased. 

Destruction  of  the  Root-lice. — I  hope  next  spring  to  institute  a  series  of 
experiments  on  the  root-lice,  with  a  view  to  the  discovery  of  a  practical 
remedy.  It  were  to  be  desired  that  others  having  opportunity  and  occasion 
would  do  likewise.  Here  is  an  excellent  chance  for  our  different  agricul- 
tural colleges,  which  have  greater  means  and  facilities  than  any  one 
individual  can  possibly  have.  As  a  guide  to  such  experiments,  and  to 
profit  as  much  as  possible  by  the  experience  of  others,  I  will  synopsize  the 
results  of  trials  in  France.  From  these  results,  which  I  give  below,  we 
may  learn  that  no  reliable  and  cheap  remedj-,  that  will  destroy  all  the  lice 
after  thej-  have  become  numerous,  has  yet  been  discovered ;  and  the  best 
advice  that  can  at  present  be  given  is  to  guard  against  the  insect's  introduc- 
tion into  new  vineyards  by  carefully  examining  the  roots  before  planting. 
If  knots  and  lice  are  found  upon  them,  the  latter  may  be  destroyed  l>y  the 
same  means  used  against  the  Apple  root-lice — i.  e.,  by  immersing  the  roots 
in  hot  soap-suds  or  tobacco-water. 

Preparations  of  carbolic  acid  have,  so  far,  given  most  satisfaction,  and 
I  have  great  hopes  of  benefit  from  the  saponaceous  compound  prepared  in 
this  country  by  James  Buchan  &  Co.,  of  New  York.  This  compound  is 
•not  yet  manufactured  in  France,  where  they  have  to  use  the  pui*e  acid  or 
the  crystals. 

Carbolic  acid  added  to  water  at  the  rate  of  one-half  to  one  per  eent^ 
has  been  successfully  employed,  and  M.  Leenhardt,  of  Sorgues,  has  by  its 
use,  succeeded  in  keeping  his  vineyard  alive  and  bearing,  while  all  those 
around  him  are  destroyed.  He  uses  a  heavy  bar,  thickened!  and  pointed 
at  the  end,  wherewith  to  make  two  or  three  holes,  a  foot  or  more  deep, 
around  the  base  of  each  vine.  He  then  fills  these  holes  with  the  liquid, 
which  gradually  permeates  the  soil  in  all  directions.  A  good  post-hole 
augur,  such  as  we  use  in  this  country,  would  work  more  rapidly,  with  the 
advantage  of  compressing  the  earth  less,  but  it  would  do  more  injury  to 
the  roots. 

Old  of  cade. — This  empyreumj^tical  oil,  which  is  common  and  cheap  in 
France,  when  dissolved  in  an}- alkali  (the  urine  of  cows  being  good  enough) 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  69 

and  applied  in  the  same  manner  described  above,  has  also  g-iven  good  results. 
A  mixture  coftiposed  of  lime  and  sulphur  boiled  in  water  at  the  rate  of 
about  five  pounds  lime  and  five  pounds  sulphur  to  one  gallon  of  water,  and 
applied  when  hot,  has  been  found  good. 

Alkalies  seem  to  invigorate  the  vines,  but  do  not  affect  the  lice.  They 
are  also  too  costly.  Salt. — Vines  on  lands  strongly  impregnated  with  salt 
have  been  found  to  resist  the  attacks  of  the  lice.  Acids  generally  are  neu- 
tralized by  the  lime  which  most  soils  contain. 

Sulphur  has  been  thoroughly  tried  without  any  good  I'esults,  cither 
upon  the  leaf-lice  or  root-lice. 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen. — Thc}^  have  tried  to  pump  this  into  the  soil,  but 
the  pumps  alwa^'S  break,  and  no  one  would  think  of  going  to  such  trouble 
here. 

Sulphate  of  iron  is  of  no  account.  Sulphate  of  copper  destroys  the  roots. 
Numerous  other  chemicals  have  been  experimented  with,  but  with  very  lit- 
tle or  no  success,  and  they  are  besides  not  applicable  on  a  large  scale. 

Irrigation  and  submersion  have  been  pretty  thoroughly  tested,  and  it  is 
doubtful,  even  where  they  can  be  employed,  whether  the}-  have  anj-  other 
effect  than  that  of  invigorating  the  vines,  as  the  lice  arc,  many  of  them, 
still  found  alive  after  a  submergence  of  months.  These  methods  must  be 
considered  conservatives  rather  than  curatives. 

RESU3IE    or    THE    INSECT's    HISTORY. 

We  have  had  in  this  country,  from  time  immemorial,  an  insect  attack- 
ing our  native  vines,  either  forming  galls  on  the  leaves  or  gall-like  excres- 
cences on  the  roots.*  This  insect  is  polymorphic,  as  many  others  of  its 
Family  are  known  to  be.  It  also  exists  in  two  types,  the  one,  which  may 
be  termed  radicicola,  living  on  the  roots,  wdiile  the  other,  which  may  be 
termed  galloecola,  dwells  in  galls  on  the  leaves.  The  latter  is  found  more 
especially  on  the  Clinton  and  its  allies,  while  the  forniej  is  found  on  all 
varieties,  but  flourishes  best  on  vines  belonging  to  the  vinifera  species.  The 
gall-iuhabiting  type  was  noticed  and  imperfectly  described  in  1856,  but  the 
root-inhabiting  type,  being  less  conspicuous,  was  unknown  in  this  country 
till  last  year. 

Such  an  insect  is  very  readily  transported  from  one  countrj^  to  another 
on  grape  roots,  seedlings,  etc.,  and  just  as  our  Apple  root-louse  (Eriosoma 
lanigera,  Hausm.)  was  imported  into  Europe  towards  the  close  of  the  last 
centur}',  so  we  find  that  our  Grape-louse  was  similarly  imported,  in  all 
probability  within  the  last  decade.  The  mode  of  transport  will  become  all 
the  more  intelligible  when  I  state  that  M.  Signoret  showed  me,  last  July, 
the  yet  living  progeny  of  some  lice  which  he  had  placed  in  a  tightly-corked 
glass  tube  the  year  before;  and  that  he  had  managed  to  keep  a  few  alive 
for  study  all  through  the  siege  of  Paris  up  to  the  time  mentioned. 

Xothing   would   be  more   natui-al  than   its   introduction  at  Bordeaux, 

*  I  liave  been  able  to  trace  them  with  absolute  certainty  as  far  back  as  184'),  for  in  the  herbarium 
of  Dr.  Eugelmann  is  a  specimen  of  wild  riparia  gathered  in  this  State  in  that  year,  the  leaves  of 
which  are  disfigured  by  the  very  same  gall. 


70  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

where  M.  Laliman  has,  for  a  number  of  years,  been  assiduous  in  the  cultivation 
and  trial  of  our  different  American  vines.  Or  it  might  have  t)een  introduced 
at  the  nui'series  of  the  Audebert  Bros.,  near  Tarascon,*  where  all  sorts  of 
American  plants  have  been  cultivated;  and,  if  T  mistake  not,  M.  Planchon, 
with  commendable  zeal,  has  so  thoroughly  sifted  the  history  of  the  subject 
in  France  that  he  can  trace  the  first  invasion,  with  tolerable  certainty,  to  a 
point  near  this  place,  Tarascon.  It  doubtless  existed  in  France  a  few  years 
before  its  injuries  attracted  attention,  and  the  first  notice  of  its  work  was 
made  in  the  vineyard  of  M.  de  Penarvan,  at  Ville-neuve-les-Avignon,  in 
1863.  The  scourge  soon  increased  and  spread,  and  in  1868  and  1869  acquired 
such  dimensions  as  to  thoroughly  alarm  the  great  grajDC-growing  districts 
of  beautiful  France.  At  first  all  sorts  of  hypotheses  were  put  forth  as  to 
its  cause.  Some  book-worms  even  thought  they  had  found  in  this  root-louse 
the  Phtheir  of  the  ancient  G-reeks,  but  the  intelligent  labors  of  M.  Planchon 
soon  disiielled  all  such  illusions,  and  proved  that  the  Phtheir  of  the  ancients 
was  a  true  bark-louse  (^Dactylopius  longispi7ii(>!,  Targ.)  of  a  totally  different 
nature,  and  still  existing  in  the  Crimea.']' 

In  this  manner  our  root-louse  was  known  and  studied  in  a  foreign  land 
before  its  presence  was  even  suspected  in  this — its  native  country. 

CONCLUSION — NO    NEED    OF    UNNECESSARY    ALARM. 

Knowledge  of  the  flicts  I  have  here  brought  forth  need  not  alarm  the 
grape-grower  an^^  more  than  correct  knowledge  of  some  indisposition,  hith- 
ei'to  incomprehensive  and  consequently  uncured,  should  alarm  the  human 
patient.  It  was  only  a  few  years  ago  that  our  eyes  were  opened  to  the  true 
character  of  the  entozoa  known  as  Trichina  spiralis,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  but  that  previous  to  our  knowledge  of  this  parasite  man}^  a  death 
occasioned  by  it  was  attributed  to  other  unknown  causes.  It  may  not  be 
more  easy  to  cure  the  disease  now  than  it  was  formerly,  but  we  are,  by 
understanding  its  nature,  enabled  to  easily  guard  against  and  prevent  it. 
"Full  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  says  Ilelmholz,  "always  brings  with  it  the 
cure  for  the  damage  which  imperfect  knowledge  may  occasion."  The  Phyl- 
loxera has  always  existed  on  our  vines,  and  those  varieties  which  in  the  past 
have  best  withstood  its  attacks  will  be  very  likely  to  do  so  in  the  future. 
The  presence  of  a  few  lice  on  such  varieties  need  cause  no  fear,  for  the  idea 
of  ever  entirelj'  exterminating  such  an  insect  from  the  country  must  be  per- 
4  fectly  Utopian,  and  all  we  can  do  is  to  watch  and  more  particularly  care  for 
those  varieties  that  most  easily  succumb.  In  the  future,  the  vineyardist 
will  be  enabled,  by  the  revelations  here  made,  to  trace  to  a  definite  cause 
many  a  failure  which  has  hitherto  been  wrapped  in  conjecture  and  mys- 
tery. 

In  thus  calling  the  attention  of  the  grape  growing  community  to  this 
interesting  little  insect,  which  is  sapping  the  roots  of  their  vines,  mj^  inten- 

*  M.  Laliman  in  the  essay  already  mentioned  (p.  (i3) ,  shows  that  this  nursery  has  not  existed  for 
nearly  tifteeu  years;  but  this  fact  does  not  preclude  the  possibility  of  the  louse  having  been  ttrst  intro- 
duced there.  It  would  only  indicate — if  the  spread  of  the  disease  can  be  traced  from  that  point — that 
it  existed  in  France,  without  attracting  attention,  at  an  earlier  epoch  than  is  generally  supposed. 

t  See  an  Essay  entitled  La  Plithiriose  on  Pediculaire  de  la  Vigne  ches  les  Aucieus.  Bulletin  de  la 
Soi.  des  Agr.  de  Fraice,  Jiilv,  1870. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  71 

tion  is  to  do  good  and  not  cause  unnecessary  con  ternation.  Let  me  Ixipe 
that  others  may  bo  induced  to  study  the  microscopic  plague  and  thus  not 
only  assist  to  fill  the  gaps  yet  occurring  in  its  natural  history,  but  help  us 
to  become  better  masters  of  it.  Only  those  who  have  witnessed  the  fearful 
havoc  it  has  made  abroad — where  in  three  years  it  caused  a  loss  of  25,000,- 
000  francs  in  the  single  department  of  Vaucluse,  France, — can  fully  appre- 
ciate its  importance  and  its  power,  under  favorable  circumstances,  to  do 
harm. 

I  must  remind  those  who  live  outside  of  Missouri,  that  my  observa- 
tions in  this  country  have  been  confined  to  different  parts  of  this  State^ 
and  apply  more  especially  to  this  portion  of  the  Mississippi  Valle}'. 
The  insect  occurs,  however,  very  generally  over  the  country  east  of 
the  Mississippi  river,  even  into  Canada ;  and  there  are  strong  indica- 
tions that  it  produces  similarly  injurious  effects  elsewhere.  To  give  a 
single  example :  According  to  the  records,  most  of  the  vineyards  <:)n 
Staten  Island  which  were  flourishing  in  1861,  and  which  were  composed 
principally  of  Catawba,  had  failed  in  1866,  and  Mr.  G.  E.  Meissner,  of  Bush- 
berg,  who  then  owned  a  vineyard  on  that  island,  informs  me  that  he  had 
noticed  the  nodosities,  and  that  the  roots  of  the  dying  vines  had  wasted 
away.*  I  cannot  conclude  without  publicly  expressing  my  indebtedness  to 
Messrs.  Lichtenstein  and  Planchon,  of  Montpellier,  France,  for  the  cordial 
and  generous  manner  in  which  they  gave  me  every  facility  for  studying  the 
insect  there,  and  witnessing  experiments  in  the  field. 

*  Since  the  above  was  written,  I  have  listened  to  an  essay  on  Grapes,  by  Mr.  P.  Manny,  of  Free- 
port,  Stephenson  county,  Illinois.  In  this  essay,  which  was  read  before  the  Illinois  State  Horticul- 
tural Society,  the  writer  states  that  his  Delaware,  lona  and  Salena  vines  lose  their  lower  roots.  He 
attributes  this  loss  of  roots  to  the  tenacity  of  the  soil  (though  more  likely  owing  to  unseen  root-lic<-i 
and  has  remedied  it  in  a  measure  by  grafting  on  Clinton  roots. 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT  pF 


BENEFICIAL  INSECTS. 


SILK\VORMS 


^^  Si  Patrice  utilis  compensatus  est  labor." 

INTRODUCTORY. 

g 

Silk  is  at  once  the  stroiigest  and  most  tenacious  of  fibres,  and  makes 
the  most  beautiful,  durable  and  valuable  of  tissues.  What  gold  is  to  metals, 
or  the  diamond  to  precious  stones,  that  silk  is  to  all  other  textile  fibers. 

Upwards  of  35  years  ago  speculators  succeeded  in  creating  an  immense 
furore  throughout  this  country  on  the  subject  of  silk-culture.  It  is  not  my 
purpose  to  repeat  the  history  of  the  silk  excitement,  which  by  the  name  of 
the  Morus  imdiicanlis  fever  stands  out  j)rominently  as  an  integi-al  part  of  the 
history  of  our  Republic.  Inflated  to  its  utmost  the  bubble  soon  burst,  and 
Avith  its  collapse  came  a  reaction  which  has  ever  since  prejudiced  Americans 
against  an  industry  which  is  justlj^  considered  one  of  the  very  richest  with 
many  nations  of  the  earth.  As  a  peo^jle  we  are  too  apt  to  go  to  extremes, 
and  the  history  of  the  White  Willow  hedge  fever  in  the  West,  some  ten 
years  ago,  and  of  other  similar  sj^eculations  which  have  for  a  while  excited 
the  people's  mind,  is  present  to  tell  us  that  the  3Iorus  multicaidis  fever  does 
not  stand  alone  as  an  evidence  of  the  fact. 

Strong  as  was  the  reaction  and  the  prejudice  against  silk-culture,  3-et 
during  the  last  few  years  the  subject  has  received  increasing  attention,  and 
Commissioner  Capron  refers  hopefully  to  it  in  his  last  report  from  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture.  *  It  has  been  shown  that  some  races  of  the  worm 
will  feed  and  flourish  on  Osage  orange,  and  that  some  parts  of  this  great 
country  are,  so  far  as  climate  is  concerned,  eminently  adapted  to  the  rear- 
ing of  this  precious  insect,  whose  industry  increases  that  of  man.  Indeed 
so  much  of  an  exaggerated  nature  has  been  said  and  written  on  the  subject, 
sincd  the  close  of  the  Reballion,  and  mare  particulai-ly  in  California,  that 
there  is  some  danger  of  a  repetition  of  the  history  of  35  years  ago. 

It  has  occuri'ed  to  me  that  an  accurate  account  of  the  Mulberry  Silk- 
worm, and  of  such  other  introduced  or  indigenous  species  as  seem  to  war- 
rant it,  xaay,  in  great  measure,  prevent  any  such  unfortunate  recurrence, 
and  really  prove  interesting  and  valuable  to  the  people  of  Missouri  as  not 
only  revealing  the  habits  of  some  of  the  most  splendid  moths  which  enrich 

♦1^70,  p.  8. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST..  I  6 

our  fauna  and  constantly  attract  the  attention  of  the  knowledge-seeker;  but 
as  giving  information  which  may  at  any  future  day  become  invaluable  in  an 
industrial  sense. 

Though  we  may  not,  at  present,  be  able  to  compete,  in  their  own  mar- 
kets, with  the  cheaper  labor  of  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia,  there  is  no  reason 
why,  with  proper  ijitelligence,  we  may  not  produce  our  own  silk  as  cheaply 
as  it  can  be  brought  here  from  those  countries;  and  I  am  convinced  that 
should  we  ever  be  cut  off  by  war,  from  those  countries  on  which  we  rely  for 
our  present  silk  supply,  we  can  easily  fall  back  on  our  own  resources ;  and 
there  are  few  parts  of  the  United  States  better  adapted  to  the  raising  of  silk 
than  the  southern  counties  of  Missouri.  Even  now,  there  is  no  reason  Avhy 
the  young  peojile,  and  those  unable  to  do  harder  work,  in  thousands  of  fam- 
ilies, in  that  section  of  the  State  more  espeeiall}',  should  not  spend  a  few 
weeks  each  j-ear  in  the  pleasant  work  of  producing  cocoons.  The  spinning 
wheel  and  the  distatf  have  been  superceded  and  driven  from  the  household 
by  modern  machinery;  and  the  time  which  used  to  be  given  to  their  work- 
ing in  former  days,  might  be  profitablj"  devoted  now-a-daj'S  to  silk-raising 
and  reeling.  Such  a  substitution  of  the  finer  for  the  coarser  fiber  would  in- 
deed be  typical  of  our  modern  civilization  and  progress  compared  with  the 
old. 

Xot  very  many  years  have  elapsed  since  grape-culture  was  considered 
impracticable  in  this  country,  while  the  practicability  of  pisciculture  is  only 
just  now  beginning  to  be  realized;  and  to  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  de- 
tails of  sericulture  abroad,  it  becomes  very  clear  that,  with  the  endless 
variety  of  our  soil  and  climate,  the  production  of  silk  might  soon  be  added 
to  our  constantly  increasing  resources — especially  if  fostered  and  encouraged 
at  the  start  by  wise  government.  It  is  not  always  wise  to  prophecy,  and 
yet,  to  me,  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  there  will  be  on  our  Pacific  coast 
silk-reeling  establishments,  worked  it  may  be  by  the  most  skilled  Japanese 
labor — establishments  which  will  create  a  ready  market  for  cocoons  reared 
with  us,  even  if  we  do  not  erect  filatures  or  reeling  establishments  ourselves; 
for  the  completion  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  brings  us  into  direct  com- 
munication with  the  far  West,  and  an  import  duty  of  about  10  per  cent,  on 
raAV  silk,  though  it  would  of  course  be  protested  against  by  the  manufactur- 
ers, would  give  stimulus  to  this  production  and  certainly  benefit  the  countrj'. 

Xothing  in  that  well  known  "  Boy's  own  Book  "  had  half  the  interest 
for  me,  in  childhood,  as  the  chapter  on  the  Silkworm.  The  feeding  of  the 
worms  was  the  pet  summer  occupation  of  my  boj'hood  ;  while  the  i-isks  ven- 
tured and  obstacles  surmounted  to  procure  mulbeny  leaves  for  the  same 
purpose,  are  prominent  among  the  reminiscences  of  after  college  life.  Since 
then  I  have  lost  no  opportunity  to  inform  myself  of  the  details  of  the  silk 
industry,  so  that  I  speak  from  no  little  experience. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  more  specific  consideration  of  these  silk- 
worms, I  ma}'  as  well  state  that  my  object  is  not  so  much  to  go  into  detail, 
since  whole  volumes  might  be,  and  have  l>een,  written  on  the  Mulberry  Silk- 
worm alone.     My  purpose  is  to  lay  before  the  people  of  Missouri  such  ex- 


74  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

perience  as  is  yet  unrecorded,  and  to  sift  from  the  mass  of  nnimpr)rtant 
facts,  the  more  salient  and  valuable  ones. 

Of  the  eight  species  Avhich  will  be  treated  of,  four,  namely,  mori,  cynthla, 
yama-)nai,  and  Ferny i,  are  of  foreign  origin,  and  the  other  four,  namel}-^ 
Cecropia,  Promethea,  Luna,  and  Polyphemus,  are  native.  I  shall  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  changes  these  different  worms  undergo,  because  these  changes 
have  not  before  received  sufficient  attention.  It  will  be  noticed  that,  when 
newly  hatched,  all  of  them,  even  to  the  mulberry  species,  are,  in  form  and 
structure,  exactly  alike;  and  that  they  differentiate  more  and  more  as  they 
increase  in  size,  until  each  acquires  its  specific  characters.  This  is  in  accord- 
ance with  a  law  which  has  only  lately  been  fully  appreciated,  and  which 
prevails  throughout  nature;  namely,  that  in  the  early  stages,  the  species  of 
a  genus  or  of  a  Family  closely  resemble  each  other,  no  matter  how  dissimi- 
lar they  afterwards  become.  To  the  Darwinian  such  facts  are  significant,  as 
impl^^ing  descent  from  a  common  ancestry. 

All  these  silkworms  cast  their  skin  four  times  during  the  feeding  period, 
and  thus  have  five  different  stages  of  growth  ;  the  worm  resting  and  fasting 
from  one  to  three  daj's,  then  gradually  working  off  the  old  skin,  and  uftei'- 
wards  knocking  off  the  head. 

The  males  of  all  generally  issue  from  the  cocoons  before  the  females. 
This  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  fact  that  the  females  are  generally  the  largest, 
have  the  most  vitalit}'^,  and  consequently  require  a  greater  time  to  i'l^Qid, 
and  to  assimilate  the  food ;  for  it  has  often  been  noticed  that  a  small  female 
will  develop  faster  and  consequently  issue  sooner  than  a  large  male. 

The  males  generall}'  have  much  broader  antennaa  than  the  females;  but 
in  Pi'omethea  the  difference  is  not  great,  and  m  cynthia  it  is  often  impercep- 
tible. 

They  all,  Avhen  in  the  cocoon,  are  f+irnished  with  an  acrid  or  Eomljycie 
fluid,  with  which  they  weaken  the  resisting  force  of  their  cocoons,  and  facil- 
itate the  exit  of  the  moth;  though  those  which  make  rounded  or  closed  co- 
coons are  much  more  amply  supplied  than  those  which  form  pointed  or 
open  ones. 

All  the  cocoons,  whether  pointed  or  rounded,  are  spun  in  one  continu- 
ous thread.  In  issuing,  the  moths  of  all  of  them  rupture,  more  or  less,  the 
threads  of  the  cocoon,  thus  rendering  it  valueless  for  reeling.  Many  writ- 
ers assert  to  the  contrary- ;  but  I  have  examined  no  deserted  cocoon  which 
has  not  shown  some  broken  threads,  and  have  witnessed  the  threads  break 
during  the  emergence  of  the  moth.  Such  as  are  naturally  open  are  broken 
less  than  the  others;  but  if  only  a  half  dozen  threads  are  sundered,  the 
cocoon  is  spoiled  for  reeling  jDurposes.  All  the  native  cocoons  are  at  times 
found  drilled  with  large  holes,  and  gutted  by  birds  or  squirrels;  and  those 
which  fall  to  the  ground  are  frequentl}^  destroj-ed  by  mice,  rats  and  moles. 

All  the  moths  are  night  flyers.  All  the  large  heavy  worms,  when  full 
grown  and  in  a  state  of  nature,  hang  on  the  under  side  of  leaves  and  twigs, 
being  too  heavy  to  sustain  themselves  in  an  ujjright  position.  They  are  all  of 
some  shade  of  green — no  matter  what  their  color  when  younger — and  in  a 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  75 

measure  similate  the  leaves  of  theix-  food-tree,  so  as  to  render  detection 
difficult. 

They  all,  whether  native  or  foreign,  need  fresh  air  for  their  well-being; 
continement  in  rooms  and  in  large  numbers  together  undoubtedly  predis- 
posing to  disease.  In  breeding  insects  entomologists  well  know  that  those 
species  even  which  best  bear  confinement,  rapidly  degenerate  in  the  course 
of  a  few  generations,  and  it  is  a  very  general  law  with  animal  and  plant  life, 
that  the  more  it  approaches  the  artificial  in  contradistinction  to  the  natural, 
the  less  vigorous  in  constitution  it  becomes. 

It  is  a  little  singular  that  the  jH'incipal  trees  which  may  be  used  for 
producing  the  best  silk,  namely,  the  Mulbeny,  Osage  orange  and  Ailan- 
thus,  are  all  three  of  them  remarkably  free  from  the  attacks  of  other  insects. 

By  judicious  breeding  and  selection  I  believe  that  the  native  worms 
may  be  improved  in  their  silk-jDroducing  qualities,  and  that  the  foreign  ones 
may  be  acclimatized  and  better  adapted  to  our  conditions. 

With  this  brief  prelude  I  will  at  once  introduce — 


^^The  worm  that  spins  the  Queen's  most  costly  robe," 
THE  MULBEEEY  SlJJK^YOm,i—Bombyx  ISericaria-]  mori,  Linn. 

(Lepicloptera  Boinbyciilse.) 
ITS   PAST    HISTORY. 

Silk  seems  to  have  been  first  manufactured  and  used  as  an  article  of 
clothing  in  Asia.  At  least  it  was  first  obtained  from  thence  by  the  ancients, 
and  the  Eomans  called  it,  from  the  name  of  the  country  whence  it  was  sup- 
posed to  be  brought,  Sericum.  According  to  the  best  records  its  cultivation 
commenced  in  China  under  the  reign  of  Emperor  Houng  Ti  (Emperor  of 
the  Earth),  and  the  Mulberry  Silkworm  is  undoubtedly  indigenous  to  China, 
where  it  fed  naturally  on  their  wild  mulberries. 

The  wild  worm  has  yet  to  be  discovered,  however,  and  will  doubtless 
be  found  eventually  in  some  of  the  provinces  of  China.  A  wild  variety,  of 
small  size,  living  on  Mulberry,  is  said  to  occur  in  Java,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
say  whether  it  is  there  indigenous  and  has  always  been  wild,  or  whether  it 
has  sprung  from  escaped  specimens  of  the  domesticated  races.* 

Long  before  the  Christian  era,  silk  was  cultivated  both  in  China  and 
India,  where  a  class,  whose  occupation  was  to  attend  to  silkworms,  appears 
to  have  existed  from  time  immemorial,  being  mentioned  in  the  oldest  San- 
scrit Books.f  Its  cultivation  can  be  traced  back  in  China  to  at  least  2700 
B.  C.  From  China  it  was  exported  to  India,  Persia,  Arabia,  and  the  whole 
of  Asia. 


*Maurice  Girard.  Lea  Auxiliaries  du  ver  a  sole .  p.  5.  1864. 
tColebrook  in  Asiatic  Researches,  V.  (51— quoted  by  Kirby  &  Spcnce. 


76  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

The  milliner  in  which  silk  was  produced  long  remained  a  mystery  to 
the  ancients,  and  Aristotle  first  rightly  conjectured  that  it  was  unwound 
from  the  pupa  of  a  caterpillar.  At  Eome,  even  as  late  as  A,  D.  280,  a  silk 
attire  of  purple  was  considered  by  the  Em^jeror  as  a  luxury  too  expensive 
for  an  empress — it  being  worth  its  weight  in  gold. 

In  Europe  the  mode  of  jDroducing  and  manufiictui-ing  it  was  not  made 
known  till  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  when  two  monks  of  the 
order  of  St.  Basil,  ai*rived  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Justinian,  at  Con- 
stantinople, from  a  missionary  expedition  to  China,  and  brouglit  with  them 
the  seeds  of  the  Mulberry,  and  communicated  the  mode  of  rearing  the 
worms.  In  Greece  its  culture  and  manufacture  soon  spread,  and  the  Vene- 
tians in  the  hight  of  their  prosperity  carried  supplies  to  the  whole  West  of 
Europe.  It  was  introduced  in  time  into  Sixain,  Portugal  and  Sicily,  and  in 
1540  extended  to  Piedmont,  and  throughout  Italy.  Here  the  jjroduct  soon 
outranked  in  excellence  the  very  best  of  Asiatic  origin.  In  France  we  hear 
of  mulberry  trees  being  planted  near  Avignon  as  far  back  as  1340.  Later, 
naraelj^,  in  1494,  silk-culture  was  introduced  into  Alan  ;  but  it  did  not  become 
thoroughly  established  till  1603,  when  encouraged  b}'  Henry  IV.  It  has  now 
become  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of  that  country.  In  1865  the 
value  of  silk  goods  produced  w^as  estimated  at  $106,500,000,  of  which  826,- 
500,000  (raw  material)  was  imported.  The  home  consumption  was 
$35,000,000,  and  the  export  -$71,500,000.  The  number  of  silk  looms 
employed  in  the  empire  was  about  225,000,  and  gave  bread  to  half  a  million 
of  the  inhabitants.  The  United  States  paid  France  in  1865,  $9,900,000  for 
her  silk  goods.  During  and  since  the  war  we  have  been  more  economical. 
About  the  year  1605,  James  I,  who,  while  king  of  Scotland,  was  forced  to 
beg  of  the  Earl  of  Mar  the  loan  of  a  pair  of  silk  stockings  to  appear  in 
before  the  English  ambassador,  endeavored  to  encourage  its  culture  in  Eng- 
land ;  but  the  climate  is  not  ftivorable  to  the  rearing  of  the  worm,  and  jet 
the  Englisli  annually  import  millions  of  dollars'  Avorth  of  raw  silk,  and 
only  recently  a  "Silk  Supply  Association"  has  there  been  formed,  which 
now  publishes  a  monthly  journal,  and  the  objects  of  which  are  thus  stated  : 

1.  To  stimulate  the  production  of  silk,  by  cottage  cultivation  and  other- 
wise, in  every  county  where  the  mulberry  tree  is  c-apable  of  giving  food  to 
the  silkworm.  2.  To  encourage  the  introduction  and  exchange  of  the  best 
kinds  of  silkworms  in  silk-producing  districts.  3.  To  offer  practical  sug- 
gestions and  encouragement  to  the  producers  of  silk  for  improving  the 
quality  and  securing  a  better  classification,  and  for  ensuring  greater  care  in 
the  reeling  of  the  silk.  4.  To  promote  the  cultivation  of  silk  in  the  various 
silk-producing  districts  in  India,  where  the  production  of  silk  has  not 
recently  increased,  and  in  other  districts  of  India,  where  the  cultivation  of 
the  silkworm  has  almost  ceased,  but  which  are  known  to  possess  special 
advantages,  by  the  growth  of  the  mulberry  tree  and  the  habits  of  the  peo- 
ple, for  its  propagation.  5.  To  promote  the  exportation  of  cocoons  from 
countries  not  well  able  to  reel  them.  6.  To  communicate  with  the  Foreign, 
Colonial  and  Indian  Departments  of  her  Majesty's  Government,  and  to 
obtain  the  aid  of  the  English  representatives  in  the  British  colonies  and 
consular  agents  in  all  foreign  countries  to  promote  and  extend  the  cultiva- 
tion of  silk. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  i  I 

There  are  but  four  countries  which  export  raw  silk ;  namely,  China, 
Japan,  Italy  and  France.  Estimates  o-leane<l  from  recent  statistics  bring  the 
different  countries  in  the  following  order  in  regard  to  their  production  of 
this  export.  At  the  head  is  China,  which  produces  every  year  silk  to  the 
value  of  nearly  $100,000,000;  then  Italy,  $42,000,000;  France,  $26,000,000; 
India,  $24,000^000;  Japan,  $17,000,000;  Turkey  and  Asia  Minor,  $12,000,- 
000;  Persia,  $5,000,000;  Spain  and  Portugal,  $3,000,000;  Syria  and  Austria, 
each,  $2,000,000;  Oreece,  $1,000,000.  Then  follow  other  countries,  aver- 
aging fi'om  $900,000  to  $100,000,  while  the  United  States  at  present  produces 
scarcely  any — the  product  for  ten  years  being,  according  to  the  last  census, 
3,945  pounds;  of  which  California  produced  3,587;  Pennsylvania,  1;  Vir- 
ginia, 15;  North  Carolina,  95;  Georgia,  14;  Mississippi,  31  ;  Louisiana,  1; 
Tennessee,  153;  Kentucky,  45;  and  Missouri,  3. 

An  interesting  proof  of  the  gradual  spread  of  silk  over  the  globe  is 
furnished  by  the  similarity  of  name  given  to  it  b}-  different  nations  as  fol- 
lows :  China,  se ;  Mongolia,  sirkeh;  Corea,  sic;  Arabia,  serik ;  Greece, 
qr]piK6v ;  Roman,  sericum;  Medireval  Latin,  seda;  Ital}',  seta;  France,  soie, 
satin;  German,  seide;  Denmark,  silcke;  Sweden,  silke;  Anglo-Saxon,  siolk; 
England  and  America,  silk. 

ITS    HISTORY    IN   AMERICA. 

During  the  reign  of  James  I.  of  England,  or  in  the  beginning  of  the 
17th  century,  sericulture  was  first  attempted  in  Virginia.  Other  efforts  were 
subsequently  made,  but  were  very  naturally  abandoned  for  the  obvious 
reason  that  the  raising  of  tobacco,  cotton  and  sugar  were  found  more  prof- 
itable. 

Many  years  subsequently  it  began  to  attract  renewed  attention,  and 
was  gaining  strength  and  imjjortance  when  the  Revolution  deranged  and 
crushed  it.  After  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  feeble  efforts  were 
made  to  naturalize  the  worm  in  the  more  northern  States;  and,  according 
to  William  H.  Vernon,  of  Rhode  Island,*  $30,000  or  $40,000  were  annually 
realized  from  rearing  the  worms  in  Connecticut,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century. 

But  from  the  few  data  which  we  have  to  guide  iis,  we  may  conclude 
that  silkworm  culture,  tv'ith  the  exception  of  the  fitful  start  during  the  mul- 
ticaulis  fever,  was  very  generally  abandoned  in  the  States.  And  indeed  the 
climate  of  the  New  England  States  is  by  no  means  well  adapted  to  the  rais- 
ing of  the  worms;  and  woi'se  still,  there  was  no  market  for  the  cocoons. 
But  the  conditions  have  materially  changed  within  the  past  decade.  Under 
the  stimulus  of  the  duties  on  the  manufactured  goods,  the  growth  of  silk- 
manufacture  has  been  unprecedently  rapid;  for  there  is  no  duty  on  the  raw 
material,  and  the  completion  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  has  enabled  its 
rapid  and  direct  importation  from  China  and  Japan. 

The  Oneida  Community,  of  Oneida  Co.,  IST.  Y.,  have  been  far  more  suc- 
cessful as  manufacturers  than  as  raisers.     They  turn  their  attention  to  the 

*  Methodical  Treatise  o.i  the  Cultivation  of  the  Mulberrj-  Tree;  on  the  liaising  of  Silkworm-,  etc. 
From  the  French  ot  M.  De  la  lirousse.     Boston,  1828. 


78  FOURTH   ANNUAL  REPORT   OF 

manufacture  of  sewing  silk  of  different  grades,  and  though  the  first  silk  was 
made  in  1866,  they  realized  the  very  next  year  the  sura  of  825,000,  and  at 
present  their  business  has  so  increased  that  they  employ  about  150  female 
operators  in  their  factories. 

Half  a  dozen  years  ago,  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  of  New  York, 
there  were  not  50  looms  running  on  broad  silks  and  serges,  where  now 
there  are  nearer  500.  In  and  around  Boston  there  are  nearly  as  many ; 
and  Philadelphia  boasts  of  about  30.  Last  fall  I  visited  Patcrson,  N.  J., 
and  spent  some  time  in  the  surrounding  countrj^  for  the  pm-pose  of  inquir- 
ing into  this  new  industry.  From  Mr.  Thos.  N.  Dale,  of  the  Dale  Manufac- 
turing Co.,  I  learned  that  in  Paterson  alone  there  are  some  30  establish- 
ments manaflicturing  silk,  employing  about  six  hundred  persons,  and 
making  nearly  all  kinds  of  goods.  Of  ribbon  factories,  the  largest  in  the 
United  States  are  there,  two  of  them  employing  from  three  to  four  hundred 
hands,  though  the  leading  specialty  is  silk  dress  goods,  chiefly  blacks.  A 
large  business  is  also  done  in  pongee  silks,  or  handkerchiefs,  which  are  sold 
plain  to  New  York  merchants,  by  whom  they  are  sent  to  various  print 
works  on  Staten  Island  for  a  finish. 

The  establishment  of  the  Dale  Manufacturing  Company,  which  is  the 
largest,  produces  braids,  cords,  dress  trimmings,  etc.,  in  great  variety.  This 
concern,  like  others,  does  a  heavy  business  in  manufacturing  trams  and 
organzines  (warp  and  filling)  for  silk  establishments  throughout  the  country. 
Another  factory  emjjloj^s  numerous  hands  exclusively  on  ladies'  trimmings, 
gimps  and  fringes.     Several  others  are  making  sewing  silk,  hat  bands,  etc. 

3Ir.  Dale  uses  the  best  European  machinery,  and  has  a  seri-meter  and 
dynamometer  for  testing  the  strength  and  elasticity  of  the  thread,  and  scales 
for  weighing  it,  all  from  Berthand  &  Cie  of  Lyons,  France.  He  employs 
350  hands,  earning  on  an  average  from  S5  to  $6  a  week.  He  uses  nearly  a 
bale  (100  lbs.)  of  raw  silk  each  day,  for  which  he  pays  from  $9  to  $12  per 
pound. 

85,000,000  of  capital  are  invested  in  the  business  in  Connecticut,  the 
establishment  of  Cheney  Bros.,  at  Hartford,  being  the  largest  in  that  State. 

All  these  facts  serve  to  show  that  there  is  at  present  an  unlimited 
demand  for  reeled  silk  right  at  home,  and  I  believe  that  reeling  establish- 
ments will  be  built  wherever  sufficient  cocoons   are  raised  to  warrant  them. 

The  production  of  the  raw  material  is  beginning  anew  under  far  more 
favorable  auspices  than  ever  before,  and  not  only  in  California,  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico,  which  for  this  purpose  are  favored  by  heaven ;  but  right 
here,  in  this  poi-tion  of  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  I  believe  the  day  will  soon 
come  when  silk-raising  will  be  carried  on  profitabl3\  Any  community  by 
cooperation  might  add  to  its  annual  jn-oduct  by  this  indastr}^,  without  in  the 
least  affecting  its  other  industrial  pufsuits.  Individuals  have  successfull}- 
raised  the  worms,  and  Mr.  J.  F.  Wielandy  informs  me  that  his  uncle,  Mr. 
Pagan,  of  Highland,  Illinois,  raised  them  successfully  for  four  consecutive 
years.  He  had  some  of  the  silk  on  exhibition  before  the  Board  of  Trade 
of  St.  Louis;  and  specimens  were  sent  to  Switzerland,  and  pronounced,  by 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  79 

six  different  miinufticturers,  equal  to  the  best  grown  in  Europe.  Some  atten- 
tion has  been  paid  to  the  subject  in  Utah,  and  worms  have  been  repeatedly 
raised,  on  a  small  scale,  by  myself  and  othei^  in  various  portions  of  our 
own  State.  All  these  trials  have  gone  to  prove  that  the  woi'ms  can  be 
raised  with  us;  and  they  have  not  been  i-emunerative  simply  because  they 
were  carried  on  more  for  pleasure  than  profit,  and  not  extensively 
enough  to  warrant  the  purchase  or  manufacture  of  suitable  reeling  ma- 
chines. 

SILK   GROWING    IN   CALIFORNIA. 

Through  the  efforts  of  Colonel  Warren,  of  the  California  Farmer ;  the 
late  M.  L.  Prevost,  and  others,  much  attention  has  been  paid  to  silk-raising 
on  the  Pacific  Coast  since  the  close  of  our  civil  strife.  That  they  have,  in 
that  section  of  the  country,  a  climate  most  eminently  adapted  to  the  growth 
of  the  Mulberry  and  the  rearing  of  the  worms,  admits  of  no  doubt  what- 
ever. The  extremes  of  heat  and  cold;  the  thunder  storms  and  rains  which 
often  occur  in  France  and  Ital}"  during  the  rearing  and  breeding  season,  ?'.  e., 
in  May,  June  and  July,  are  almost  unknown  in  some  of  the  California 
Coast  YalleA's. 

M.  L.  Prevost,  who  bj'  his  enthusiasm  earned  for  himself  the  title  of 
''Pioneer  Silk  Culturist  of  the  Pacific  Coast,"*  selected  some  10,000  acres 
in  San  Bernardino'county  as  a  basis  for  a  silk  settlement.  In  a  short  time 
he  managed  to  create  a  great  interest  in  the  subject,  especially  in  Los  Ange- 
los,  Santa  Barbara,  and  San  Bernardino  counties.  In  1867,  he  published 
the  "  California  Silk-growers'  Manual,"  and  though  he  is  now  no  more,  and 
it  is  unnecessary  to  criticise  the  work  as  it  deserves,  it  is  important  to  point 
out  a  few  of  its  inconsistencies  in  order  to  prevent  others  from  being  de- 
ceived and  misled  by  it.  It  is  made  up  principally  of  a  series  of  fugitive 
newsj^aper  articles  brought  together  in  an  undigested  form,  and  without  re- 
gard to  ai'rangement  or  chronological  order.  He  never  once  mentions  the 
race  of  worms  he  raised;  asserts  without  proof  that  one  man  can  take  care  of 
as  many  Avorms  in  California  as  can  eight  in  Prance;  argues  without  suffi- 
cient ground  on  a  constant  demand  for  California  eggs  from  Europe;  and 
asserts  prematurely  that  Califoriiia  silk  by  the  superiority  of  the  climate  is 
bound  to  be  a  superior  article,  and  consequent!}'  Mill  command  the  market 
in  all  parts  of  the  M'orld.  On  page  162  he  speaks  of  the  bones  [!I]  of  the 
scull  of  the  worm.  On  page  59  he  shows  that  a  lot  of  worms  which  he 
attempted  to  raise  in  Sacramento  in  1866,  were,  from  one  cause  or  another, 
very  badly  diseased ;  while  on  page  152,  in  a  chapter  which  was  evidentl}- 
written  subsequently,  he  roundly  asserts  that  ho  had  never  been  able  to 
observe  any  disease  in  California  worms.  On  page  60  he  says  that  a  change 
from  Mulberry  to  Osage  leaves  started  the  disease  above  mentioned,  and 
afterwards  (p.  120)  clearly  shows  that  it  was  started  before  the  Osage  was 
fed.  On  page  105  is. given  a  list  of  prices  of  cocoons  at  Lj-ons,  France,  the 
average  of  which  is  61.96  per  lb.;  while  Ure's  Dictionary  gives  the  price  of 

♦  According  to  his  own  showing-,  however,  (Altmual  p.  ViiS,)  Mr.  Henry  Hentsch  was  the  first  to 
import  tlie  eggs  of  the  worm  and  the  seed  of  tlie  Mulberrv. 


80  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

cocoons  in  France  in  1851  at  about  30c.,  and  M.  Combier-Blanchon,  of 
Livron  (Drome),  France,  informed  me  last  summer,  that  the  best  of  cocoons 
only  bring  there  about  5  francs  the  kilogram,  which  is  about  50c.  gold  j^ei" 
lb.  On  page  77  he  makes  the  statement  that  he  had  raise'd  silk  for  two 
successive  years  at  a  net  result  of  $104,  and  (valuing  the  raw  silk  at  $4.50 
per  lb.)  of  $108  per  acre.  Yet  on  page  237  there  is  a  calculation  to  show 
that  the  net  return  from  an  acre  may  be  $2800 ;  and  by  taking  some  of  the 
figures  given  it  might  be  made  still  greater. 

These  few  inconsistencies  will  serve  to  show  how  unreliable  the  work 
is.  M.  Provost  was  an  enthusiast,  and  we  may  admire  his  enthusiasm,  but 
when  enthusiasm  becomes  fanaticism  and  carries  one  beyond  the  bounds  of 
reason,  it  is  often  j^roductive  of  more  harm  than  good.  Had  M.  Prevost 
shown  more  moderation  and  reason  in  his  writings;  had  he  been  as  prone 
to  report  failure  as  he  was  to  magnify  success,  the  silk  interests  of  Califor- 
nia would  not  now  be  endangered  b}^  a  reactive  depression  which  is  as  unnat- 
ural as  was  the  over-enthusiasm  a  few  3-ears  since.  Ilis  little  work,  by  false 
showing,  was  better  calculated  to  induce  another  muUicaylis  fever,  than  to 
healthily  stimulate  silk  industry.  Its  exaggerated  ^^ictures  and  immoder- 
ate accounts  annulled  what  little  of  value  it  did  possess,  and  earned  for  its 
author  the  name  of.hlagueur,  which  has  been  applied  to  him  in  France. 

Silkworms  were  first  hatched  in  California  in  18G0.  In  1868  the  inter- 
est in  silk  culture  there  was  at  its  height,  and  the  legislature  of  the  State^ 
in  order  to  encourage  the  enterprise,  offered  liberal  bounties.  In  1869,  the- 
premiums  amounted  to  $115,000;  but  from  this  time  on  the  reaction  began 
to  take  place,  and  the  evil  effects  of  the  visionary  clamor  of  enthusiastic 
advocates  began  to  tell.  The  season  was  exceptionably  unfavorable,  an4/ 
many  of  their  eggs  were  spoiled  for  want  of  experience  how  best  to  keep 
them. 

For  a  while  the  diseased  state  of  the  Silkworm  in  Europe  created  a 
large  demand  for  foreign  eggs,  and  the  trade  in  the  East  assumed  large  pro- 
portions. In  1869  two  millions  of  cards,  costing  on  an  average  three  dollars 
each,  were  sent  to  Europe  from  Japan,  and  special  steamers  were  cliartered 
to  carry  home  the  valuable  freight.  The  denuind  was  such  that  some  eggs 
raised  in  California  were  also  sold  to  France,  and  large  profits  were  the  re- 
sult. Mr.  I.  N.  Iloag  made  the  following  ver}^  favorable  report  of  his  busi- 
ness in  1868,  in  a  letter  to  the  Sacramento  Union — a  report  well  calculated 
to  induce  others  to  attempt  to  do  likewise : 

In  1868  I  fed  the  leaves  from  three  and  one-half  acres  of  land  covered 
with  two  year  old  Morus  multlcaulis  trees.  The  trees  had  been  grown  from 
cuttings  wdiere  they  then  stood.  The}^  had  been  cut  back  in  the  spring  oi- 
Avinter  close  to  the  ground  and  the  tops  used  for  cuttings,  so  that  the^'  did 
not  furnish  much  over  half  the  early  fgliage  they  Avould  have  done  had  thej- 
only  been  pruned  with  an  eye  to  that  purpose.  The  result  of  that  opera- 
tion concisely  stated,  is  as  follows :  Receipts,  486  ounces  and  13^  penny- 
w-eights  of  eggs  sold  to  Ilentsch  &  Berton  at  $4  per  ounce,  $1,946.70;  eggs 
retained  for  self  and  sold  to  other  parties,  $1,897.50;  perforated  cocoons  sold,, 
$75.30;  total,  $3,919.50.  Contra;  labor  and  other  expenses,  $472.00.  Net 
profits,  $3,449.50.     The  feeding  was  commenced  on  the  first  of  June.     On 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  i^l 

the  25th  of  July  it  was  fully  completed  and  the  eggs  all  made.  On  the  Ttb 
of  August  I  had  my  money  from  Ilcntsch  &  Berton,  and  could  have  sold  the 
entire  product  to  them. 

But  it  subsequently  turned  out  that  Messrs.  Ilentsch  and  Berton  lost 
81,000  by  the  operation,  and  that  no  other  such  liberal  men  were  to  be 
found  who  would  take  such  risks. 

3Ir.  Thos.  A.  Garc}',  of  Los  Angelos,  gave  similarly  encouraging  results 
of  one  of  his  year's  doings  in  silk-culture,  having  netted  $2,700  from  one 
acre,  from  eggs  and  mulberry  cuttings.  'Many  other  similar  cases  might  be 
given.  Indeed,  whenever  profits  Avere  made  they  were  not  legitimately  from 
the  cocoons,  which  seem  to  have  found  no  sale  at  all ;  but  from  eggs  and 
mulberry  cuttings.  This  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  no  reeling  establish- 
ments had  been  erected  and  there  was  consequently  no  market  for  the  raw- 
cocoons,  while  none  of  the  raisers  seem  to  have  attempted  the  reeling  of 
their  own  silk.  But  the  demand  for  California  eggs  never  had  become  an 
established  one,  and  ceased  entirely  when  the  Franco-Prussian  war  broke 
out.  This  war  had  the  eifect  to  depress  and  almost  destroy  the  spirit  of  en- 
terjjrise  which  had  prevailed  a  few  j^ears  previous.  It  even  left  the  Jap- 
anese egg  ti'ade  in  a  bad  condition,  so  that  some  lots  were  shipped  to  San 
Francisco  at  a  time  when  the  Californians  had  a  surplus  of  their  own.  One 
lot  of  130,000  cartoons  left  a  record  that  will  not  encourage  further  consign- 
ments. In  the  center  of  the  lot  the  heat  hatched  the  worms,  and  they  had 
to  be  reviewed  and  re2-)acked  when  they  arrived.  After  some  use  of  the  tel- 
egraph ])arties  in  Xew  York  were  found  who  risked  the  shipment  overland 
"to  be  sent  thence  to  Europe;  but  the  eggs  were  all  ruined,  and  every  cent 
invested  was  sunk. 

For  these  various  reasons  there  is  great  despondency  in  silk  circles  in 
California  at  present,  and  the  business  has  very  generalh'  been  pronounced 
a  failure.  The  Santa  Clara  Agriculturist  says  it  has  given  less  practical  sat- 
isfaction and  poorer  grand  results  than  almost  any  other  industry  undertaken 
on  the  Pacific  coast. 

At  present  there  are  lots  of  mulberry  trees  in  nursery,  with  no  demand; 
and  the  premium  offered  has  fiiiled  of  its  intended  object  to  promote  the  in- 
terest, because  a  bounty  was  also  offered  for  cocoons;  and  there  has  been  no 
etfort  to  jiroduce  reeled  silk,  not  a  single  hank  having  thus  far  resulted- 
There  has  been  more  speculation  than  work. 

The  whole  question  of  the  success  of  silk-culture  in  that  State,  and  in- 
deed in  an}'  part  of  the  country  depends,  therefore,  on  the  ability  to  reel  the 
silk  and  thus  furnish  a  market  for  the  cocoons;  and  State  aid  and  encour- 
agement should  be  directed  to  this  end.  It  always  has  been  a  serious  ques- 
tion Avhether  or  not  in  producing  reeled  silk  we  can  compete  with  the  cheap 
labor  of  southern  Europe  and  of  China  and  Japan.  If  by  superior  intelli- 
gence and  the  advantage  of  climate  the  Californians  can  produce  reeled  silk 
— and  I  sincerely  believe  they  can — so  as  to  furnish  it  at  home  at  the  same 
rates  that  it  can  be  imported  from  abroad,  they  will  succeed,  and  silk-cul- 
ture will  become  one  of  the  prominent  industries  of  the  countrj-.      If  thej 

cannot,  it  will  be  a  signal  failure. 
6 


82  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OP 

The  manuflieturing  interest,  encouraged  as  it  is  by  import  duties,  will 
take  care  of  itself,  and  silk  flictories  are  already  springing  up  on  the  Pacific 
coast  and  proving  remunerative,  as  they  are  on  the  Atlantic.  Let  the  pro- 
ductive industr}'  be  similarly  encouraged,  and  let  all  premiums  hereafter  be 
offered  for  reeled  silk ! 

SILK   CULTURE    IN    KANSAS — MONS.    E.    V.    BOISSIERE's    ESTABLISHMENT. 

About  three  3-ears  ago,  Mons.  E.  Y.  Boissiere,  a  French  philanthropist^ 
of  considerable  means,  came  to  this  country  from  Bordeaux  for  the  express 
purpose  of  purchasing  a  large  tract  of  land  for  general  agricultural  pur- 
poses, but  primarily  for  the  cultivation  of  mulberry  trees  and  the  raising  of 
silk.  He  finally  settled  in  Franklin  count}',  Kansas,  about  18  miles  south- 
west of  Ottawa,  10  miles  west  of  Princeton  station,  on  the  Leavenworth, 
Lawrence  and  Galveston  railroad,  and  three  miles  south  of  the  little  town 
of  Williamsburg.  Here,  in  1869,  he  j^urchased  3,500  acres  of  undulating 
prairie  land,  and  at  once  commenced  operations  b}^  erecting  a  three-story 
frame  building,  50x30  for  his  operatives.  The  land  is  rich  and  clayey, 
with  a  limestone  subsoil  and  of  good  elevation.  He  has  already  fenced  in 
360  acres  and  broken  about  150;  and  contracts  are  let  for  the  fencing  with 
stone  walls  of  160  acres  intended  for  j^asturage.  The  place  has  been 
christened  "Silkville." 

He  does  not  contemplate  the  cultivation  of  this  entire  tract;  but  intends 
to  devote  the  greater  portion  of  it  to  the  raising  of  cattle,  for  which  he 
whishes  to  have  sufficient  range  on  his  own  land.  Only  the  moi-e  valuable 
portions  will  be  devoted  to  the  silk  interest.  Already  there  is  a  good  stable, 
a  few  sheds  for  rearing  the  worms,  and  a  stone  factory  83x28  for  working 
the  silk.  If  the  silk  business  succeeds,  the  reeling  of  the  cocoons  and  the 
manufacture  of  velvet  trimmings  will  furnish  oceujjation  through  the  win- 
ters; but  the  hope  of  success  now  entertained  by  M.  Boissiere  cannot  be 
realized  for  at  least  two  3'ears,  which  will  bo  required  to  establish  the  pos- 
sibility of  profitabl}'  raising  the  worms,  and  to  await  the  growth  of  the 
trees.  Meanwhile,  to  avoid  any  chance  of  fiiilure,  he  intends  to  embark  in 
several  industries  which  have  received  no  attention  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  and  which  will  give  employment  to  the  operatives,  and  may  be 
carried  on  entirely  from  the  products  of  the  farm.  Of  such  industries,  he 
mentions  more  especially  broom-making;  the  preservation  of  meat  in  tin 
cans;  the  manufacture  and  refining  of  sorghum  syrup;  of  castor  oil;  potato 
starch;  morocco  leather,  and  dark-headed  matches,  which  have  nothing 
poisonous  about  them  and  cannot  be  ignited  except  on  the  box  containing 
them. 

There  are  already  planted  8000  mulberry  trees  which  have  made 
a  wonderful  growth,  and  there  are  2,500  fine  young  trees  in  nursery  to  be 
set  out.  There  is  also  a  young  orchard  of  900  trees,  and  2,000  peach  trees  ; 
1,000  Concord  vines ;  and  belts  of  Black  locust,  Black  walnut  and  Ailan- 
thus,  will  be  planted  the  coming  spring. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  83 

The  forepart  of  last  November  I  paid  M.  Boissiere  a  visit,  as  I  was 
interested  in  this  novel  enterprise  just  started  in  a  neighboring  State.  I 
found  him  sitting  at  an  immense  table  with  all  the  operatives,  partaking 
in  common  of  a  plain  but  substantial  meal.  He  is  a  bachelor  of  some  sixty 
years  of  age  ;  a  philanthropic,  intelligent  man — a  man  of  plain  habits^ 
and  with  such  broad  democratic  views  that  he  originally  came  to  this 
w^untrv  in  sheer  disgust  of  Napoleo-n  III.  He  is  fully  imbued  with  the 
fact  that  there  should  be  no  conflict  between  capital  and  labor,  and  intends 
to  make  the  colony  self-supporting;  but  to  form  eventually  a  co-operative 
society,  with  equital)le  distribution  of  profits,  mutual  guarantees,  association 
of  families,  integral  education  aiul  unity  of  interests — something  after  the 
jilan  proposed  by  Mr.  E.  T.  Clrant,  in  a  work  on  Co-operation,  issued  from 
the  office  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  So  soon  as  the  organization  is  effected 
he  intends  to  donate  to  the  association  all  the  capital  invested  by  himself  up 
to  that  time,  reserving  only  the  right  of  as  manj^  votes  as  the  capital  will 
represent. 

I  found  the  looms  in  the  factor^'  idle  for  reasons  which  need  not  affect 
the  ultimate  siiccess  of  the  enterprise,  and  the  samples  of  velvet  ribbon  and 
silk  trimmings  which  had  been  hiade  from  French  and  Japanese  silks,  and 
which  may  be  seen  at  Carson  Bros.,  121  Locust  street,  St.  Louis,  sufficiently 
attested  the  capabilities  of  these  looms.  Other  looms  have  already'  been 
ordered  from  France.  I  shall  await  with  much  interest  future  developments 
in  this  colony,  for  upon  its  success  very  much  depends.  That  it  will  suc- 
ceed as  a  colony  I  have  little  doubt,  but  whether  it  will  do  so  as  a  silk 
settlement,  time  only  will  tell.  If  it  becomes  a  success  in  this  last  sense,  it 
will  form  the  nucleus  of  a  new  and  important  industry  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  ;  for  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  there  are  localities  innumerable^ 
and  plenty  of  them  in  oiir  own  State,  where  such  colonies  could  be  formed 
with  better  commercial  facilities,  less  severe  climate,  and  especially  where 
there  would  be  less  annoyance  from  severe  cold  winds,  which,  as  M.  Boissiere 
informed  me,  pi'cvail  there  to  a  remarkable'  degree  in  the  spring,  and  bid 
fair  to  form  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  rearing  of  the  worms.  The 
State  of  Kansas,  if  it  looks  well  to  its  own  interests,  will  not  let  the  under- 
taking fail  for  want  of  encouragement;  for  when  an  individual  embarks  in 
some  new  enterprise,  the  success  of  which  is  of  so  much  importance  to  the 
State,  he  deserves  encouragement  from  the  Legislature,  if  it  is  necessary. 

SILK    GROWING    IN    MISSOURI. 

I  cannot  find  that  the  Silkworm  has  ever  been  raised  in  any  considerable 
numliers  in  this  State.  I  have  raised  them  under  a  variety  of  circum- 
stances during  each  of  the  last  four  years,  having  employed  three  white 
and  yellow  races  from  Eqin,  China,  received  through  the^Department  of 
Agriculture ;  and  three  rather  inferior  European  varieties."^,,  They  have  alsc 
been  raised,  at  my  request,  by  several  different  persons  near  St.  Louis,  by 
Judge  J,  F.  Wielandy  of  Jefferson  City;  Wm.  E.  Howard  of  Forsyth,  and 
J.  L.  Townsend  of  Columbia.     These  trials  fully  warrant  the  assertion  that 


8  I:  FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 

the  worms  can  be  reared  here  with  perfect  siu-ci'ss,  and  that  where  the  rules 
hiid  down  under  the  liead  of  "  Best  Methods  of  bearing  "  are  pro]ierly  carried 
out,  we  may  be  as  sure  of  a  good  harvest  as  they  are  in  most  of  the  silk- 
:Xrowing*  districts  of  Europe. 

Tlie  worms  naturally  commence  to  hatch  with  us  from  the  middle  to 
ihc  end  of  A])ril.  They  commence  spinning  usually  within  thirt}"  tlays,  and 
i-emain  in  the  chrysalis  state  just  about  two  weeks.  The  feature  in  our  cli- 
mate which  we  have  most  to  guard  against  is  the  excessive  heat  that  some- 
times occurs  in  May,  Avhen  the  worms  arc  in  their  last  stage.  A  Avet  spring 
with  a  hot  early  summer,  is  most  injurious,  and  these  features  of  1870  in- 
duced a  greater  mortality  than  occurred  during  any  of  the  other  four  years 
of  my  experience.  Excessive  -heat,  and  too  great  richness  of  the  food,  is 
very  apt  to  jtroduce  jaundice  in  the  worms*  and  it  manifests  itself  more 
]iarticularly  just  before  spinning  time.  Our  fall  season  cannot  besurjtassed 
tor  this  industr}',  as  the  weather  is  driei-,  more  uniform  in  temjierature,  and 
the  leaves  are  ri])er  and  sweeter  tlian  in  the  spring.  For  these  reasons, 
future  experience  will  doubtless  prove  that  September  and  October  will  be 
propitious  months  for  rearing  the  Avorms ;  and  that  consequently  it 
will  be  best  to  retard  the  hatching  of  eggs  by  keeping  them  constantly  at  a 
temperature  below  40°  F.;  or  we  might  employ  the  Bivoltins — raising  only 
enough  of  the  first  brood  to  give  us  a  good  supply  of  eggs  for  the  second. 

NATURAL    HISTORY    OF   THE    SILKWORM. 

The  Silkworm  is  interesting  to  us,  not  only  from  the  value  of  its  silk, 
but  from  the  fact  that  it  is  about  the  only  insect  that  has  been  under  man's 
complete  management  for  a  long  series  of  years,  and  that  has  been  carried 
by  him  from  one  country  to  another  in  widely  ditferent  parts  of  the  world. 
It  is,  so  to  speak,  the  only  domesticated  insect  to  which  we  have  been  able 
TO  ajjply  the  principle  of  selection  for  an}-  length  of  time;  for  though  the 
Cochineal  insect  and  the  Hone3";bee  have  been  in  a  measure  under  our  con- 
trol, these  prineii^les  have  never  been  applied  to  the  former,  and  it  is  only 
within  the  last  few  years  that  we  have  been  enabled,  b}'  hive-improvements 
and  deeper  knowledge  of  its  habits,  to  apply  them  with  any  degree  of  satis- 
faction to  the  latter.  The  Silkworm  has  been  subjected  to  a  variety  of  dif- 
fering conditions,  both  of  climate  and  management;  and  if  species  are,  as 
many  of  the  more  advanced  thinkers  now  contend,  not  immutable  but  muta- 
ble; we  should  exj)ect  to  find  great  differences  in  the  characteristics  of  this 
particular  one.  These  differences  we  do,  in  fact,  find ;  for  it  is  notorious 
that  there  are  about  as  many  breeds  of  the  Silkworm,  as  there  are  of  the 
domestic  Dog.  In  the  form  of  the  egg,  the  colors  of  the  larva,  and  more 
especiall}^  in  the  size,  color,  form  and  quality  of  the  cocoon ;  and  in  the 
varying  length  of  time  required  for  development ;  the  races  of  Bombyx  mori 
show  such  differences  that,  if  found  in  any  of  our  wild  species,  they  would 
be  considered  as  specific  by  most  naturalists.  Yet  no  naturalist  pretends  to 
give  these  differing  races  specific  scientific  names,  though  they  are  often 
designated  by  popular  distinguishing  terms. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  So 

There  is  one  race  known  as  Annual  which  will  not  produce  more  than 
one  brood  each  year,  no  matter  how  the  eg!i;s  are  manipulated;  another 
known  as  Bivoltin  which  [troduces  two  broods  a  year;  and  a  third  (^TrevoWn ), 
which  produces  three  annual  genei'ations.  Yet  by  changed  conditions  each 
of  these  races  can,  in  a  few  years,  be  rende'red  inconstant  and  variable  in 
these  particular  characteristics.  There  are  races  (and  they  are  more  esjK'ci- 
nlly  adapted  to  warm  countries)  such  as  that  of  Milan,  and  most  of  tin. 
Trevoltins,  vfhioh.  habitually' moult  but  three  times;  and  it  is  evident  thai 
even  this  important  difference  has  been  artificially  produced,  since  ordinary 
worms  occasionally  moult  but  thi'ee  times  and  the  three-monlters  or  rac('S  n 
trois  mues,  as  the  French  call  them,  sometimes  moult  four  times.* 

The  Mulberry  silkworm  is,  Avhen  compared  to  other  insects,  an 
anomal}'.  It  had  alread}-  been  so  long  under  the  influence  of  human  man- 
agement ere  it  was  introduced  into  Europe,  that  we  find  the  larva,  when  full 
grown,  possessing  the  white  color  so  typical  of  domestication;  which  is  the 
more  remarkable  that  white  is  extremely  rare  in  Lepidopterous  larva^,  and 
unknown  in  any  of  the  external  feeders  belonging  to  the  Silkworm  Family 
{Bombycidce).  That  this  lack  of  color  is  the  dii-ect  result  of  doinestication. 
as  in  so  many  other  animals,  ma}'  be  very  justly  inferred,  because  when 
newly  born  the  worm  is  almost  black,  and  in  the  older  worms  there  are  con- 
stantly appearing  individuals  with  dark  or  tiger-like  marks  which  have  been 
attributed  to  reven-sion  by  Captain  Hutton,  who,  by  separating  and  breed- 
ing from  them,  found  that  in  the  third  generation  they  had  become  darker 
and  that  their  moths  were  likewise  dai"ker,  and  resembled  in  coloring  the 
wild  Huttoni  of  Westwood.|  We  find  furthermore,  that  it  has  lost  all  desiix- 
of  escape,  and  the  worm  will  seldom  crawl  out  of  the  shallowest  tra\'  s<> 
long  as  it  is  supplied  with  food,  while  the  moth  is  equally  contented  ti> 
•remain  in  the  same  trays.  So  thoroughly  has  it  lost  all  instinct  of  self 
preservation  that,  as  we  learn  from  good  authorit}',  when  placed  ujjon  a  tree 
out  of  doors,  the  worm  is  easily  blown  down  by  the  agitation  of  the  wind. 
and  not  unfrequently  commits  the  blunder  of  severing  the  petiole  of  the 
leaf  upon  which  it  rests,  and  thus  unconsciousl}'  brings  itself  to  the  ground 
from  Avhich  it  seldom  has  the  tact  or  power  to  rise  again.  We  find  also, 
that  the  moth  has  lost  almost  all  traces  of  color  and  vqy\  nearly  all  power 
of  flight;  its  wings  scarcely  ever  expand  much  beyond  the  length  of  the 
cocoon,  from  Avhich  it  issues,  while  most  of  the  wild  silkworms,  (take,  for 
instance,  the  Polyphemus,  figures  50  and  53,)  expand  from  four  to  five  times 
the  length  of  their  cocoons.  The  male  flutters  a  little,  but  the  female  can- 
not rise  off  her  feet,  and  never  makes  the  attempt;  yet  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  they  both  flew  in  the  wild  state,  and  it  has  been  shown  that 
after  three  generations  reared  in  the  open  aii',  the  males  recover  in  great 
part  the  lost  power. 


*  See  Darwin's  Animals  and  Plants, .etc.,  p.  302. 

t  Trans.  Lonrt.  Ent.  Soc.  Snl  Serie~,  Vol.  S,  pp.  15',  SOS. 


86 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


In  short,  the  ordinary  Silkworm  bears  unmistakable  evidence  of  having 
been  modified  according  to  man's  wants.  He  has  been  interested  maiidy  in 
j^roducing  the  largest  amount  of  silk  from  the  smallest  amount  of  leaves, 
and  we  consequently  find  to-day  vast  ditferences  in  the  cocoons  of  the  dif- 
ferent races,  and  great  bulk  of  cocoon  compared  with  the  insect  which 
makes  it. 

The  Mulberry  silkworm  is  anomalous  in  one  other  respect,  namely,  in 
having  a  curved  horn  on  the  eleventh  joint;  for  though  in  those  silkworms 
which  are  tubercled,  there  is  always  a  large  middle  tubercle  on  the  back  of 
this  eleventh  joint,  ^^et  none  of  them  possess  this  Sphingidous  character  in 
the  same  degree.* 

From  the  foregoing,  it  will  become  obvious  that  what  follows  of  the 
natural  history  of  the  Silkworm  is  of  the  most  general  character. 

The  Egg. — The  egg  is  nearly  round,  a  little  flattened,  and  in  size  rather 
less  than  a  mustard  seed.  It  is  j^ellow  when  first  deposited,  and  so  remains 
if  unimpi-egnated,!  but  when  impregnated  soon  acquires  a  gray  or  slate 
color  and  becomes  indented.  It  is  fastened  bj-  a  gummy  substance  which 
the  moth  secretes  in  the  act  of  ovijjositing.  Each  female  will  lay  upwards 
of  300  eggs.  One  ounce  of  good  eggs  will  produce  40,000  Avorms.  The 
color  of  the  albuminous  fluid  in  the  egg  corresponds,  6r  is  correlated  with, 
that  of  the  cocoon;  so  that  when  this  fluid  is  white  the  worms  produce 
white  cocoons,  and  when  yellow  they  will  produce  yellow  ones. 

As  the  hatching  point  apjiroaches^  the  egg  becomes  moi'e  pale  in  color 
which  is  due  to  the  intervening  space  between  the  roUed-up  worm  and  the 
shell  which  is  semi-transparent.  Just  before  the  worm  hatches  there  is 
often  heard  a  slight  clicking  noise,  which,  however,  is  common  to  many 
other  insect  eggs;  and  when  loosened  it  will  sometimes  bound  p  short  dis- 
tance, evidently  by  the  sudden  jerk  of  the  woi'm  within,  as  in  the  case  of 
some  so-called  jumping  seeds  and  jumping  galls. 

The  Larva. — The  newly  hatched  worm,  as  already  stated,  is  black  or 
dark  graj'.  It  is  covered  with  long  stLft'  hairs,  and  if  closely  examined  these 
hairs  will  be  found  to  spring  from  jjale .  tubercles  of  the  same  number  and 
placed  precisely  in  the  same  position  as  those  to  be  ibund  at  the  same  age 

on  all  the  other  silk- 
worms to  be  hereafter 
described.  It  becomes 
paler  at  each  moult 
and  after  feeding  for 
nearl}'  a  month,  pre- 

*  This  tVature  is  generallv  ('(insidered  so  entirely  characteristic  ofthi'  l;irv;B  of  a  Family  of  Moths 
])i)ljularlv  called  Hiiwk-niotl'is  (Si)hingid(t),  which,  for  the  mast  part,  underfro  their  transformations 
n.ikedlv  "underfjround;  and  so  micliaracteristic  of  those  of  the  large  Fiimily  ofSilk-moths  (Bombi/cida) , 
that— reasoning-  from  analogy  and  foi-g-tting  his  earlier  expei'ience  with  the  Silkworm— s(»  good  an 
eiitoniologisi  as  mv  late  iVii'n'd  Walsh,  at  first  took  me  to  task  for  putting  a  horn  on  the  tignre  of  this 
worm,  wiiich  apjieared  mi  t\^'  finvr  oX'  the  American  Entomolo(/ist .  To  nii'  this  horn  exhibits  merel}- 
a  case  of  i)ersistence  of  the  middle  tn1)ercle  on  the  eleventh  Joint,  while  those  on  the  other  joints  have 
beom.'  ol)solete;  anil  we  have  an  ai)proach  to  the  same  condition  in  nuv  Prometliea  (Fig.  43,  d) ,  which, 
as  it  grows,  loses  all  its  tubercdes  except  four  near  the  head  and  this  one  on  the  eleventh  joint. 

t  On  very  rare  occasions  the  embrvo  in  unimpregnated  eggs  continues  to  develo))  and  the  young 
worm  has  even  been  known  to  hatcli. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


87 


seats  the  appearance  of  Figure  29,  having  lost  its  long  hairs,  and  all  its 
tubercles  but  that  on  the  eleventh  joint.  It  does  not  become  entirely 
smooth,  however,  as  there  are  short  hairs  along"  the  sides,  and  verj'  minute 
ones  not  noticeable  with  the  unaided  ej-e,  all  over  the  body.  The  prepar- 
ation for  each  moult  I'equires  from  two  to  three  days  of  fasting  and  rest, 
during  which  the  worm  attaches  itself  lirml}'  l)y  the  abdominal  prolegs  and 
holds  up  the  forej)art  of  the  body,  and  sometimes  the  tail,  .in  front  of 
the  first  joint  a  dark  triangular  spot  is  at  this  time  noticeable,  indicating 
the  growth  of  the  new  head,  and  Avhen  the  term  of  "  sickness,"  as  it  is 
often  called,  is  over,  the  worm  casts  its  old  integument,  rests  a  short  time  to 
recover  strength,  and  then  freshened,  supjile  and  hungry,  goes  to  work  feed- 
ing voraciously  to  compensate  for  lost  time.  It  is  usually  estimated  that 
it  consumes  its  own  weight  of  leaves  every  daj'  it  feeds;  but  this  is  not 
strictly  correct.  It  does,  however,  consume  more  during  the  last  few  days 
-of  its  worm-life  than  during  all  the  rest  put  together.  When  about  to 
spin  up  it  shrinks  somewhat  in  size,  acquires  a  clear  translucent  pinkish  ap- 
pearance, becomes  restless,  ceases  to  feed  and  thi-ows  out  silken  threads. 

According  to  Quatrefages*  the  color  of  the  silk  is  correllated  with  the 
color  of  the  abdominal  pi-olegs. 

The  Cocoon. — The  cocoon  (Fig.  30)  consists  of  an  outer  lining  of  loose 
or  floss  silk,  which  is  used  for  carding,  and  of  a  strong,  tough  pod.     Its  form 


1 


{^'Mfn 


is  usuall}^  oval  and  its  color 
yelloAvish ;    but  in    b  o  t  h  ^ 
these  features  it   varies 

i}\  S^'^^^h'} '  being  either  pure 
silvery-white,     cream,     or 
carneous,  o-reen,  and  even 
i '  roseate  ;  and  very   o  ft  e  n 

jlj  constricted  in   the  middle. 


[Fig.  .31.] 


\^  '//'    The  male  cocoon  is  often  more  pointed  than  that  of  the 

^%]^?5^  The  Chrysalis. — The  worm  completes  its  cocoon  in 

about  three  days  and  in  three  days  more  becomes  a  chrysalis.     In  this  state 
it  remains  from  two  to  three  weeks  when  it  issues  as  a  moth. 

The  3Ioth — Is  of  a  cream-color  with  more  or  less  distinct  brownish 
markings  across  the  wings  as  in  Figure  31  :  neither  sex  flies,  but  the  male 
is  more  active  than  the  female.  Coitus  takes  place  very  soon  after  issuing, 
and  the  female  begins  depositing  in  a  day  or  two,  whether  her  eggs  be  fer- 
tilized or  not. 

enemies  and  diseases. 

It  has  generally  been  supposed  that  no  true  parasites  attack  the  mul- 
berry silkworm;  and  certain  it  is  that  none  such  are  known  in  Europe. 
But  in  China  and  Japan  great  numbers  of  worms  are  killed  by  a  disease 
called  "  Uji,"  which  is  undoubtedh'  produced  by  th^  larva  of  some  parasite, 


'Quoted  b}-  Darwin. 


88  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

thou"h  Avliether  Ilymenopterous  or  Dipterous  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn 
with  assurance. 

Several  diseases  of  a  funi:;oid  or  epizootic  nature  and  several  maladies 
which  have  not  been  sufficiently  characterized  are,  however,  Avell  known  to 
afflict  this  worm.  One  of  these  diseases  called  tnuscardine,  has  been  more  or 
less  destructive  for  many  years  in  Europe.  It  is  of  precisely  the  same  nature 
as  the  fungus  (Empusa  nmscce)  which  so  frequently  kills  the  common  House- 
fly and  sheds  a  halo  of  sporules,  readily  seen  upon  the  window-pane,  around 
its  victim. 

A  worm  about  to  die  of  this  disease,  becomes  languid  and  the  dorsal  pul- 
sations become  insensible.  It  suddenly  dies  and  in  a  few  hours  becomes  stiff, 
rio-id  and  discolored;  and  finally,  in  about  a  day,  a  white  powder  or  efflor- 
escence manifests  itself,  and  soon  entirely  covers  the  body,  developing  most 
rapidly  in  a  warm  humid  atmosphere.  No  outward  signs  indicate  the  first 
Btao-es  of  the  disease,  and  though,  it  attacks  worms  of  all  ages,  it  is  by  far  the' 
most  fatal  during  the  fifth  or  last  age  or  stage. 

This  disease  was  proved  b}^  Bassi  to  be  due  to  the  develojiment  of  a  fun- 
gus (Botrytis  Bassiana)  in  the  body  of  the  worm.  It  is  certainly  infectious ; 
the  spores  when  they  come  in  contact  with  the  worm,  germinating  and  send- 
ing forth  filaments  which  penetrate  the  skin  and,  upon  reaching  the  inter- 
nal parts,  give  off'  minute  floating  coi-jjuscles,  which  eventuaih'  spore  in  the 
efflorescent  manner  described.  Yet  most  silkworm  raisers,  including  such 
good  authorities  as  E.  F.  Guerin-Meneville  and  Eug.  Eobert,*  who  first  implic- 
itly believed  in  the  fungus  origin  of  this  disease;  now  consider  that  the  Botry- 
fis  is  only  the  ultimate  symptom — the  termination  of  it.  At  the  same  time 
they  freely  admit  that  the  disease  may  be  contracted  by  the  spoi-es  of  the 
botrytis  coming  in  contact  with  worms  predisposed,  by  unfavorable  condi- 
tions, to  their  influence.  Such  a  view  implies  the  contradictory  belief  that 
the  disease  either  may  or  may  not  be  produced  by  the  fungus ;  and  those 
who  consider  that  the  fungus  is  the  sole  cause  have  certainly  the  advantage 
of  consistency. 

Whichever  view  be  held,  it  appears  very  clear  that  no  remedies  are- 
known;  but  that  care  in  procuring  good  eggs,  care  in  rearing  the  worms, 
good  leaves,  pure,  even-teinj)eratured  atmosphere,  and  cleanliness  are  checks 
to  the  disease.  The  drawers  and  other  objects  with  which  diseased  worms 
have  come  in  contact  should  also  be  purified  by  fumigations  of  sulphuric 
acid,  which  will  destroy  all  fungus  spores. 

This  museardine,  or  a  disease  which  has  not  yet  been  distinguished  from 
it,  has  also  made  its  appearance  in  some  of  the  Eastern  States  among  silk- 
worms, both  imported  and  wild;  and  in  the  fall  of  1870  it  was  so  common 
around  St.  Louis,  that  I  found  hundreds  of  caterpillars  stiffly  fitstened  to 
their  food  plants  and  covered  with  the  white  efflorescence.  It  was  especially 
noticeable  among  the  "  Wooly-bears,"  or  hairy  caterpillars  of  our  different 
Tiger-moths  (Arctians);  and  as  the  efflorescence  is  not  very  apparent  at  the 
base  of  the  long  dense  hairs,  such  diseased  caterpillars  look  quite  life-like. 

*  See  their  Guide  il  I'eleveur  dc  vers  a  soie. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  89 

The}'  die  in  all  sorts  of  positions,  and  I  hrvc  man}'  cabinet  specimens  of 
such,  cleverly  prejjared,  stuffed  and  mounted  by  the  hands  of  dame 
Nature. 

Another  disease,  known  as  pebrine,  has  proved  extremely  fatal  in 
Southern  Europe.  This  is  the  disease  referred  to  on  page  80,  which  for  fif- 
teen j-ears  has  almost  paralyzed  silk-culture  in  France.  It  is  a  disease  which 
in  its  na  ure  and  action,  except  in  being  hereditary,  bears  a  striking  analog}' 
to  cholera  among  men ;  ami  its  cause  and  origin  have  been  the  subject  of 
almost  as  much  speculation  and  study.  It  has  been  ascribed  variously  to 
the  vengeance  of  God,  to  mildew  or  other  parasitic  plants  upon  the  loaves 
eaten;  and  more  especially  to  the  artificial  manner  in  which  the  woi-ms 
have  been  raised,  some  authors  roundly  asserting  that  it  disappears  when 
the  worms  are  reared  in  the  open  aii',  and  that  it  is  the  result  of  a  conspiracy 
among  opticians  who  have  purposely  persuaded  silk-raisers  that  a  tempera- 
of  70°  Fahr.  (24°  Cent.)  is  too  cold  for  the  health  of  the  worms;  when  in 
reality  they  can  stand  with  imjiunity  a  temperature  of  four  or  five  degrees 
below  freezing  point.* 

Theories  and  remedies  innumerable  have  been  proposed,  and  as  is 
so  often  the  case,  those  who  gave  the  least  study  t(  the  disease,  were  the 
most  prolific  of  them. 

The  worms  affected  by  pebrine  grow  unequall}',  become  languid,  lose 
appetite,  and  often  manifest  discolored  spots  on  the  skin.  They  die  at  all 
ages,  but,  as  in  muscardine,  the  mortality  is  gi-eatest  in  the  last  stage.  The 
real  nature  of  this  malady. was  for  a  long  time  unknown.  In  1849  M. 
Guerin-Meneville  first  noticed  floating  corpuscles  in  the  bodies  of  the  dis- 
eased worms.  These  corpuscles  were  sujjposed  by  him  to  be  endowed  with 
independent  life ;  but  their  motion  was  afterwards  shown  by  Filippi  to  de- 
pend on  Avhat  is  known  as  the  Brownian  motion ;  and  they  are  now  known 
either  by  the  name  of  panhisto'phi/ton,  first  given  them  by  Lebert;  or  by  that 
of  psorospermice.  They  fill  the  silk  canal,  invade  the  intestines  and  spread 
throughout  the  tissues  of  the  animal  in  all  its  different  states ;  and  though 
it  was  for  a  long  time  a  mooted  question  as  to  whether  they  were  the  true 
cause  or  the  mere  concomitant — the  result — of  the  disease;  the  praiseworthy 
and  assiduous  researches  of  Pasteur  have  demonstrated  that  pebrine  is  en- 
tirely dependent  upon  the  presence  and  multiplication  of  these  corpuscular 
organisms.  He  has  so  epigrammatically  analyzed  the  malady  that  what 
was  occult  and  uncurable  before  has  now  become  clear  and  comprehensible; 
and  is  within  man's  power  to  stay  or  even  eradicate. 

The  disease  is  both  contagious  and  infectious  because  the  corpuscles 
which  have  passed  with  the  excreta  or  with  other  secretions  of  diseased 
worms  are  taken  into  the  alimentary  canal  of  healthy  ones  in  devouring'  the 
soiled  leaves;  and  because  it  may  be  inoculated  by  wounds  inflicted  by  the 
claws.     It  is  hereditary  on  the  mother's  side  because  the  moth  may  have 

*  See  results  of  rearing  out  of  doors  for  four  years,  by  M.  le  Dr.  Jeanuel,  of  Bordeanx— Bulletin 
Mens,  cle  la  Soc.  Imp.  Zool.  d'Acclimnfalion  •Imc  Serie,  Tome  17.  Juillel,  ISO'J.     A  Monsieur  siutne  has 
al.sd  reared  the  worms  succe.ssfully  and  free  from  disease,  in  the  open  air,  luFraiiee;  and  Jno.  s 
Uallaher,  Jr.,  of  Washinjjton,  1).  C,  wrote  to  tlie  iJm-flZ  Acw  i'or/tcr  in  August,  ISTO,  tliat  he  had  I'    I 
tlie  Worms  successfully  in  tlie  open  air  tliere. 


90  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

the  o;erm  of  the  disease  and  j^et  oviposit.  Indeed,  the  eggs  may  be  affected, 
and  3^et  look  fair  and  good,  the  m.iQvoscoinc psorospermice  not  being  visible; 
so  that  the  only  true  test  of  disease  or  health  is  an  examination  of  the  par- 
ent moth.  Healthy  moths  produce  health}-  eggs,  and  here  we  have. the  key 
to  the  perfect  subjugation  of  the  disease. 

Both  the  diseases  mentioned  are,  therefore,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word  silkworm  plagues.  The  one  is  of  a  fungus  and  the  other  of  an  ej^izo- 
otic  nature.  Each  may  become  epidemic  whenever  the  conditions  are  fa- 
vorable for  the  undue  multiplication  of  the  minute  organisms  w^hich  produce 
them  •  or  when  the  checks  to  the  increase  of  such  organisms  are  removed  b}' 
carelessness  or  ignorance.  The  exceptional  energy  which  they  exhibit  is 
precisely  analogous  to  the  exceptional  increase  of  the  Army-worm,  and  of  a 
number  of  other  insects  which  have  been  mentioned  in  these  Eeports,  and 
which  at  times,  under  favorable  conditions  get  the  mastery  over  their  nat- 
urally appointed  checks.  The  disease  may  remain  indefinitel}'  latent,  until 
the  proper  conditions  offer,  just  as  seeds  ma}-,  and  do  so  remain  in  our  for- 
ests and  prairies  until  change  of  circumstance  enable's  them  to  germinate 
and  grow. 

These  seeds  of  disease  which  are  now  known  to  ever  pervade  our  at- 
mosi)here  play  a  most  important  part  in  the  economy  of  IS'ature.  They  are 
omnipresent  guards  wisely  ordained  to  keep  order  and  harmony  in  her  Do- 
j^-iain — to  insure  the  proper  keeping  of  her  laws,  whose  violation  they  are 
ever  ready  to  punish  with  death — to  right  the  wrong  which  man's  ignorance 
jjecrets — sacrificing  sometimes  the  just  with  the  unjust;  but  fulfilling  God's 
will  itself  in  prompting  us  to  better  and  higher  effort;  to  broader  and  deeper 
knowledge. 

' '  All  nature  is  but  art,  uuknown  to  thee; 
All  chiince,  direction  which  thou  canst  not  see; 
All  discord,  harm  jny  not  untlei'stood; 
All,  partial  evil,  universal  good." 

Such  a  view  of  the  nature  and  origin  of  these  diseases  is  not  only  far 
more  plausible  and  tangible,  than  to  believe  that  they  are  caused  by  some 
influence  beyond  our  ken  or  that  they  originate  de  novo  by  some  "  fortui- 
tous concourse  of  atoms,"  or  by  what  Huxley  has  termed  abiogenesis ;  but 
it  is  the  most  scientific,  being  based  on  the  most  elj^borate  experiments,  and 
supported  by  experience.  Pasteur  has  been  able  to  prophecy  with  certainty, 
by  examination  of  the  moths,  whether  the  progeny  will  be  diseased  or 
health}-,  and  through  his  efforts  and  the  greater  care  that  has  resulted  from 
the  experience  and  trial  of  15  years'  suffering,  pebrine  is  rapidly  diminishing 
in  France,  and  the  harvest  was  belter  last  year  than  it  has  been  for  a  long 

time. 

An  excellent  proof  of  this  epizootic  nature  of  pebrine  and  of  the  sound- 
ness of  Pasteur's  deductions  is  furnished  by  the  experience  of  Mr.  L.  Trou- 
velot  in  cultivating  our  Polyphemus  worm.     As  I  shall  presently  show  he 
reared  it  in  large  quantities  in  1865,  and  fully  hoped  and  expected  to  con- 
'tinue  his  experiments.     But  some  silkworm  eggs  which  he  imported  from 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  91 

abroad  proved  to  be  infected  "with  the  disease;  and  though  upon  recogniz- 
ing it  he  inuuodiately  destroyed  the  hirva*,  and  at  that  time  his  Polyphe- 
mus eggs  Avere  not  3'et  hatched — the  precaution  was  of  no  avail,  as  the 
infection  was  about  the  house,  and  the  native  worms  all  eventually  died 
of  it.  Speaking  of  this  fearful  disease  among  them,  Mr.  Trouvelot  writes 
me  :  "  A  few  days  after  the  third  moultings  the  worms  begun  to  manifest 
sj-mptoms  of  the  deadly  disease,  and  two  or  three  days  after,  of  a  million, 
I  had  but  a  single  one  left,  and  this  one  even  died  in  the  pupa  state.  The 
following  3'ear,  I  thought  I  could  begin  anew,  but  I  found  that  the  epidemic 
had  spread  among  the  wild  ones  and  all  those  I  found  were  attacked  with 
it,  even  to  a  distance  of  seven  miles  from  my  place.  But  the  disease  did  not 
spread  further  as  I  had  feared,  and  the  third  year  the  wild  individuals  were 
as  robust  as  usual,  but  the  disease,  or  at  least  the  seed  of  it  was  infesting 
my  buildings,  and  as  soon  as  the  healthy  wild  Polyphemus  would  approach 
them  they  became  sick  and  died."  Of  late  the  disease  has  also  been  intro- 
duced by  means  of  Italian  eggs,  into  China  and  Japan  ;  and  while  it  is  on 
the  decrease  in  Europe,  it  bids  fair  to  run  a  fearful  course,  unless  jDrevented, 
in  these  the  native  counti'ies  of  the  silkworm: 

Pebrine,  as  we  have  already  seen,  ditfers  from  muscardine  in  being  her- 
editary" as  well  as  infectious.  It  will  not  suftice,  therefore,  simply  to  take 
the  precautionar}'  measure  of  purification  and  cleanliness  advocated  for  the 
latter;  we  must  also  take  care  that  our  eggs  are  sound,  b}"  microscopic  ex- 
amination of  the  moths.  This  may  be  done  after  the  eggs  are  laid;  and  if 
the  corpuscles  are  found  in  the  mother,  her  eggs  should  be  discarded. 

Silkworms  are  subject  to  other  diseases  l)ut  none  of  them  have  ever  ac- 
quired the  importance  of  those  described.  What  is  called  gattine  by  older 
authors  is  but  a  mild  phase  of  jJebrine.  The  worms  are  apt  to  be  purged  by 
unwholesome  leaves;  the}^  get  sickly  by  too  great  heat;  they  become  yel- 
low, limp  and  die  of  a  malady  called  grasserie  or  jaundice,  which  is  almost 
sure  to  appear  in  large  broods,  or  as  the  French  more  ajjprojiriately  say, 
educations,  and  which  I  have  most  frequently  noticed  in  those  reared  in  this 
country.  When  the  worms  die  from  being  unable  to  moult  they  are  called 
lusettes ;  and  such  worms  are  most  abundant  in  the  third  age.  All  these  dif- 
ferent ailments  and  others,  not  mentioned,  have  received  names;  some  local, 
others  more  general ;  but  they  none  of  them  warrant  further  notice  here, 
as  they  are  not  likeh'  to  become  verj'  troublesome  if  the  proper  attention 
and  care  be  given  to  the  worms. 

BEST    VARIETIES,    OR   RACES. 

Since  the  diseases  just  mentioned  have  been  so  px'evalent  in  Eurojie, 
among  the  French  and  Italian  races,  the  Jajjanese  annuals  have  been  the 
most  esteemed.  The  eggs  are  bought  at  Yokahoma  in  September,  and  ship- 
ped during  the  winter.  There  are  two  principal  varieties  in  use;  the  one 
producing  white,  and  the  other  greenish  cocoons,  and  known  respectively 
as  the  White  Japanese  and  the  Green  Japanese  annuals.  These  cocoons  ai'e 
by  no  means  large,  but  the  pods  are  solid  and  firm,  and  yield  an  abundance 


92 


FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


of  silk.  They  arc  of  about  a  size,  and  both  varieties  are  almost  always 
constricted  in  the  middle  (Fi<>-.  32  r  green  ;  '/  white).  Another  valuable  race 
is  the  White  Chinese  annual  (Fig.  32  t^)  which  much  resembles  the  White 
rFisr.  .•?■>. 1  .Japanese,  but  the  cocoon  is  not  so  generally  constrici('(L 

Previous  to  the  prevalence  of  disease,  a  i-ace  known  as 
•the  White  French  annual  was  the  most  esteemed,  and  in 
reality  the  cocoon  (Fig.  32  a)  is  very  large,  oval,  and 
of  a  pure  white.  The  Yellow  French  annuals  (Fig.  32  b) 
which  are  of  a  deep  rich  cream,  or  straw  color  out>ide 
but  more  yellow  inside,  were  also  esteemed,  and  the  co- 
coon is  large  and  beautiful. 

There  are  local  races  or  varieties  in  all  the  large 
silk-})roducing  countries,  and  they  generally  bear  the 
inline  of  the  locality  where  they  are  produced.  The  co- 
coons may  be  divided  into  the  yellow,  green  and  white, 
some  races  producing  cocoons  uniform  in  color;  while 
others  produce  mixed  cocoons.  The  white  silk  is  the 
nn  st  valuable  in  commerce,  but  the  races  producing  the  yellow,  cream- 
colored  or  tlesh-colored  cocoons  are  generally  considered  the  most  vigorous, 
and  have  certainly  proved  so  .in  my  experience  in  this  country.  The  An- 
nuals are  more  valuable  than  the  Bivoltins  or  Trivoltins  ;  though  the  Bivol- 
tins  are  often  reared,  and  Mr.  Alfred  Brewster,  of  San  Gabriel,  ('al.,  says 
that  he  found  a  green  .Japanese  variety  of  these  last  more  hardy  than  the 
Chinese  Annuals. 

now    BEST    TO    REAR. 

Volumes  have  been  written  oii  the  rearing  or  education  of  the  Silk- 
worm j  and  most  persons  who  have  had  no  experience  with  it,  fancy  that 
there  must  necessarily  be  something  unusually  ditficult  in  the  treatment  of 
the  worm  whose  marvelously  lustrous  product— the  pride  of  kings  and 
queens,  and  once  weighed  in  the  balance  with  gold— has  always  been  asso- 
ciated with  everything  that  is  choice,  delicate  and  beautiful.  Yet  it  we 
travel  through  the  different  silk-producing  countries  at  feeding  or  breeding 
time,  we  shall  find  the  \vork  very  simple.  From  the  reports  on  silk-culture 
that  have  lately  been  issued  by  Mr.  F.  O.  Adams,  Esq.,  Secretary  to  Her 
Brittanic  Majesty's  Legation  in  .Japan,  we  may  learn  that  the  culture  is  car- 
ried on  there  in  the  most  simple  and  even  careless  manner,  with  the  most 
primitive  machinery;  and  that  the  people  are  actually  in  ignorance  of  some 
of  the  very  simplest  truths,  the  knowledge  of  which  would  enable  them  to 
more  than  double  their  harvest.  It  is  even  worse  in  China;  and  in  South- 
ern Europe  most  of  the  silk  is  reared  by  a  peasantry  which  knows  abso- 
lutely nothing  beyond  plucking  the  leaves  and  feeding  them  to  the  worms; 
and  in  the  best  educations  they  lose  one-half  the  worms  hatched. 

There  are  few  farm  operations  more  simple,  or  which  require  so  little 
training;  but  proper  knowledge  is  all  imi)ortant  to  insure  success  and  pre- 
vent umlue  mortality  in  the  brood.  It  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  the 
character  of  the  climate  of  that  part  of  Ja[)an    where  silk-culture   has  at- 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  93 

laiiifil  most  iiuj)ortjiiiee — an  area  of  about  240  square  miles  around  Yoka- 
lioma.  As  I  am  informed  b}'  a  fellow-entomologist,  who  has  resided  there 
for  manj'  years,  and,  in  an  ofticial  capacity,  has  made  minute  and  daily  me- 
teorological observations,  the  winters  are  less  severe  than  with  us,  the  snow 
seldom  remaining  on  the  ground  more  than  an  hour:  the  summers  are  like- 
wise less  hot ;  but  the  climate  during  the  rearing  season  is  quite  siniilar  to 
that  of  our  southern  counties  during  the  same  period,  though  with  fewer 
sudden  changes.  The  mean  annual  temperature  is  03.50  F.  and  the  solar 
radiation  18. 5o.  The  Avettest  months  are  April  and  June,  the  average  rain 
fall  in  April  being  10.5  in  May  5.1  and  in  June  12.4  inches.  The  rains  stop 
suddenly-  in  June,  when  feeding  commences.  The  temperature  of  the  four 
months  of  April,  May,  June  and  Jul}-  averages  as  follows  :  April,  maximum 
70'.  minimum  52°;  Maj',  maxm.  07°,  minm.  50°  ;  June,  maxm.  74°,  minm. 
00':  July,  maxm.  80°,  minm.  72°.  Thus  their  feeding  months — parts  of 
June  and  July — do  not  comjiare  unfavorably  with  ours — parts  of  April 
and  May. 

We  have  already  seen  the  importance  of  getting  health}'  eggs,  free  from 
hereditai-y  disease,  and  of  good  and  valuable  races.  Eggs  keep  best  during 
the  winter  at  a  temperature  of  40°  F.,  and  should  be  placed  in  zinc  or  tin 
boxes  where  no  mice  or  other  animals  can  reach  them,  and  where  the  at- 
mosphere is  not  too  moist.  The  temperature  may  be  decreased  and  maj- 
even  sink  below  freezing  point,  without  injury;  but  should  never  be  al- 
loAved  to  rise  above  the  40°.  Great  care  should  especially  be  taken  to 
prevent  a  too  early  incubation  in  the  sj)ring.  Mulberry  leaves  start  to  grow 
quite  late,  and  unless  the  eggs  are  kept  back  by  being  placed  in  some  room 
or  cellar  that  is  cooler  than  the  atmosj^here,  our  early  warm  April  days  will 
cause  them  to  hatch  before  there  are  any  leaves  for  the  3'oung  worms  to  feed 
on.  The  hatching  may  be  indefinitely  delayed  providing  the  eggs  are  kept 
at  a  temperature  below  40°  F.;  for  in  France  it  is  often  deferred  by  carry- 
ing eggs  up  in  the  mountains  until  the  second  croji  of  mulberrj'  leaves  can 
be  used. 

As  soon  as  the  mulberry  leaves  commence  to  put  forth,  the  eggs  may  be 
brought  out  and  they  will,  then  very  soon  hatch  by  the  natural  heat  of  the 
•season;  though  if  the  weather  be  changeable,  it  is  best  to  regulate  the  tem- 
perature by  means  of  fii-es^  commencing  at  about  75°  F.  and  increasing  it 
about  2°  per  day  until  it  reaches  85°,  when  the  worms  will  begin  to  hatch. 
By  no  means  must  the  eggs  be  exposed  to  the  sun's  rays,  which  would  scorch 
them  in  a  ver}-  short  time;  and  even,  in  the  shade,  as  the  temperature  is 
i-aised  and  the  hatching  period  approaches,  the  atmosphere  should  be  kept 
more  and  more  moist,  either  by  sprinkling  the  floor  or  b}'  other  means. 
The  worms  will  thus  eat  through  their  egg  shells  more  easilj^  and  be  more 
fresh  and  vigorous. 

Any  room  with  a  northeastern  exposure,  and  which  can  be  well  and 
thoroughly  ventilated  will  answer  for  the  rearing  of  the  worms.  An  open 
fire-place  is  always  desirable,  as  in  cold,  damp  weather,  the  room  may  be 
rendered  comfortable  and  at  the  same  time  purified  by  the  draft  which  the 


94  FOURTH  ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

fire  creates.  Buildings  erected  solely  for  feeding  purposes,  should  combine 
these  requisites.  The  feeding  may  be  done  on  shelves  or  tables  or  in  trays  j 
but  the  wood  should  always  be  well  seasoned,  as  green  wood  is  injurious  to 
the  health  of  the  little  spinners,  which  must  from  now  forth  be  well  supplied 
with  food  and  guarded  from  too  much  moisture  or  too  much  light. 

Each  day's  hatching  should  be  kept  separate,  in  order  that  the  worms 
may  be  of  a  uniform  size  and  go  through  their  different  sicknesses  Avith 
regularity  and  uniformity ;  and  all  eggs  not  hatched  after  the  fourth  day 
from  the  appearance  of  the  first,  should  be  thrown  away  as  they  will  be  apt 
to  contain  inferior,  weakl}^  or  sickly  worms.  It  is  calculated  that  one  ounce 
of  eggs  of  a  good  race,  will  i^roduce  100  lbs.  of  cocoons;  while  for  every  addi- 
tional ounce  the  per  centage  is  reduced,  if  the  worms  are  all  raised  together, 
until  for  20  ounces,  the  average  does  not  exceed  25  lbs.  of  cocoons  per  oz. 
Such  is  the  general  exijerience  throughout  France  according  to  Guerin- 
Meneville,  and  it  shows  the  importance  of  keeping  the  worms  in  small 
broods.  Indeed,  nine-tenths  of  all  the  silk  produced  in  Europe  is  raised  in 
small  quantities,  i.  e.,  in  separate  households. 

The  young  worms  ma^^  be  removed  from  one  place  to  another  by  means 
of  a  small  camel's-hair  brush,  but  should  be  handled  as  little  as  possible. 
The  best  mode  of  managing  them  is  to  spread  over  the  hatching  eggs  a  jjiece 
of  netting  or  mosquito-bar,  upon  which  are  to  be  placed  either  plucked  leaves 
evenly  scattered  or  a  few  leaf-bearing  sprigs.  The  worms  will  cluster 
upon  the  leaves,  which,  when  loaded  with  them,  may  be  removed  from 
time  to  time,  either  by  taking  the  twigs,  uj^on  which  they  do  not  collect, 
separately  between  the  fingers,  or  by  lifting  altogether  with  the  netting. 

This  feeding  net,  which  must  have  larger  meshes  as  the  Avorms  increase 
in  size,  may  be  used  every  time  fresh  food  is  furnished,  and  will  save  a  won- 
derful deal  of  time.  It  entirely  obviates  the  necessity  of  handling  the 
worms,  and  enables  the  person  having  charge  of  them  to  keep  them  thor- 
oughly clean;  for  while  they  pass  up  through  the  fillet  to  their  fresh 
food,  their  excrement  drops  through  it  and  is  always  taken  away  with  the 
old  litter  beneath.  It  really  acts  as  a  detective  of  disease,  also,  for  such 
worms  as  are  injured,  feeble  or  diseased,  usually  fail  to  mount  through 
the  meshes,  and  should  be  carried  off  and  destro3-ed  with  the  frass  and  other 
debris. 

So  important  is  this  feeding  net  or  fillet  as  it  ma}^  be  termed,  and  so 
much  does  it  facilitate  the  caring  of  the  worms,  that  for  many  years  in  Eu- 
rope it  has  been  made  of  paper,  stamped  by  machinery  with  holes  propor- 
tioned to  the  size  of  the  worms.  The  paper  has  the  advantage  of  cheapness 
and  stiffness,  the  latter  quality  enabling  its  removal,  when  loaded,  Avithout 
lumping  the  worms  all  in  the  middle.  But  with  a  little  practice  this  can  be 
avoided  even  where  other  more  flexile  netting  is  used ;  and  it  is  the  princi- 
ple which  I  wish  to  lay  before  the  reader — the  details  of"  material  and 
method  will  suggest  themselves  according  to  the  circumstances. 

It  is  important  to  get  the  same  batch  of  worms  to  go  into  their  sick- 
nesses simultaneously,  and  as  soon  as  most  of  those  constituting  such  a  batch 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  95 

begin  to  lose  appetite,  become  more  shiny,  and  especially  when  the  trian- 
gular dark  spot  appears  above  the  head,  feeding  should  cease,  and  the 
shelves  or  traj-s  be  rendered  as  clean  as  i^ossible.  At  each  moult  there  will 
always  be  some  few  which  remain  sick  after  the  great  majority  have  cast 
their  skins.  These  should  either  be  set  aside  and  kept  separate,  or  de- 
stroj^ed;  as  they  are  usually  the  most  feeble  and  inclined  to  disease;  other- 
wise the  batch  will  grow  more  and  more  irregular  in  their  moultings,  and 
the  diseased  worms  will  contaminate  the  healthy.  Eegnlarity  may  also  be 
insured  by  causing  those  which  first  shed  their  skins  to  wait  on  their  more 
tardy  brethren  for  one  or  even  two  days  without  feeding;  for  they  can  at 
this  time  fast  without  any  injury.  Indeed,  no  food  should  be  given  till  the 
majority  of  the  batch  have  moulted. 

As  the  worms  increase  in  size,  and  become  crowded  on  their  shelves  or 
in  their  trays,  they  are  readily  divided  by  1-emoving  the  net,  when  about  half 
the  worms  have  mounted,  and  replacing  it  Vy  ^i^  additional  one. 

The  food  must  be  renewed  as  often  as  the  leaves  are  devoured  or  as 
they  become  in  the  least  w-ay  dry,  and  of  course  they  get  dry  much  quicker 
when  young  and  tender  than  when  mature. 

Many  rules  are  laid  down  for  regularity  of  feeding,  and  riiuch  stress  is 
put  upon  it  by  some  writers;  but  I  am  convinced  that  rules  are  of  no  avail, 
as  so  much  depends  on  circumstances  and  conditions.  In  parts  of  France, 
for  instance,  they  chop  the  leaves;  but  in  this  country  such  chopping  is 
worse  than  waste  of  time;  fqr  Nature  has  furnished  the  worm  with  far  bet- 
ter chopping  instruments  than  man  can  invent;  and  the  chojiped  food  dries 
much  sooner  than  does  the  whole  leaf.  Where  the  nets  are  not  used,  there 
is  an  advantage  in  feeding  the  worms  u])on  leaf-covered  twigs  and  branches, 
because  these  last  allow"  free  passage  of  air,  and  the  leaves  ujjon  them  keep 
fresh  for  a  longer  time  than  when  plucked.  In  thus  feeding  with  branches, 
consists  the  whole  secret  of  the  California  system  so  much  lauded  and  ad- 
vocated by  M.  L.  Prevost. 

The  meals  most  relished  are  those  given  early  in  the  morning  and  late 
in  the  evening,  and  the  best  time  to  give  them  is  between  5  and  6  A.  M.  and 
10  and  11  p.  M.  One  or  two  intervening  meals  during  the  day  may  be 
given  according  to  circumstances.  The  leaves  given  in  the  morning  are 
best  plucked  the  evening  before,  as,  if  plucked  and  fed  w^ith  the  dew  on,  they 
are  injurious.  During  the  night  the  temperature  may  be  lowered  a  few  de- 
grees with  impunity,  as  such  lowering  is  natural  and  the  worms  will  be  more 
quiet  during  their  night  fast.  A  mean  temperatwe  of  75°  or  80°  F.  wall 
usually  bring  the  worms  to  a  spinning  jjoint  in  from  35  to  40  days  after 
hatching,  but  the  rapidity  of  development  dejDends  on  a  variety  of  other 
causes,  such  as  quality  of  leaf,  race  of  worm^  etc.  If  it  can  be  prevented, 
the  temperature  should  not  be  j)ermitted  to  rise  above  80  ° ;  and  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  in  our  climate  a  room  with  a  northern  or  northeastern  exposure 
is  preferable  to  any  other. 

During  the  fifth  or  last  age  the  worms  require  the  greatest  care  and  at- 
tention.    Frass  and  litter  must  be  removed  often,  and  all  sickly  and  diseased 


96  FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 

worms  culled  from  tlie  rest.  Good  ventilation  must  be  had,  and  the  tem- 
perature be  kept  as  even  as  possible.  At  this  and  at  all  times  during  the 
life  of  the  worms,  they  must  be  guarded  against  the  attacks  of  mice  and  prc- 
daceous  insects. 

COCOONERY. 

When  the  worms  show  the  signs  of  spinning,  alreadj*  described,  the  co- 
coonery must  be  prepared  by  forming  arclies  of  the  smaller  twigs,  well  dried, 
of  different  trees,  intermixed  with  broom-corn,  or  of  any  other  kind  of 
brush.  If  tiers  of  shelves  have  been  used  these  arches  are  readil}^  formed 
by  tying  together  small  bunches  of  twigs  exceeding  a  little  in  length  the 
distance  between  the  shelves.  The  feet  of  these  bundles,  wdiich  should  be 
about  a  foot  apart,  are  placed  upon  the  lower,  and  the  tips  spread  out 
againsi  the  up])er  shelf,  insuch  a  m,anner  that  the  woi"ms  can  crawl  between 
them.  ^Yhere  tables  are  used,  arches  ma}'  be  made  b}'  intertwining  the 
brush,  roof- fashion.  The  worms' will  then  mount  upon  this  brush  and  com- 
mence forming  their  cocoons.  The  thermometer  should  not  be  allowed  to 
sink  below  80°  F.  daring  the  spinning,  as  the  silk  does  not  flow  so  freelj-  in 
a  cool- atmosphere.  Such  worms  as  do  not  mount  readih",  should  be  separ- 
ated, and  furnished  with  brush,  laid  carefullv  over  them.  If  allowed  to 
remain  and  spin  at  the  bottom  of  the  arches  their  cocoons  will  be  soiled  bj^ 
the  excreta  from  the  worms  above,  the  last  fteces  ejected,  after  the  cocoon 
is  commenced,  being  soft  and  semi-fluid. 

In  about  a  week  after  the  last  worms  have'mounted,  or  when  all  sound 
of  spinning  has  died  away,  the  cocoons  may  be  detached  from  the  brush, 
care  being  taken  not  to  taint  them  with  the  black  fluids  of  such  worms  as 
may  have  died  and  become  putrid — there  being  almost  always  a  few  such  in 
every  cocoonery.  The  loose  silk  is  then  torn  from  the  pods  which  should 
be  separated  according  to  color,  weight,  and  firmness  of  texture ;  those 
Avhich  l;)est  resist  pressure,  indicating  that  the  worm  has  properly  accom- 
plished its  work. 

CHOKING  THE  CHRYSALIS. 

In  most  silk-producing  countries,  the  parties  who  raise  the  cocoons  sell 
them  to  the  reeling  establishments  before  suftbcation  is  necessaiyj  as  these 
establishments  have  better  facilities  for  the  work  than  are  to  be  found  in  pri- 
vate lamilies.  The  cocoons,  which  if  left  over  a  fortnight  would  be  i)ierced 
by  the  moths,  in  their  egress,  are  choked  either  by  steam  or  drj^  heat.  By 
steam  they  can  be  choked  in  20  minutes ;  by  dr}-  heat  from  2  to  24  hours 
are  required,  with  a  temperature  of  about  200  °  F.  They  are  placed  in  shal- 
low baskets,  and  these  slipped  on  iron  drawers  into  an  oveu.  A  certain 
humming  noise  continues  as  long  as  there  is  an}'  life,  and  its  cessation  is  an 
indication  that'the  chrysalides  are  all  dead.  Where  the  choking  is  well 
done,  there  is  little  loss,  only  about  one  per  cent  of  the  cocoons  bursting  at 
the  ends.  After  choking,  the  cocoons  are  strewn  on  long  wooden  shelves 
in  the  shade,  with  plenty  of  air,  and  for  the  first  few  days  are  frequently 
stirred.  After  remaining  on  these  shelves  for  about  two  months,  with  occa- 
sional stirrings,  the  chrysalides  become  quite  dry  and  the  cocoons  will  pre- 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


serve  indefinitely — being  subject  onl}-  to  the  attacks  of  Der/n<'.sf<'S  or  museum 
pests  which  are  attracted  by  the  dead  chrysalis  within,  and  penetrate  and 
injure  the  cocoon  for  reeling  purposes. 


EOO-LAYING. 


There  are  establishments,  especiall}-  in  Japan,  which  are  entirely  de- 
voted to  the  production  of  eggs;  and  most  silk-growers  prefer  to  purchase 
their  eggs  at  the  proper  season,  rather  than  go  to  the  trouble  of  caring  for 
the  moths  and  keeping  the  eggs  over  winter.     AVhen  properly  managed,  so 
that  hygienic  rules  are  carefull}-  carried  out,  there  is  an  advantage  in  mak- 
ing the  pi-oduction  of  eggs  a  specialty;  but  their  production  in  too  large 
quantities  also  has  its  disadvantage,  and  it  is  well  for  all  silk-raisers  to  pro- 
vide their  own  eggs.     For  this  jjurpose  none  but  those  cocoons  which  are 
firm,  fine  and  of  the  right  color  should  be  chosen,  large  size  not  being  so 
much  of  an  object.     Double  or  treble  cocoons,  i.  e.,  cocoons  which  have  been 
spun  by  tAvo  or  three  worms  in  company  and  which,, in  consequence,  are  un- 
fit to  reel,  will  often  give  good  moths  for  breeding  jiurposes.     The  cocoons, 
when  chosen,  may  be  strung  in  a  chaplet  and  suspended  in  the  same  room 
where  the  feeding  Avas  done,  or  they  may  be  pasted  on  to  card-board — the 
object  in  both  cases  being  to  secure  them  so  that  the  moths  can  the  more 
readily  make  their  escape.     The  male  and  female  cocoons  may  be  approxi- 
mately separated,  by  weighing;  the  whole,  say  a  lot  of  50   or  100,  being 
weighed  first  so  as  to  get  at  the  average,  and  each  being  re-weighed  sepa- 
rately afterwards;  all  those  below  the  average  to  be  set  aside  as  males  and 
those  above  the  average  as  females.     The  moths  come  out  most  abimdantly 
during  the  early  morning  hours,  and,  as  the}'  issue,  they  should  be  taken  by 
the  wings  and  the  sexes  kept  apart  for  a  short  time.     The  males  may  then 
d  with  the  females.     Coitus,  according  to  the  best  breeders,  should 
not  last  more  than  six  or  eight  hours,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  couples 
should  be  separated  b}'  holding  the  female  gently  by  the  wings  with  one 
hand,  and  pressing  the  abdomen  of  the  male  with  the  other.     The  males  may 
then  be  thrown  away  and  the  females  placed  for  a  few  minutes  on  sheets  of 
blotting  paper,  where  they  will  free  themselves  of  much  yellowish  or  ful- 
vous fluid,  which  Avould  otherwise  soil  the  cloth  upon  which  the  eggs  are  to 
be  laid.     They  may  then  be  placed  side  by  side  in  trays,  lined  with  linen 
<:-loth,  when  they  will  immediately  commence  depositing.     The  trays  may 
be  tipped  up  at  one  end  so  that  they  incline  a  little,  as  the  moths  are  then 
more  apt  to  la}'  their  eggs  uniformly.    They  should  also  be  kept  in  the  dark, 
in  accordance  with  the  nocturnal  habit  of  the  moth.     Most  of  the  eggs  will 
be  deposited  in  about  24  hours,  and  the  moths  may  then  be  thrown  away, 
as  eggs  deposited  after  that  time  are  not  as  well  impregnated.     iSTo  de- 
formed moths  should  be  used.     The  eggs  are  best  preserved  on  the  cloth 
where  originally  deposited,  as  they  are  protected  by  a  natural  coating  of 
varnish,  and,  being  fiistened,  the  worms  when  hatching,  eat  their  way  out 
better.     For  commercial  purposes,  however,  they  are  usually  detached  dur- 
ing- the  Avi liter  bv  immersing  the  cloth  containing  them  in  cool  soft  Avater  for 


98  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

a  few  moments ;  the  moisture  being  then  drained  off  b}'  means  of  blotting 
paper  and  the  eggs  scraped  otf  by  means  of  a  paper  knife.  They  are  then 
washed  in  soft  water,  thoroughly  dried  and  put  away  for  keeping.  All  eggs 
Avhich  swim  on  the  surface  are  considered  bad,  and  discarded.  The  Japan- 
ese egg-producers  sell  their  eggs  on  cards  or  cartoons  made  of  some  kind  of 
coarse  silk.  The  cards  are  placed  in  wooden  frames,  the  rims  of  which  are 
varnished,  so  that  the  moths — disliking  the  varnish — are  made  to  confine 
their  eggs  upon  the  cards,  which  are  consequently  covered  in  a  very  regular 
and  uniform  manner. 

REELING. 

If  the  mere  rearing  of  the  worm — the  production  of  the  cocoons — is 
simple;  the  reeling  of  the  silk  is  by  no  means  so,  as  the  greatest  skill  is  re- 
quired to  accomplish  the  work  properly,  and  the  value  of  a  hank  of  silk 
depends  as  much  upon  the  skill  of  the  reeler  as  upon  the  quality  of  the  orig- 
inal thread.  In  the  best  cocoons  the  silk  Avill  measure  upwards  of  a  thou- 
sand feet  in  length,  and  though  it  appears  single,  it  is  in  reality  composed  of 
two  threads  which  are  glued  together  and  covered,  as  they  issue  from  the 
spinneret  of  the  mouth,  with  a  glossy  varnish  which  enables  the  worm  to 
fasten  the  silk  where  it  wills^  and  which  is  soluble  in  warm  water. 

It  is  not  my  jDurpose  to  give  a  detailed  description  of  a  reeling  estab- 
lishment, though  I  made  it  a  point  to  visit  a  number  of  the  best  around  Ly- 
ons, when  there  last  summer.  Those  who  contemplate  erecting  such  an 
establishment  in  this  country  will  not  rely  on  written  description,  but  will 
go  to  headquarters  to  get  their  machinerj^,  Avhich  is  manufactured  by  Bur-, 
det  &  Cie.,  Euc  Desiree  17,  Lj^ons,  France.  There  is  also  a  little  work  by 
M.  Turgon,  Avhich  gives  a  description  of  the  establishment  of  M.  Louis 
Blanchon,  of  Livron!  My  object  is  merely  to  state  the  focts  and  principles 
which  should  govern  the  unwinding  and  reeling,  for  the  benefit  of  those 
who  may  wish  to  use  single  basins  and  mills  worked  b}^  hand.  In  the  great 
reeling  districts  of  France  everything  is  brought  to  such  perfection  in  the 
filatures  or  reeling  establishments,  bj-  the  aid  of  steam,  that  the  hand  mills 
have  there  almost  gone  out  of  use.  But  most  of  the  silk  is  unwound  by 
hand  jDower  in  china;  and  excellent  silk  may  be  made  by  dextrous  manage- 
ment with  a  good  hand  mill. 

Eaw  silk  is  classified  into  organzine,  tram  and  floss.  Organzine  is  con- 
siderably twisted  and  is  the  choicest.  Tram  is  made  from  inferior  cocoons 
and  is  but  slightly  twisted.  Floss  is  made  of  the  loose  silk  carded  and  spun 
like  cotton  or  wool. 

The  thread  of  silk  as  it  unwinds  from  the  cocoon  is  valueless  for  manu- 
facturing purposes,  several  of  them  combined  going  to  make  the  stajDle  of 
commerce. 

The  persons  employed  in  unwinding  silk  are  mostly  women,  one  stand, 
ing  or  sitting  before  each  basin,  of  which  she  has  entire  charge.  The  basin 
is  made  of  copper,  and  in  the  large  establishments  the  water  in  each  basin 
is  heated  by  steam  at  the  control  of  the  operator.  The  cocoons  are  plunged 
into  the  water  when  it  is  near  the  boiling  point  and  moved  about  so  that  the 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  99 

gum  which  fastens  the  threads  becomes  uniformly  and  thoroughly  softened. 
They  are  then  beaten  with  a  small  birchen  broom,  having  the  tips  split  so 
that  the  loose  threads  readil}-  fasten  to  them.  After  beating  a  short  time 
the  operator  gets  ail  the  cocoons  fiistened,  and,  taking  the  bundle  of  threads, 
shakes  the  cocoons  till  each  hangs  but  by  a  single  one.  She  now  takes  up 
five  or  more  threads,  (brijis)  according  to^the  quality  of  silk  wanted,  unites 
them  and  introduces  the  combined  staple  or  strand  (fil)  into  a  little  glass 
eye  on  one  side  of  the  basin.  She  then  forms  a  second  similar  strand  and 
introduces  it  into  a  second  eye  on  the  other  side.  The  strands  are  then 
brought  together,  twisted  several  times,  sei)arated  above  the  twist,  and  intro- 
duced into  two  other  glass  eyes  or  ringlets  through  which  they  are  led  one 
to  each  end  of  the  reel  or  tambour  which  is  kept  revolving  in  astpad}-  rapid 
manner  and  to  which  is  also  given  a  certain  back-and-forth  side  motion. 
The  great  object  in  reeling  is  to  get  the  threads  uniform,  rounded,  well 
joined,  proj^erly  freed  of  moisture,  and  so  crossed  on  the  reel  that  they  will 
not  stick  or  glaze  as  it  is  termed.  These  objects  are  attained  by  the  twist- 
ing and  by  the  to-and-fi'o  lateral  movement  of  the  reel,  as  also  by  properly 
regulating  the  distance  between  reel  and  basin.  The  uniformity  of  the  thread 
depends  on  the  skill  of  the  operator,  who  must  supplj'  a  new  thread  as  soon 
as  one  begins  to  give  out.  This  is  called  nourishing  the  silk  and  is  done  by 
dexteriously  casting,  with  the  thumb,  the  new  thread  onto  the  combined 
strand  to  which  it  immediately  adheres.  In  this  she  must  use  much  j  udgment^ 
for  the  silk  of  a  cocoon  gradually  gets  lighter  and  finer  as  it  approaches  the 
end,  and  the  uniformity  of  strand  does  not  entirely  depend  on  the  uniformity 
in  number  of  the  individual  threads  forming  it.  Whenever  the  silk  rises  in 
locks  the  temperature  of  the  water  is  known  to  be  too  hot;  and  when  it 
unwinds  with  difficult}',  the  temperature,  on  the  contrary,  is  too  low.  The 
operator  is  supplied  with  a  skimmer  with  which  to  remove  all  chrysalides  and 
refuse  silk ;  also  with  a  basin  of  cold-  water  in  which  to  cool  her  fingers 
which  are  being  constantly  dipped  in  the  hot  basin.  This  constitutes  the 
whole  operation  of  unwinding;  but  before  the  skeins,  as  they  come  from  the 
reel,  are  ready  for  the  manufacturer,  they  must  undergo  still  further  man- 
ijiulation.  The  staple  is  firstpassed  through  a  cleanser,  consisting  of  a  clasp 
lined  with  cloth,  which  catches  any  loose  silk  or  other  matter  that  may  be 
adhering  to  it.  It  is  then  further  cleansed  and  purged  by  being  passed 
through  four  similar  cleansers  (jpurgeurs)  ;  then  twisted  about  500  times  to 
the  yard  ;  then  doubled  and  again  twisted  about  400  times  to  the  yard.  It  is 
finally  run  on  to  reels  about  11  feet  in  diameter  and  taken  off  and  twisted 
in  a  peculiar  knot  or  hank.  Through  all  these  operations  the  oscillating  to- 
and-fro  lateral  motion  is  kept  up  so  as  to  produce  the  diagonal  crossing  of 
the  strands;  and  it  will  be  readily  understood  that  each  staple  is  in  the  end 
composed  of  ten  or  more  of  the  simple  threads  first  spun  by  the  worm. 

Tne  loose  or  flock  silk,  together  with  all  which,  from  one  cause  or  another. 
O-innot  ba  i*eeled,  is  soaked  in  water  for  three  days,  boiled  for  one-half  hour 
in  clear  lye,  washed  in  rain  water,  aud  when  dry,  carded  and  spun  :  it  makes 
an  inferior  floss  silk. 


100  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


BEST    FOOD. 


There  are  several  varieties  of  the  Mulberry,  some  of  which  are  by  no 
means  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  worm.  I  have  tried  in  vain  to  rear  it  on 
the  leaves  of  our  indigenous  Red  mulberry  (^Morus  rubra);  but  it  either  I'e- 
fuses  them  entirely,  or  dwindles  and  soon  dies  upon  them.  Morus  multicaulis 
has  been  the  most  extensively  planted  in  this  country,  but  the  wood  is  so 
tender  and  the  leaf  so  thin  and  delicate,  in  this  vai'iety,  that  it  often  gets  in- 
jured by  our  severe  winters  and  strong  winds.  Morus  aiba,  with  its  numer- 
ous sub-varieties,  and  moretti  furnish  the  best  food.  They  delight  in  a  light, 
loamy  and  deep  soil,  and  grow  with  great  vigor  in  the  West.  There  is  a 
dwarf  variety,  called  the  roS(!,  which  leafs  out  earlier  than  the  others  and 
this  is  an  advantageous  character  in  our  climate. 

The  Mulberry  propagates  easily  by  cuttings  or  layers  and  is  also  readily 
-j:rown  from  seed.  When  grown  in  plantations  for  silkworm  purposes  the 
trees  are  best  planted  8  or  10  feet  apart  and  kept  dwarfed^  so  that  a  good 
sup23ly  of  young  succulent  leaves  and  shoots  will  alwa^-s  be  in  easy  reach. 
The  tree  needs  a  warm  location  and  should  bo  at  least  two  years  old  before 
robbed  of  any  leaves.  Leaves  grown  in  the  sun,  with  but  little  moisture, 
are  the  sweetest  and  make  the  best  silk,  and  all  which  are  yellow  or 
blighted  should  be  discarded.  Where  irrigation  has  to  be  employed  it 
should  be  abandoned  three  or  four  weeks  before  feeding  time.  Where  the 
leaves  only  are  plucked  a  few  of  the  terminal  ones  should  always  be  left. 
In  the  silk-growing  parts  of  Europe,  though  often  grown  in  plantation  or 
orchard,  the  trees  are  more  frequently  grown  along  roadsides  and  in  all 
sorts  of  out-of-the-way  corners ;  and  a  second  crop,  not  used  for  the  silk- 
worms, is  carefully  gathered- just  before  the  natural  fall  of  the  leaf  in  au- 
tumn, and  used  as  fodder  for  cattle,  being  very  nutritious  and  highly  es- 
teemed for  this  purpose. 

Silkworms  have  been  fed  on  the  leaves  of  a  few  other  plants,  and  es- 
pecially on  lettuce,  which  is  very  useful,  in  case  of  too  early  hatching,  as  the 
worms  do  very  well  on  it  during  the  first  age ;  but  seldom  attain  the  spin- 
ning age  upon  it.  Some  varieties — more  especially  the  inferior  ones — take 
more  kindl}'  to  it  than  others. 

The  mulberry  leaf  is  exceedingly  free  from  the. attacks  of  noxious  in- 
jects. A  species  of  woolly  Aphis  called  Kinva  jirami  sometimes  covers  the 
leaves  in  Japan-;  but  no  insect  of  the  sort  is  known  to  attack  them  here. 

OSAGE  ORANGE  AS  SILKWORM  FOOD. 

The  Osage  orange  (Madura  aurantiaca)  first  discovered  b}'  Lewis  & 
Clark  in  1804  and  named  bj-  Nuttal  in  honor  of  Wm.  Maclnre,  the  cele- 
brated geologist,  and  founder  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Science,  is 
well  known  as  a  hedge  plant  in  the  West.  At  first  sight  it  seems  to  have 
little  affinity  with  the  Mulberry,  but  it  belongs  to  the  same  botanical  Fam- 
ily (Urticacece),  and  next  to  the  Mulberr}'-  furnishes  the  most  palatable  silk- 
worm food.  This  plant  was  first  introduced  into  France  in  1820,  by  M. 
Ce\s,  of  Paris,  who  received  it  through  Michaux  from  M.  LeEoi  of  Balti- 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  101 

more,  Md.  In  1833  M.  P.  Farel  published  a  papei*  on  the  value  of  the  leave.s 
as  a  substitute  for  mulberry  leaves  in  feeding  silkworms*,  citing  the  exper- 
ience of  M.  Eudolphi,  Avhieh  was  not  favorable.  In  1831,  however,  M.  Farel 
published  a  second  paper  showing  how  M.  Bonafous  ])roduced  from  osage- 
fed  worms,  cocoons  which  were  very  regular,  firm  and  apparently  perfect 
in  ever}'  way — the  worms  being  eight  days  longer  in  maturing  than  when 
fed  with  mulberry  leaves.  In  1835,  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  same  Association,. 
M.  Dclile,  Prof,  of  Botany  and  vice  president  of  said  Association,  gave  a 
history  of  Madura  and  showed  that  very  good  cocoons  were  produced  from 
it.  He  says  ("cette  sole  a  ete  pai"faite,  facile  a  tirer,  sans  pcrte  du  premier 
jasqu''au  dernier  bout,  dans  tous  lescocons")  that  the  silk  was  perfect,  easr 
to  unwind,  and  without  loss  from  beginning  to  end  in  all  the  cocoons.. 

Still  later,  M.  Seringe,  who  wrote  an  interesting  paper  on  the  Osage- 
orangef  also  made  experiments  with  its  leaves  as  food  for  silkworms,  and 
found  that  the  latter  did  well  upon  them.  Yet  no  one  in  France  to-day  pro- 
tends to  use  this  plant  in  lieu  of  the  Mulberrj'. 

In  1866  M.  Prevost  fed  some  of  his  worms  on  Osage  orange,;};  and  Mr^ 
Glover  of  the  Departm'ent  of  Agriculture,  likcAvise  raised  some  successfully 
upon  it  about  that  time. 

For  the  last  four  3-ears  Mr,  Samuel  Cornab}^  of  Spanish  Fork  City. 
Utah,  has  had  very  good  success  in  feeding  worms  with  these  leaves.  He 
writes  to  me  : 

Last  summer  [1871]  our  worms  that  were  fed  on  Osage  orange  all  did 
remarkably  well ;  quite  a  number  of  persons  in  this  place  fed  on  Osage  the 
past  season,  and  all  with  good  success.  Several  of  m^^  neighbors  remarked 
to  me  that  the  worms  preferred  the  Osage  leaves  to  Mulberry,  when  the  two 
kinds  of  leaves  were  within  reach  :  that  has  also  been  m^^  own  experience.  I 
have  never  tried  any  other  variety  on  Osage,  but  intend  this  season  to  try 
some  French  Annuals. 

I  have  fed  the  same  worms  on  Osage  orange  four  successive  seasons.. 
and  they  continue  perfectly  healthy  and  vigorous ;  in  fact,  I  think  they 
have  improved  since  I  commenced  feeding  on  Osage.  I  do  not  know  the 
exact  number  of  worms  that  have  been  fed  here  the  past  season  on  Osao-e. 
but  believe  the  number  is  not  less  than  50,000. 

In  1870  I  attempted  to  feed  some  worms  of  Japanese  origin  on  Osage 
leaves ;  but  I  obtained  no  cocoons,  though  some  of  the  worms  fed  well  to 
within  a  few  days  of  the  spinning  point.  The  worms  themselves  were  not 
of  the  hardiest,  howevei",  and  while  the  fore  part  of  May  was  unusuallv 
cold,  wet  and  changeable^  the  last'  of  the  month  was  unj^recedently  hot ; 
so  that  similar  poor  results  might  have  been  obtained  even  with  mulberry 
leaves.  At  all  events,  in  1871  I  had  perfect  success  in  feeding  Osage,  and 
obtained  great  numbers  of  cocoons.  At  my  request  Mr.  Cornaby  sent  me 
a  number  of  eggs  produced  by  his  Osage-fed  stock,  and  these  were  distrib- 
uted among  several  friends,  and  part  of  them  retained.     Some  were  fed  on 

*  De.s  feuilles  de  Madura  comme  succedanees  de  celle.s  dii  Miirier.     Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  d'  Anr  de 
r  Ucrault,  1833. 

tXotice  sur  leMuclure  Orange— Sof.   Roy  ale  d'Agr.  etc.  de  Lyon,   Decembre,  1835. 

JCal.  Silk  Growers'  Manual,  p.  GO. 


102  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT   OF 

Osage ;  some  on  Mulberry.  From  the  first  the  young  worms  took  to  the 
Osage  with  avidity,  and  I  never  raised  a  brood  with  less  mortality;  and  the 
experience  of  all  those  to  whom  eggs  were  sent  was  equally  felicitous.  In 
two  instances  they  were  fed  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  the  atmosphere  being 
anything  but  pure,  and  the  leaves  often  laden  with  lime-dust  and  smoke. 
In  one  case,  where  there  was  some  difficulty  in  procuring  leaves,  the  worms 
were  fed  alternately  on  lettuce,  Osage  and  Mulberry,  and  often  made  to 
fast  for  a  whole  day ;  yet  they  were  proof  against  such  hard  usage,  and 
eventually  spun  their  cocoons  with  but  trifling  loss. 

As  soon  as  mine  began  to  mount  and  form  their  cocoons,  I  recognized  them 
as  a  Syrian  race  which  I  had  often  seen  feeding  in  Covent  G-arden  Market, 
in  London,  England  ;  and  upon  inquiry  I  learned  from  Mr.  Cornaby  that  his 
stock  originally  came  from  London,  the  eggs  having  been  brought  over  by 
Mr.  A.  K.  Thurber  of  Spanish  Foi-k  City.  The  cocoons  are  ovoid,  rather 
more  pointed  at  one  end  than  the  other,  and  of  two  distinct  shades  of  yellow, 
viz.,  a  bright  golden  inclining  to  orange,  and  a  pale-greenish  or  sulphur. 
^sTow  this  race,  like  most  other  inferior  stock,  certainly  has  the  merit  of  con- 
stitutional toughness  and  vigor;  otherwise  the  worms  could  not  have 
endured  the  hardships  they  were  submitted  to  here  last  year.  The  worms  also 
form  a  very  pretty  cocoon  and  are  therefore  well  calculated  to  give  pleasure 
and  edification  to  the  amateur.  But  the  cocoons  have  little  or  no  commer- 
cial value  ;  the  silk  bSing  inferior,  and  so  loosely  spun  that  the  major  part 
of  it  would  beat  away  and  rise- in  flocks  in  the  basin  before  the  end  would  be 
found.  I  took  a  number  of  them  with  me  to  France  and  had  them  fully 
tried.  It  was  this  same  Syrian  race  that  was  fed  with  Osage  orange  l)y  M. 
Mathieu  Bonafous,  in  1831: ;  and  though  other  races  have  been  fed  with  it, 
it  is  doubtful  if  they  thrive  as  well  upon  it. 

Two  advantages  which  the  Osage  has  over  the  Mulberry  must  be  men- 
tioned in  this  connection.  Ist.  It  is  hardier,  and  the  young  leaves  will  resist 
a  late  frost  which  will  kill  those  of  the  Mulberry.  2nd.  The  leaves  do  not 
Avilt  so  soon.  It  leafs  out  about  the  same  time,  though  some  plants  in  a 
hedge-row  are  always  in  advance  of  others  in  this  respect,  and  an  early 
leafing  variety  might  undoubtedly  be  jsroduced  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  by  propagating  from  such. 

The  effect  of  the  osage  compared  with  the  mulberry  leaves  is  quite 
marked.  The  osage-fed  worms  generally  lose  the  fi*esh  creamy-white  color 
dui'ing  the  last  age,  and  the  skin  becomes  more  or  less  shiny  and  slightly 
greenish.  The  cocoons  from  these  worms  are  also  less  firm  than  those  from 
Mulberrj',  tlie  difference  being  perceptible  by  trying  alternately  a  handful 
of  each. 

For  these  various  reasons  I  cannot  see  any  jDresent  advantage  that  is  to 
accrue  from  feeding  osage,  where  mulberry  leaves  can  be  obtained,  though 
the  former  may  be  very  useful  on  exceptional  occasions.  As,  however,  it  is 
within  our  power  to  improve  the  Syrian  race  which  does  so  well  upon  it, 
by  choosing  from  year  to  year  only  the  best  and  firmest  cocoons  for  breeding 
purposes ;  and  as  the  plant  is  native  and  so  extensively  cultivated,  I  hoj)e 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  103 

Mr.  Cornaby  will  continue  his  efforts.  If  we  can  contrive  to  furnish  our 
hxdies  their  silk  dresses  from  our  own  hed^-erows,  we  shall  certainly  be  out- 
doing those  nations  which  at  present  rival  us;  and  such  a  result  is  not 
impossible!  Indeed,  by  constantl}^  choosing  the  darker  and  more  vigorous 
worms  and  moths,  there  is  no  reason  why  a  race  may  not  in  time  be  pro- 
duced, which  in  the  climate  of  Utah,  would  feed  freely  out  of  doors;  and 
in  this  manner  an}'  amount  of  silk,  though  perhaps  not  of  the  best  quality, 
could  be  cheapl}'  grown  by  simply  covering  the  hedges  with  some  kind  of 
netting,  so  as  to  protect  the  worms  from  birds  and  other  enemies. 


THE  CECEOPIA  SILKWORM— A^^acw-s*  IPlafysamia]  Cecropia,  Linn. 

(Lepidoptei-a,  Bombycidai.) 

In  the  American  Entomologist  for  February,  1870,  I  published. an  article 
on  this  insect  from  which  is  quoted  much  of  what  follows.  Few  insects  are  as 
frequently  sent  to  me  for  identification  as  this  magnificent  moth  (Fig.  33).  It  is 
common  and  its  great  size  and  beauty  attract  general  attention.  It  is  also  more 
easily  obtained,  for  the  cabinet,  than  most  of  our  other  large  moths,  because 
its  cocoon  is  always  fastened  to  a  twig  where  it  remains  all  winter  a  con- 
spicuous object;  whereas  those  of  Luna  and  Polj^phemus,  for  instance, 
fall  to  the  ground  with  the  leaves,  and  are  seldom  seen.  The  ground- 
color of  the  wings  is  a  grizzled  dusky  brown  with  the  hinder  mar- 
gins clay-yellow;  near  the  middle  of  each  of  the  wings  there  is  an  opaque 
kidney-shaped  white  spot,  shaded  more  or  less  on  the  outside  with  dull  red, 
and  edged  with  black ;  a  wavy  dull  red  band  edged  inside  with  white,  crosses 
each  of  the  wings,  and  the  front  wings  next  to  the  shoulders  are  dull  red 
with  a  curved  white  and  black  band,  and  have  near  their  tips  an  eye-like 
black  spot  with  a  bluish-white  crescent ;  the  upper  side  of  the  body  and  legs  are 
dull  red ;  the  forepart  of  the  thorax,  and  the  hinder  edges  of  the  rings  of  the 
abdomen  are  white,  and  the  venter  is  checkered  with  red  and  white.  There 
is  considerable  variation  in  the  ground-color  of  individuals,  some  being  quite 
dark  and  others  quite  light,  but  the  female  differs  from  the  male  in  nothing 
but  her  larger  abdomen  and  much  smaller  antenna?  or  feelers. 

The  genus  Attacus — meaning  eleg.^nt — was  founded  by  Linnaeus,  and 
our  moth  received  its  specific  name  from  the  same  author.  As  Cecropia 
was  the  ancient  name  of  the  city  of  Athens,  and  as  it  has  puzzled  some  nat- 

*  We  have  here  an  exceUent  illustration  of  the  effect  of  the  custom  of  attaching  to  an  insect  the 
name  of  the  author  of  the  genus  instead  of  that  of  the  describer  of  the  snecies.  In  1707  Linnaeus 
described  this  insest  as  ^»flf MS  Cccropjfl.  In  181(i  it  becomes  Somia  Cecropia,  Hilbn;  in  1852,  Hyalo- 
phora  Cecropia,  Duncan,  and  in  IStio,  P/atijsainin  Cecropia,  Grote. 

For  reasons,  reiieatedly  stated,  I  shall  refer  this  and  the  six  other  large  insects  which  follow,  to  the 
old  and  well  known  Linnaean  genus  Attacus,  indicating  in  brackets  the  more  i-ecent  genus  to  which  each 
is  at  i)resent  referred  by  modern  systematists.  To  my  own  mind  it  is  very  clear  that  they  constitute 
but  three  distinct  genera  instead  of  six;  and  I  should  myself  refer  Cecropia,  ci/ntliia  and  Promethea 
to  one  genus;  Polyphemus,  yama-mat  and  Pernyi  to  a  second;  and  Luna  to  a  third,  in  giving  this 
opinion  I  intend  no  disrespect  either  to  Dr.  Packard,  who  erected  the  genus  Callosamia  for  Promethea 
(P.  E.  .S.  P.  III.  p.  379),  or  to  Jlr.  Grote,  who  proposed  another  genus  Platysamia  for  Cecropia 
(P.  E.  S.  P.  v.  p.  -i-iS) ;  for  our  present  genera  are  for  the  most  part  the  creations  of  man  and  not  of 
Xature,  and  men's  opinions  will  always  differ.  There  must  be  a  limit  to  genus-making  somewhere, 
as  no  two  species  agree  in  all  minute  particulars;  and  in  their  adolescent  and  perfect  states,  as  well 
as  in  their  habits,  few  insects  show  a  closer  generic  connection  than  the  three  tirst  named.  The 
iniquitous  law  above  mentioned  has  no  doubt  been  the  cause  of  much  of  this  generic  hair-splitting; 
Init  I  do  not  believe  that  it  will  hold  its  own  in  entomology  even  in  this  country  wliere  it  has  already 
obtained  a  foothold. 


104 


FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


urahsts  to  divine  why  Linnaeus  applied  this  name  to  our  moth,  1  P-ive  the 
lollowHig  explanation  by  Dr.  Fitch  :  "  The  great  legislator  of  this  depart- 
ment of  human  knowledge,  as  he  is  expressively  styled  by  Latreille  it  ha< 
been  frequently  remarked,  was  endowed  with  a  genius  that  few  of  his  dis- 
ciples have  inherited,  for  selecting  names  for  natural  objects,  which  are  mosi 
appropriate  and  happy.  The  idea  which  was  present  in  the  mind  of  Lin- 
naeus, when  he  named  this  spleiuJid  moth,  we  think  is  sufficiently  evident 
The  Athenians  were  the  most  polished  and  refined  people  of  antinuitv' 
The  moths  are  the  most  delicate  and  elegant  of  insects;  they  are  the  Ithe- 
nians  of  their  race.  Cecrops  was  the  founder,  the  head  of  the  Atheni-in 
people.  When  the  names  of  men  were  bestowed  upon  cities,  ships  or  other 
objects  regarded  as  being  of  the  feminine  gender,  classical  usage  chan.-ed 
these  names  to  the  feminine  form.  The  moths  (Phal^na)  being  feminiTie 
and  the  name  of  Cecrops  being  more  euphonius  in  this  form,  in-obablv  in' 
dueed  Linnanis  to  change  it  in  the  manner  he  did.  The  name  thus  implies 
this  to  be  the  leader,  the  head  of  this  most  elegant  tribS  of  insects,  or  in 
other  words,  the  first  of  all  the  insect  kind.  What  name  more  ap,>ro  .riate 
can  be  invented  for  this  sumjituous  moth  ?" 

[Fig.  U.] 

During  the  winter  time,  the  large  cocoons  of 
this  insect  (Fig.  .34)  may  be  found  attached  to  the 
twigs  of  a  variety  of  trees.  I  have  found  them 
upon  Apple,  Cherry,  Currant,  Barberry,  Hazel, 
Plum,  Hickory,  Blackberry,  Elderberry,  Eldeiv 
Elm,  Lilac,  Eed-root,  Maple,  Willow  and  Honey- 
locust.  It  has  also  been  found  on  the  Pear.  This 
cocoon  tapers  both  ways,  and  is  invariably  fastened 
longitudinally  to  the  twig ;  it  is  formed  of  two  dis- 
tinct layers,  the  outer  one,  which  is  loose,  wrinkled, 
and  resembles  strong  brown  paper,  covering  an 
inner  oval  cocoon  composed  of  the  same  kind  of 
silk,  but  closely  woven  like  that  of  the  Mulberry 
silkworm.  Inside  this  cocoon  Mill  be  found  the 
large  brown  chrysalis  (Fio\  35).  The  cocoon  of 
the    Polyphemus    moth,  fF'?.  85i 

an  insect  which  will  be 
presently  treated  of,  am' 
which  has  been  called  b} 
Mr.  L.  Trouvelot,  of  Med- 

ford,  Massachusetts,  the  <' American  Silkworm,"  is 
rounded,  and  the  silk  is  very  closely  and  com- 
pactly woven ;  and  though  that  of  our  Ceeropia 
IS  not  as  valuable  for  utilitarian  purposes,  yet  I 
incline  to  believe  that  it  will. some  day  be  propa- 
gated for  the  silk  which  it  produces  ;  and  though  it 
may  not  lay  claim  to  the  national  title  of  THE 
American  Silkworm,  it  will  nevertheless  rank  as 
second  best,  among  those  which  are  indigenous  to 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  105 

this  country.      The  following  are  some  of  Mr.  Trouvelot's  reasons,  as  com- 
municated to  me,  for  preferring  Polj-phemus  to  Cecropia  : 

1st.  The  silk  fibre  spun  by  the  latter  is  not  so  strong  nor  so  glossy  as 
that  of  the  former.  2ndly.  The  cocoon  of  the  latter  being  double,  pointed, 
and  open  at  one  end,  makes  it  nnfit  to  reel,  as  the  water  of  the  bath  in  till- 
ing the  cocoon  would  sink  it  to  the  bottom,  a  very  unfavorable  circum- 
stance, since  it  would  cause  the  fibres  of  the  different  cocoons  to  entangle 
and  break  every  moment.  .  3rdly.  The  larva  of  Cecropia  is  a  very  delicate 
worm  to  raise,  it  does  not  suffer  handling,  and  when  once  feeding  on  a  given 
species  of  plant,  it  does  not  readily  bear  changing  to  anoth(#,  or  even  to  a 
variet}"  of  the  same  plant.  4thly.  It  has  the  misfortune  to  be  more  gener- 
ally* attacked  by  birds  and  parasites,  four-fifths  of  thom  being  thus  sacrificed 
in  a  state  of  nature. 

I  entirely  concur  in  the  first  two  reasons  given,  but  since,  as  1  shall 
presently  show,  a  method  has  been  devised  for  unwinding  cocoons  naturally 
open,  such  as  those  of  cynthia  and  Cecropia,  the  second  objection  loses  much 
of  its  force.  As  to  the  last  two  objections,  though  they  undoubtedly  apply 
in  Massachusetts,  wher?  Mr.  Trouvelot  made  his  experiments,  they  will  not 
hold  ti'ue  in  the  West ;  for  I  have  always  been  more  successful  with  in-door 
broods  of  Cecl^opia  than  of  Polyphemus,  and  with  us  the  latter  is  fully  as 
much  subject  to  jjarasites  as  the  former,  as  might  have  been  inferred  from 
its  comparative  scarcity.  I  have  also  learned  from  several  correspondents 
in  the  Atlantic  States  that  whereas  it  was  foi'merl}*  almost  impossible  to  raise 
a  singly  specimen  of  Cecropia  to  the  perfect  state,  they  now  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  rearing  any  number. 

In  the  month  of  May,  in  the  latitude  of  St.  Louis,  and  earlier  or  later  the 
farther  north  or  south  we  go,  our  Cecropia  moth  issues  from  its  cocoon,  and 
there  can  be  no  more  beautiful  sight  imagined,  than  one  of  these  gigantic  fresh- 
born  moths  with  all  its  parts  soft  and  resplendent.  The  unintiated  would 
marvel  how  such  an  immense  creature  had  escaped  from  the  small  cocoon 
which  remains  at  its  side,  retaining  the  same  form  which  it  always  had,  and 
showing  no  hole  through  which  the  moth  could  escape.  The  operation — so 
interesting  and  instructive — can  be  witnessed  by  any  one  who  will  take  the 
trouble  to  collect  a  few  of  the  cocoons  and  place  them  in  some  receptacle 
which  has  sufficiently  rough  sides  to  admit  of  the  moth's  crawling  up,  to 
hang  its  heavy  body  and  wings  while  they  dry  and  expand.  The  caterpillar 
has  the  wonderful  foresight  to  spin  the  uj)per  or  anterior  end  of  its  cocoon 
very  loosely,  and  when  the  moth  is  about  to  issue  it  is  still  further  aided  in 
its  efforts  by  a  fluid  secreted  during  the  last  few  days  of  the  chrysallis  state, 
and  which  is  a  dissolvent  of  the  gum  which  so  firmly  unites  the  fibres  of  the 
cocoon.  This  fluid  is  secreted  from  two  glands,  which  ojDen  into  the  mouth, 
and  as  soon  as  the  chrysalis  skin  is  split  open  on  the  back,  by  the  restless 
movements  of  the  moth  within,  the  fluid  flows  from  the  mouth  and  wets  the 
end  of  the  cocoon,  dissolving  the  gum  and  softening  the  silk  to  such  an 
extent,  that  by  repeated  contractions  and  extensions  of  the  body,  the  moth 
is  at  last  enabled  to  separate  the  fibres,  and  to  thrust  out  its  head  and  unbent' 


106 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


its  front  legs;  after  which  it  rapidly  draws  out  the  , rest  of  its  body,  the 
mouth  of  the  cocoon  afterwards  closing,  by  the  natural  elasticity  of  the  silk. 
At  this  moment  the  body  of  the  moth  is  much  swollen  and  elongated,  the 
wings  are  small,  folded,  and  pad-like,  and  the  whole  insect  is  soft  and  moist ; 
but,  attaching  itself  to  the  first  object  at  hand  where  it  can  hang  its  heavy 
bod}^  and  clumsy  wings,  the  latter  become  expanded  in  about  twent}'  min- 
utes, and  the  superabundant  fluids  of  the  body  sufficiently  evaporate  in  a 
few  hours  to  enable  the  insect  to  take  wing. 

The  eggs  of  the  Cecrojiia  moth  are  0.09  inch  long,  sub-oval,  flattened 
and  of  a  pale  cream-color,  shaded  with  light  brown ;  and  they  are  deposited 
in  small  patches  on  the  j^lants  which  are  to  form  the  food  of  the  future 
larvae.  They  are  deposited  in  June,  and  hatch  in  from  six  to  ten  days  after 
being  deposited.  Some  remarkable  exceptions  have  been  known,  however, 
and  my  friend  P.  E.  Uhler  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  has  had  them  remain  over 
two  years,  and  yet  hatch  at  the  end  of  that  time. 

L.vitVAL,  Chaxges. — The  young  worms  differ  so  much  from  tho  mature  ones,  and  undergo  such 
great  changes  in  appearance  in  the  course  of  their  lives,  that  it  is  surprising  that  no  account  is  to  be 
found  of  tliese  hirval  clianges  in  any  of  our  entomological  works.     Wlien  flrst  hatched  they  are  en- 
tirely black,  with  the  tubercles  placed  in  the  same  position,  but  being  larger  at  the  base  and  with  a 
narrower  stem  than  in  the  more  mature  individuals,  the  upper  and  smaller  end  bein^  crowned  with  a 
I  whorl  of  conspicuous  still'  black  bristles.     After  tlie  lirst  moult  the  body  is  of  a  deep  orange  color, 
with  the  tubercles  and  head  black,  and  with  longitudinal  rows  of  black  dots  running  between  them. 
I  After  the  second  moult,  a  still  gi-eater  change  takes  place;  the  body  acquires  a  beautiful  yellowish- 
I  gi-een  tint,  the  tubercles  on  the  back  are  blue  on  joints  1,  12  and  13;  coral-red  on  2  and  3,  and  yellow 
i  with  black  spines,  and  a  black  spot  on  the  inside  and  outside  of  the  stem,  on  4^11;  those  at  the  sides 
-are  blue,  and  the  head  is  of  tho  same  color  as  body.     After  the  third  miult,  the  black  spots,    except 
1  a  row  below  the  stigraatal  row  of  tubercles,  disappear;  the  tubercles  themselves  lose  all  bluftk  except 
the  spines,  and  the  head  and  body  become  delicate  bluish- green  rather  than  yellowish-green  as 
tformerly .     After  the  fourth  and  last  moult,  the  red  tubercles  near  the  head  frequently  become  yellow, 
.and  when  full-grown,  the  worm  measures  over  four  inches,  and  presents  the  appearance  of  Figure 
|36,  the  tubercles  being  respectively  of  the  most  delicate  yellow  .and  blue. 

Two  weeks  after  the  worm  first  began  to  spin,  it  changes  to  a  chrysalis, 
and  as  already  stated,  passes  the  winter  in  this  form,  there  being  but  one 
brood  each  year. 

[Fig.  36.]       .  , 


The  cocoon  of  this  insect  is  often  found  to  contain  a  kernel  of  corn,  a 
rain  of  wheat,  or  even  an  acorn,  and  the  first  time  I  found  a  corn-kernel 
I  one  of  them,  I  was  sorely  puzzled  to  comprehend  how  it  came 
lere,  and  imagined  that  it  must  have  been  accidentally  dropped  by  some 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  107 

bird,  into  the  meshes  of  the  cocoon  while  the  hitter  was  being  formed.  But 
the  kernels  are  found  in  the  cocoons  altogether  too  frequently  to  admit  of 
any  such  chance  coincidence  which  must  necessarily  be  of  very  rare  occur- 
rence. There  is  every  reason  to  believe,  therefore,  that  these  foreign  ma- 
terials are  placed  there,  for  safe-keeping,  by  some  bird;  the  loose  end  of  the 
cocoon  admitting  of  their  being  forced  in,  even  after  it  is  completed. 
Dr.  LeBaroii,  thinks  that  this  bird  is  very  likely  the  Blue  Jay  which  is 
known  to  have  the  habit,  in  common  with  other  Corvidai,  of  pilfering  and 
hiding  in  holes  and  crevices  any  small  object  that  attracts  its  attention. 
One  of  my  correspondents  from  Geneva,  Ills.,  who  has  found  no  less  than 
five  of  these  cocoons  containing  kernels  of  corn,  thinks  that  the  Chickadee 
(Parus  atricapillus,  L.)  uses  them  as  a  storehouse,  as  well  as  the  Blue  Jay, 
and,  indeed,  inclines  to  believe  that  the  former  is  "the  sole  proprietor." 
He  has  seen  it,  with  corn  in  bill,  searching  about  apple  trees  for  such  a 
storehouse,  and  has  witnessed  it  deposit  a  kernel  in  the  crack  of  a  board 
fence. 

The  Cecropia  worm,  as  may  be  inferred  from  its  size,  is  an  immense 
feeder,  and  a  small  number  will  soon  defoliate  a  young  apple  tree.  It  has 
on  a  few  occasions,  been  found  numerous  enough  to  do  injury  in  this  way; 
but  as  a  rule,  natural  enemies  keep  it  so  thoroughly  in  check,  that  it  can 
hardly  be  classed  as  an  injurious  insect.  The  same  maybe  said  of  the  other 
large  and  native  worms  which  I  include  with  the  silkworms,  and  which  on 
account  of  their  silk-producing  qualities  may,  with  proprietj^,  be  treated  of 
rather  as  beneficial  insects,  though  their  products  have  notyet  been  utilized. 
Their  great  size  and  conspicuity  not  only  renders  them  a  ready  i)rey  to  their 
natural  enemies,  but  enables  us  to  easily  destroy  them  by  hand-picking 
Avhenever  they  hap])en  to  become  unduly  multiplied  on  any  of  our  fruit  trees! 

In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Js^atural  History  (Vol.  IX 
pp.  342—5)  Mr.  S.  I.  Smith  has  described  a  moth  by  the  name  of  Samia 
Columbia,  and  it  is  also  mentioned,  and  the  female  figured,  by  Mr.  G.  J. 
Bowles  of  Quebec,  in  the  Canadian  Entomologist  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  201.)  It  is  of 
rare  occurrence,  and  its  larval  history  remains  unknown,  and  I  find  noth- 
ing in  Mr.  Smith's  paper  or  in  that  of  Mr.  Bowles  that  ought  to  warrant  us 
in  considering  it  anything  more  than  a  variety  of  Cecropia;  while  there  is 
much  that  would  lead  me  to  consider  it  either  an  abnormal  variety  or  a 
hybrid  between  Cecropia  and  Promethea.  Hybrids  occur  more  frequently 
among  insects  than  most  entomologists  imagine,  and  we  should  be  careful 
how  we  make  new  species  out  of  abnormal  variations  of  rare  occurrence. 
Columbia  does  not  difi-er  more  from  the  normal  Cecrojna  than  do  several  of 
the  varieties  of  y ama-ma'i  ivom  each  other. 

PARASITES    OF    THE    CECROPIA    WORM. 

The  Long-tailed  OpmoN—{Ophion  macnirum,  Linn.)— This  large 
yellowish-brown  Ichneumon -fly  (Fig.  .37)  is  often  bred  from  the  cocoons  in 
place  of  the  moth  which  one  expects.  It  is  one  of  the  most  common  parasites 
of  this  large  insect,  and  the  females  appear  to  be  altogether  more  common 


108 


FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


than  the  males,  for  I  have  bred  no  less  than  seven  of  the  former  and  not 
a  single  one  of  the  latter  sex.  The  female,  according  to  Mr.  Trouvelot^ 
deposits  from  eiglit  to  ten  eggs  iijDon  the  skin  of  her  victim,  and  the  yonn^^ 
larvae  soon  hatch  from  them  and  commence  to  prey  upon  the  fatty  parts 
of  the  worm.  Hut  as  only  one  of  the  parasitic  larvaj  can  find  food  suth- 
[•■''•-•  •*'l  cient  to  mature,  the  rest  all  die  from  hun- 

i^-er,  or  else  are  devoured  by  the  strong- 
est one  which  survives"  them.  At  first 
one  Avould  suppose  that  this  deposition 
of  several  eggs  by  the  parent  Ichneumon, 
where  onl}'  a  single  laiwa  can  develop,  is 
a  striking  instance  of  misdii'ected  instinct ) 
but  we  find  a  similar  prodigality  through- 
out Nature,  for  every  individual  is  so  sub- 
ject to  disasters  of  one  kind  or  another 
in  its  struggle  for  existence  that  a  pro- 
vision of  several  ova  is  often  necessary  to 
insure  the  future  d  evelopmeiit  of  a  sin- 
gle one,  just  as  we  often  sow  several  seeds 
of  some  particular  ]>lant,  in  order  to  insure  the  growth  of   a  single  one. 

'^    *  After  the  Cecropia  worm  has  formed  it* 

cocoon,  the  parasitic  larva,  which  had 
hitherto  fed  on  the  fatt}'  jjortions  of  its 
'\  victim,  now  attacks  the  vital  parts,  and, 
when  nothing  but  the  empty  skin  of  the 
worm  is  left,  satins  its  own  cocoon,  Avhich  is  oblong-oval,  dark  brown  inclin- 
ing to  bronze,  and  spun  so  closely  and  compactly,  that  the  inner  layers  when 
separated  have  the  ajDpearance  of  gold-beater's  skin.  If  Ave  cut  open  one 
of  these  cocoons  soon  after  it  is  completed,  we  shall  find  inside  a  large  fat 
legless  grub  (Fig.  38),  which  sometimes  undergoes  its  transformations  and 
issues  as  a  fl}-  in  the  fall,  but  more  generally  waits  till  the  following  spring. 
The  Cecropia  TACHiNA-FLY^(Xror/sfa  Jeucanice,  Kirk.  var.  cecropice. 
Eile}-) — The  Ichneumon-fly  last  mentioned  usually  causes  a  dwarfed  appear- 
ance of  the  worm  which  it  infests,  and  parasitized  cocoons  can  generally  be 
distinguished  from  health}-  ones  by  their  smaller  size.  The  larvae  of  this 
Tachina-fly,  which  is  also  parasitic  on  the  Cecropia  worm,  seem  to  produce 
an  exactly-  opposite  effect — namely,  an  undue  and  unnatural  growth  of  their 
victim.  In  the  beginning  of  September,  1866,  I  received  from  Eockford 
Ills.,  an  enormous  Cecropia  AVorm.  It  measured  over  four  inches,  was  a  full 
inch  in  diameter,  and  weighed  nearly  two  ounces  ;  but  like  many  other  large 
specimens  which  I  have  seen  since,  it  was  covered  with  small  oval  opaque 
Avhite  egg-shells,  clusters  of  four  or  five  occurring  on  the  back  of  each  seg- 
ment, invariablj^  deposited  in  a  transverse  direction.  The  skin  of  the  Avorm 
was  black  where  the  young  parasites  had  hatched  and  penetrated.  This 
large  worm  soon  died  and  rotted,  and  in  about  twelve  days  a  host  of  mag- 
gots gnawed  their  way  through  the  putrid  skin.     These  maggots  averaged 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  10'.» 

about  ouc-half  inch  in  length,  and  in  form  were  like  those  of  the  common 
Blow-fly.  The  head  was  attenuated  and  retractile  and  furnished  with  two 
minute  curved  hooks,  and  the  last  segment  was  squarely  cut  off,  slightly 
concave  and  witli  the  usiial  two  spiracles  orbreathing-holes  which  this  class 
of  larvae  have  at  their  tails.  Their  color  was  of  a  translucent  yellow,  and 
they  looked  very  much  like  little  pieces  of  raw  fat  "beef.  They  w^ent  into 
the  ground  and  remained  in  the  larva  state  all  winter,  contracted  to  pupa? 
in  the  April  folloAving,  and  the  tlies  commenced  to  issue  the  last  of  May.  ■ 
This  fly  differs  only  from  the  Army-worm  Tachina-fiy  {Exorista  militaris, 
Walsh,  Eep.  II,  Fig.  17)  in  lacking  the  red  tail  entirely  or  in  having 
but  the  faintest  ti'ace  of  it,  and  I  consider  it  but  a  variety  of  that  species.  I 
infer  that  this  same  Tachina-fly  attacks  the  Cecropia  worm  in  widel}:^  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country ;  for  I  have  received  from  Mrs.  Mary  Treat,  of 
IS'ew  Jersey,  two  dipterous  pupae  which  probably  belonged  to  this  species, 
and  which  had  also  in  the  lai'va  state  infested  a  Cecropia  worm. 

The  Mary  CHALcis-FLY-(CAfl?c«s  7narice,  Eiley) — In  May,  1869, 1  received 
from   Mr.  Y.  T.  Chambers,   of  Covington,  Ky.,  numerous  specimens  of  the 
f*''--  •■'•'■]  beautiful  large  Chalcis-tly  figured  here- 

with (Fig.  39),  which  he  had  taken 
from  the  cocoon  of  the  Poh^^^^^®"^^^ 
moth,  which  is  quite  common,  and  is- 
sues as  early  as  the  middle  of  Febru- 
aiy  in  that  locality.  Hesaj^s,  "  I  was 
sutistied  that  the  cocoon  did  not  con- 
tain a  living  Polj^phemus  and  therefore 
opened  it.  It  contained  so  little  be- 
sides these  insects  and  their  exuviae, 
as  to  suggest  strongly  the  old  idea  that  the  caterj^illar  had  been  metamor- 
phosed into  them  (as  in  a  sense  it  had).  There  were  47  of  them,  of  which 
23  were  females.  As  all  the  males  and  some  of  the  females  were  dead  when 
I  opened  the  cocoon,  I  think  it  likely  that  the  former  never  do  emerge,  and 
perhaps  but  few  of  the  latter ;  otherwise  Polyphemus  would  soon  be  ex- 
terminated." 

I  can  very  well  imagine  thrt  most  of  these  Chalcis-flies  would  die  in 
their  efforts  to  escape  from  the  tough  cocoon  of  the  Poh'phemus,  but  it  so 
happens  that  these  same  parasites  have  been  found  l)}'  Mrs.  Mary  Treat,  of 
Yineland,  X.  J.,  to  prey  upon  the  Cecropia  worm,  from  the  cocoon  of  ^.hich 
they  can  more  easily  escape.  The  same  fly  also  attacks  the  Promethea  worm, 
and  Mrs.  Treat  has  had  a  similar  experience  with  Mr.  Chambers,  of  finding 
them  dead  in  its  cocoon.  She  has  upon  two  occasions  found  cocoons  with 
a  dead  Chalcis-flj'  fast  in  the  hole  which  it  had  eaten  to  make  its  escape  ;  and 
upon  cutting  open  such  cocoons  they  were  found  literally  packed  with  dead 
Chalcis-flies.  It  would  seem  that  they  all  make  their  escape  through  the 
hole  made  by  some  one  of  their  number,  and  that  if  this  particular  one 
fails  in  the  undertaking,  they  all  perish  rather  than  make  holes  for  them- 
selves. •  '  '  • 


110 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


I  subjoin  the  original  description  of  this  %  which  is  of  a  yellow  color, 
marked,  as  in  the  figure,  with  black : 

Chalsis  maki.t:,  Ril<-y— ?  ,  yellow,  beautifully  marked  with  black.  Head,  yellow  with  an  arcu- 
ate black  mark  behind  base  of  the  antenna3,  connected  with  a  line  sliort  longitudinal  black  line  lead- 
ing to  lower  ocellus,  and  from  thence  to  posterior  margin  ol  occiput  which  is  margined  with  black; 
prothorax  with  amedium  1)luck  dot.  Antenna  (scape  i.his  !)  joints)  10-jointed;  scape  fulvous  with  su- 
perior ed'-e  black  tiagellum  dark  l)rown  or  black.  Thorax  with  large  shallow  close-set  puncture- : 
mesothorax  somewhat  striated  transversely,  triliiiear  with  black,  the  three  lines  connected  by  a 
transverse  line  which  separates  the  prothorax  from  mesothorax,  the  middle  line  straight,  the  outer 
ones  deeply  impressed,  approaching  l)ehind  and  connected  on  the  posterior  margin  by  a  short  trans- 
verse liiie,  and  the.i  suddenly  diverging  on  lateral  suture  of  scutellum;  a  longitu.linal  black  dot  on 
each  side  over  tegulK;  scutellum  edged  anteriorly  with  black  and  with  a  central  longitudinal  black 
line-  basal  margin  of  metothorax,  with  a  spot  on  eacli  extreme  side  and  a  large  subtriangular  mark 
on  disk  black;  pleura;  with  two  black  lines  on  each  side.  IFmr/s  hyaline.  Abdomen  yellow  with 
sometimes  a  faint  tinge  of  green,  black  at  base  and  tip,  and  each  segm.-nt  banded  with  black  superi- 
orly petiole  yellow,  black  at  tip  above.  Legs  yellow,  the  tarsi  inclining  to  fulvous;  abroad  line  on 
posterior  coxa;  al)ove,  and  interior  edge  of  femora  and  tibie,  and  tip  of  femora,  black;  the  femora 
about  as  large  as  abdomen  with  over  1-2  minute  black  spines  on  inferior  edge.     Average  length  u.-2(> 

inch.  '  .      ,  :-      i  » 

cf  diifers  in  the  less  pointed  abdomen,  and  somewhat  longer  petiole,  in  the  scape  of  antenna;  not 
bein-  black  superiorly  and  being  much  more  robust;  in  the  flagellum  being  of  the  same  color  as 
scape,  and  in  the  coxa;  having  a  black  line  both  above  and  beneath.  Average  length  0.15.  Described 
from  10  c?s  4  $  s  bred  from  Altacm  Polyphemus  and  2  ^61^^  bred  from  A  Promothea.  Variable  in  size 
some  (-?  (-?  being  much  larger  than  some  $  §  . 

say's  ama^na,  bred  from  a  Thecla,  in  which  no  sexual  difference  is  mentioned  somewhat  resem- 
bles the  Q  of  this  species,  but  differs  from  it  principally  in  having  the  thorax  quadrilinear  with  black, 
the  petiole  black,  the  pleura  black,  with  four  yellow  spots,  and  in  the  thighs  having  six  or  eight  prom- 
inent spines,  the  superior  one  divided  into  three  or  four. 

The  Cecropia  CRYvrvs—iC ryptus  extramatis,  Cresson).— Another  Ich- 
neumon-fly often  infests  the  Cecropia  worm,  the  larvae   tilling  its  cocoon 


41.] 


SO  full  of  their  own  thin  parchment-like 
cocoons,  tb.ata  transverse  section  (Fig.  40) 
bears  considerable  resemblance  to  a  honey- 
comb. The  flies  issue  in  June,  the  female 
presenting  the  appearance  of  Figure  41,  -/. 
the    hair-line    showing  [Kig  4') 

natural  size.  Tlie 
wings  have  a  smoky 
appearance,  caused,  as 
nui}-  bo  seen  who  n 
viewed  under  a  micro- 
scope, by  innumerable 
little  hooks  reguhirh' 
arranged  over  their  sur- 
ji  a/  face  as  at  d.     The  an- 

tennae have  a  pale  annulus,  the  head  and  thorax  are  black,  the  abdomen 
reddish-brown  except  near  the  end  where  it  is  black  tipped  with  white;  and 
the  legs  are  reddish  ringed  with  black.  The  male  has  a  more  slender  abdo- 
men which  lacks  the  oVipositor  and  the  white  spot  at  its  tip.  This  sex 
has  not  yet  been  described;  for  what  Mr.  Cresson  took  to  be  the  male 
turns  out  to  be  the  male  of  another  species  (C.  nu7idus,  Say),  which  infests 
the  Promothea  worm,  and  the  female  of  which  has  a  much  shorter  ovipositor 
(by       Crypus  samice,  Pack.,  which,  for  reasons  given  below,  may  turn  out  tc* 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  Ill 

be  but  a  variety  of  extrematis ;  and  Cryptus  Simthii,  Pack,,  (Pr^c.  Bost.  Soc. 
Nat.  Hist.,  IX,  pp.  345-6)  infest  the  form  that  has  been  described  as  Samia 
Columbia. 

As  the  f^  of  extrematis  hiis  not  yt-t  been  describcl,  and  as  ui)on  con^paring  numerous  .specimens, 
in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Cressou,  it  appears  that  his  ^  extrematis  is  really  (^  nunc i us,  Say,  I  shall 
append  Mr.  Cresson's  original  description  of  the  $  ,  with  a  few  ami)lilications,  and  then  describe  the  ^ 
by  comparison.  It  i.s  proper  to  add  that  Say's  description  of  7iuncius  is  so  incomplete  that  the  ^  is 
not  clearly  made  out,  and  from  ought  tliere  is  in  the  text  he  may  have  described  from  a  single  $  spec- 
imen; and  the  ^^otthv  two  species  could  ..iily  be  separated  by  breeding,  and  by  comparison  of 
numerous  speciinens. 

CKYi-Tis  EXTHEM.VTis,  Cress.,  v^^-"  Bh.ck,  shiuiug,  somcwliat  robust;  head  short  and  broad; 
antenna;  as  long  as  the  body,  slender,  black,  the  7th  to  l-2th  [more  often  11th]  joiut.s  white  [or  dirty 
yellow],  the  3rd  and  «h  joints  long,  the  3rd  rather  the  longest,  oth  a  little  shorter  than  the  4th,  and  the 
6th  about  hall  as  long  as  tlie  3r<l.  [I'alpi  black  or  only  wliite  at  joints] .  Thorax  linely  punctured, 
the  dorsal  lines  rather  deep;  scutellum  subcouvex,  poli.shed;  niftathorax  linelv  scabrous,  opaque,  its 
base  smoother  and  shining,  the  elevated  lines  tolerably  well  defined,  forming  a  large  more  or  less  dis- 
tmct,  subrhomboidal  central  area,  lateral  tubercles  not  well  defined.  Wings  faintly  tinged  with  fus- 
cous; nervures  and  stigma  blackish,  pale  at  l)ase;  areolet  large,  subquadrate.  Legs  pale  rufous,  [the 
iront  coxie  black]  the  posterior  femora  and  tib:e  at  tips,  and  the  base  and  apex  of  their  tarsi  blackish 
[basal  joint  always  black],  rest  of  their  tarsi  white.  Abdomen  rather  stout,  sub-ovate,  polished 
rulous  or  yellowish-rufous;  basal  segment  strongly  arcuated,  broad  at  tip;  the  4th  and  following 
joints  black,  the  Oth  or  7th  [mostly  7th]  or  both,  more  or  less  white  above;  ovipositor  about  as  Ion- 
as  tlie  body  [abdomen],  rufous,  valves  black.  Length  4-53,  lines;  expanse  of  wings6-<J%  line.s."  ° 
C5^-Diflers  from  $  by  his  more  slender  abdomen,  by  his  front  cox<e  being  rufous  sometimes 
tinged,  especially  above,  with  black;  his  posterior  coxw  black  or  blacki.sh,  especiallv  above-  his 
lour  anterior  trochanters  paler;  his  palpi  white,  the  terminal  joint  a  little  duskv:  his  antenna-  with 
the  two  ba.-<al  joints  black,  the  rest  brown  on  the  upper  surface  interrupted,  bv  a  i.aler  yellowish  line 
trom  joints  9-15  or  lu,  uniformly  pale  te.vfaceous  on  the  lower  surface;  the  basal  abd..miiuil  joint  ru- 
tous,  more  or  less  tinged  with  black;  the  apex  of  abdomen,  or  from  5rh  t-  last  joint,  entirely  black 
with  no  white  spot. 

I  h.ive  bred  7  (f's,  29  $  s  all  from  one  cocoon  of  Cecropia ,  and  have  r.^cei ved  10  $  s  -I  ^i  also  bred 
from  the  cocoon  of  that  .species,  from  Mr.  Otto  Lugger  now  of  St .  Louis .  Other  specimens  bred  from 
Leaopia  are  m  the  collection  of  the  Eut.miological  Society  at  Philadelphia  and  they  all  agree  closelv 
C.  extrematis  $  may  be  distinguished  from  nuncius  $  by  the  palpi  being  alwav>  mostly  black  bv 
the  posterior  tarsi  being  always  broadly  black  both  at  base  and  apex,  by  the  greater  length  of  the  ab- 
uomen  and  especially  by  the  greater  length  of  the  ovipositor  w/iich  is  as  long  as  the  abdomen  or  nearlv 
*o.  Extrematu  (^  diflers  from  nuncius  ^  by  the  four  anterior  cox;e  being  rufous,  the  front  ones  iu- 
chning  to  black,  by  the  basal  abdominal  joint  being  rufous,  by  the  apex  of  abdomen  being  black 
with  no  white  spot,  and  by  the  posterior  tarsi  being  broadly  black  at  base  and  apex. 

C.  nuncius,  $  may  be  distinguished  from  extrematis  $  by  the  palpi  being  more  or  less  white  bv  the 
posterior  tarsi  being  generally  entirely  whitish,  except  terminal  joint;  bv  the  broader  and  shorter  ab- 
domen, and  more  especially  by  the  ovipositor  being  much  shorter,  never  exceeding  one-half  the  Icnoth 
of  abdomen.  Mincius  ^  is  distinguished  from  extrematis  ^  by  the  four  anterior  coxa-  bein-  white  the 
posterior  tarsi  generally  entirely  whitish  except  terminal  joint,  'by  the  basal  ."bdominal  joint  b'ein.- 
generally  black,  and  by  having  generally-uot  alway,s-a  white  spot  on  joints  6  or  7,  or  both 

I  have  bred  G  $s  from  the  cocoon  of  Promethea,  and  Mr.  Cresson  has  examined  numerous  spec- 
imens of  both  sexes  likewise  bred  from  Promethea;  and  they  all  agree,  though  the  species  is  more 
inclined  to  vary  than  extrematis,  and  especially  in  the  size  and  conspicuousness  of  the  white  apical 
.>pot.  ^S  ere  it  not  that  Say's  nuncius  was  also  bred  from  the  same  species  1  should  feel  inclined  to  be- 
lieve It  distinct  irom  the  species  here  characterized  as  such;  but  rather  than  describe  a  new  species  1 
prefer  to  believe  that  Say  inadvertently  overlooked  the  white  aj.ical  spot  on  abdomen  of  Q  or  that'  it 
may  have  been  more  or  less  obsolete;  a.n.l  that  he  either  had  no  ^.  or  overlooked  sexual  ditlerencs 

If  authors  were  more  careful  in  describing  species,  and  especially  if  thev  would  tell  ushowmanv 
specimens  they  describe  from,  these  difficulties  in  separating  them  would  rarelv  arise 

The  only  other  species,  Mhich  1  know  of,  at  all  likely  to  be  confoun.led  with  extremoti.  is  one 
subsequently  described  as  Cryptus  samio^hy  I)r.  Packard  (Proc.  Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.  V..1  IKp  ■54.5- 
I860.;  and  bred  from  Samia  Columbia,  Smith,  in  whose  cocoon  it  forms  a  collection  of 'its  owii 
cocoons  just  as  c^Vr.m^n.  does  in  those  of  the  genuine  Cecropia.  Indeed  if  we  substitute  the  words 
tiochanters  lor  coxie"  and  "cox.-e"  for  "trochanters,"  in  Dr.  Packard's  description,  itagrees 
in  e^  ery  minute  particular  with  extrematis,  except  in  lacking  the  apical  white  spot  in  the  0  From 
the  similarity  of  habit,  and  from  the  exact  similitude  in  every  other  respect,  I  stronglv  suspect 
here  ore,  that  Dr.  Packard  has  inadvertently  misapplied  the  terms  "coie"  and  "trtchant<i'r- 
that  the  white  apical  spot,  which  is  variable  in  size,  may'sometimes  become  as  obsolete  in  the  Q  -w'in 
the  ^ ,  an. >  that  samice  should  at  the  most  be  considered  a  varietv  of  extrematis. 


]^J2  FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 

THE  AILANTHUS  SILKWORM— Aftocws  ISamial  cynthia,  Hubn. 

(Lepidoptera,  Bombycidfe.) 

Of  the  ditfereiit  worms  which  have  been  introduced  from  Asia,  either 
into  Europe  or  America,  the  Ailanthus  worm  is  the  onlj^  species  which  has, 
so  for,  proved  hardy ;  or  which  has  become  fully  acclimated.  Indeed  it 
seems'  to  possess  the  same  vigor  of  constitution  so  characteristic  of  the  tree 
upon  whicti  it  feeds,  and  which  enables  that  tree  to  flourish  on  all  kinds  of 
soil  and  in  widely  diiferent  latitudes.  This  merit  at  once  gives  it  a  claim 
to  our  attention. 

DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN    THE    CASTOR    BEAN    AND    AILANTHUS    SILKWORMS. 

There  are  two  insects  which  very  closely  resemble  each  other.  One 
was  brought  from  India,  and  feeds  on  the  Castor  Bean  (Eicmi/s  communis). 
It  is  domesticated  in  Hindostan  and  was  introduced  into  France  by  M. 
Milne  Edwards  in  1854,  and  was  tested  at  Paris,  and  at  many  other  points 
in  France,  Italy,  Spain  and  Algeria.  The  silk  is  soft  and  glossy,  and  the 
worm  goes  through  its  changes  with  great  rapidity,  producing  four  or  five 
generations  annually.  The  rearing  of  this  insect  was  soon  abandoned  in 
Europe,  because  in  the  first  place  it  had  no  advantage  over  the  Ailanthus 
worm  and  in  the  second,  there  was  no  prospect  of  obtaining,  m  that  coun- 
try any  great  quantity  of  a  raw  material  which  depended  on  the  Castor 
Oil'plant  for  its  production  ;  for  there,  as  with  us,  the  plant  is  only  annual, 
and  kills  down  each  winter.  It  has  been  ascertained,  however,  that  the 
worm  will  feed  and  flourish  on  Lettuce,  Chickory,  Willow  and  Teasel  (Dip- 

This  insect  was  first  figured  in  1804  by  the  English  botanist  Koxbury, 
who  confounded  it  with  the  genuine  c^nMia  under  consideration.     It  like- 
wise feeds  upon  the  Ailanthus,  and  the  resemblance  to  cynthia  m  all  stages, 
is  so  great,  that  it  might  well  be  considered  as  but  a  Castor  Bean  feeding 
variety;  the  more  especially  as  both  insects  are  known  to  vary  greatly, 
and  that  in  its  domesticated  state  in  Bengal,  ricini  acquires  an  orange  c:olor, 
and  looks  quite  different  to  what  it  does  in  the  feral  state^  ^^^''^J^'t' 
of  the  two  are  also  quite   vigorous  and   fertile  inter  se.     But  ^^  1^^'   ^. 
G-uerin-M6neville  pointed  out  what  he  considered  sufficient  specific  difter- 
enccs,   and  the    Blcinus-feeding  from  is    now  known  to  entomologists  as 
Samia  ricini,  G-K.     These  differences   maybe  briefly  set  forth  as  follows  : 
While  the  eg..-  oU^ynthia  is  covered  with  dark  particles,  that  of  ricini  is  im- 
maculate.    The  full  grown  larva  of  cynthia  is  of  an  emerald  green    with 
black  specks,  and  d.xrk  freckles;  while  that  oi  ricini  is  of  a  pale  azure  and  lacks 
the  spots.     The  cocoon  of  the  former  is  larger,  more  compact  and  of  a  paler 
crav  than  that  of  the  latter,  and  while  the  former  produces  but  two  or  at 
the  most  three  broods,  the  latter  produces  five  or  six,  annually.     The  moths 
when   closely   examined   will   be  found  to  differ  in  some  essential  points . 
CVni^uUias^separate^^ 

^l^;;;^;;rLi^u.  soc.  of  Load.m  VI    p.  42    pi    m  ^^^^^  ^^^^^^  vanatioas  ob- 

tsee  aLs,.  some-  inti-resting  obj^erva  ions  '7' J,   .•^-^j.-.V/''^;^'''!,"  /  Ith,  18fi7.)  where  he  gives  reasons 


[Fig.  42.] 


AILANTHUS  SILKWOEM. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  113 

iinited  in  parallel  bands,  but  these  characters  cannot  be  relied  on  as 
they  connect  b}^  variations:  in  cynfhia  the  rosy  band  across  the  wings 
is  broader  than  in  ricini :  the  crescent-shaped  lunule  on  the  front  wings  *of' 
cynthia  is  yellow  beneath,  the  yellow  being  bordered  with  white  above;  in 
ricini  the  Avhite  surrounds  the  yellow,  and  the  hinule  is  generally  smaller. 
A  tliird  species  by  the  name  of  Gnerinii  has  been  described,  but  with 
scarcely  any  evidence  that  it  is  anything  more  than  a  variety  of  either 
of  the  former. 

RETROSrECTIVE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ATLANTHUS  SILK\V0RM. 

The  Ailanthus  silkworm  was  first  mentioned  in  the  Avritings  of  mission- 
aries about  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  In  1760  or  1765,  according  to 
Dr.  Morris,  a  fair  figure  of  the  moth  was  published  by  D'Aubenton^he 
younger,  who  called  it  the  Croissant.  *  In  1773  Drury  gave  the  moth  the 
name  which  it  now  bears,  but  its  larva,  and  general  habits  were  not  knoAvn 
till  the  middle  of  the  present  century. 

The  first  eggs  of  the  Ailanthus  silkworm  obtained  in  Europe  were  sent 
by  the  Abb6  Fantoni,  a  Piedmontese  missionary,  from  the  province 
of  Shang  Tung,  a  little  south  ofPekin,  in  the  north  of  China,  to  some 
friends  at  T  urin .  From  these  eggs  two  successive  generations  of  worms  were 
produced  in  1857,  and  in  1858  Mons.  Guerin-Meneville  received  from  Turin, 
both  eggs  and  fertile  females,  and  experimented  with  them  in  the  acclima^ 
tization  gardens  in  Paris. 

From  the  very  outset  this  worm  promised  well.  It  adapted  itself  read- 
ily to  the  climate  and  its  food-plant  was  everywhere  abundant.  Soon  after 
its  introduction  into  France  it  attracted  the  attention  of  scientific  men  in 
England  and  other  jjarts  of  Europe ;  and  the  Emperor  himself,  charmed  by 
the  tune  of  the  Avords  chanted  to  him  by  M.  Guerin-Meneville,  and  the  evi. 
deut  prospect  of  the  success  of  the  new  enterprise,  lent  his  aid  to  the  carrying 
out  of  experiments  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  the  summer  of  1859  thousands  of 
the  caterpillars  were  reared  on  M.  Aquillon's  property  at  Toulon,  and  also 
on  that  of  Count  Lamotte  Barace,  near  Chinon,  (Indre  et  Loire). 

In  1859  Mr.  F.  Moore  of  the  East  India  Museum,  reared  a  few  in  Eng- 
land, and  exhibited  them  before  the  London  Entomological  Society.  Sub- 
sequently they  were  fully  tested  in  England  by  Lady  Dorothy  Nevill  of 
Dangstein,  Dr.  Alexander  Wallace  of  London  and  others.  Mr.  Wallace,  in 
1865  published  an  interesting  memoir  on  the  subject,  entitled  "  Ailanthicul- 
ture,  or  the  Prospect  of  a  new  English  Industry,"  in  which  he  showed  that 
the  worm  did  very  well  in  that  moist  climate:  Indeed  it  was  supposed  to 
do  better  in  England  than  in  France,  and  the  following  paragraph  which  I 
quote  from  the  memoir  will  very  well  reflect  the  opinions  and  hopes  enter- 
tained at  the  time. 

i^»  1862,  at  Lady  D.  Nevill's  town  house,  I  first  beheld  these  beautiful 
larvie  feeding  on  the  leaves  of  the  Ailanthus  qlandulosa.  In  1863  I  became 
possessed,  through  the  kindness  of  her  ladyship,  of  some  eggs  and  procured 
others  from  France,  and  I  obtained  that  summer,,  as  also  in  1865,  two  gen- 

♦PKinchcs  d'  Histoirenat.,  cnlr.minees,  X,  \,\.  42.  Ins. 


114  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

erations.  In  confirmation  of  the  statement  that  the  cocoons  in  England 
were  remarkable  for  their  size,  M.  de  Eoo  viin  Westmas,  writing  from  the 
Netherlands,  a  moister  and  more  temperate  clime  than  France,  in  August, 
1864,  says  "The  acclimatization  of  _B.  Cynthia  has  perfectly  succeeded,  and 
presents  a  remarkable  fact,  viz.,  that  the  race  is,  without  doubt,  ameliorated. 
The  moths  are  larger  and  more  vigorous  than  those  of  the  preceding  year. 
The  fentales  laid  last  year  from  100  to  150  eggs,  but  now  give  from  300  to 
350,  and  what  is  still  more  remarkable  is,  that  the  eggs  are  larger  and  heav- 
ier, for  whereas  before  a  gramme  contained  540 — 500,  now  I  find  only  440 — 100 
in  that  weight;  this  fact  ap])eared  to  me  of  such  importance  that  I  counted 
the  eggs  in  five  grammes  taken  from  a  weight  of  thirty  grammes.  I  found 
the  number  2261  which  gives  an  average  of  452  eggs  to  a  gramme."  A 
gramme  being  equal  to  loo  grains  (nearly),  this  gives  twenty-nine  or  thirty 
eggs  to  the  grain.  My  own  ex]XM'ience  tallies  exactly  with  that  of  Mr.  de 
Roo  ;  specimens  bred  in  1865,  the  progeny  in  part  of  French  eggs  pui"- 
chased  in  1863,  exhibited  as  the  result  of  two  years'  acclimatization  in  Eng- 
land a  marked  improvement  in  ^ize,  color,  etc.,  in  all  their  stages,  as  con- 
trasted Avith  their  French  |n"ogenitors,  and  the  cocoons  were  finer  in  1865 
than  in  1864.  Lady  Doroth}^  Xevill  also  reports  that  the  English  eggs  and 
cocoons  are  finer  than  the  French.  If  this  be  proved  by  further  observa- 
tion it  becomes  an  important  argument  in  favor  of  English  Ailanthiculture^ 
for  a  larger  cocoon  implies  a  greater  weight  of  silk. 

AVIIEN  INTRODUCED  INTO  AMERICA. 

In  1861  the  Ailanthus  worm  was  introduced  into  this  country,  the  credit 
of  which  is  due  to  Dr.  Thomas  Stewardson  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.  Two  able 
and  interesting-papers  on  the  subject  were  published  by  Dr.  J.  G.  Morris  of 
Baltimore,  Md.,  in  the  Agricultural  Reports  for  1861  and  1862,  great  hopes 
being  entertained  as  to  the  success  of  the  new  enterprise. 

Since  that  time  the  insect  has  been  raised  by  a  great  many  different 
persons  in  the  United  States,  and  has  been  fully  experimented  with.  In  the 
summer  of  1865  I  gave  it  a  very  thorough  trial  at  Chicago,  and  raised  large 
quantities  both  indoors  and  on  trees  in  the  open  air;  and  the  following  par- 
agraphs from  an  article  which  was  published  in  the  Prairie  Farmer  of  April 
28th,  1866,  will  serve  to  illustrate  its  real  value : 

I  raised  two  broods  last  summer  without  difficulty,  the  last  worm  of  the 
second  brood  having  spun  on  the  23d  September.     Not  one  died,  either  of' 
those  raised  in  doors  or  out  on  the  trees  exposed  to  the  weather,  except  by 
accident  or  from  the  attacks  of  birds. 

So,  therefore,  as  regards  hardiness  and  adaptibility  to  our  climate  there 
is  little  question  of  its  merit,  there  being  few  places  on  our  continent  sub- 
ject to  more  sudden  changes  and  extremes  of  temperatui-e  than  Chicago; 
but  in  an  economical  jiOint  of  view,  the  sanguine  expectation  of  its  advo- 
cates have  not  been  realized,  and  notwithstanding  the  furore  which  it  at 
first  occasioned  in  France  and  the  much  that  has  been  said  in  its  favor  b}' 
our  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,*  it  never  will  take  the  place  of  the  Mul- 
berry Silkworm,  and  M.  E.  F.  Cluerin-Mencville  is  at  this  day  making  re- 
searches for,  and  experimenting  with  other  worms,  and  has  lately  laid' 
before  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  Paris,  a  species  of  Bombyx  (Anthercea)  which 
was  obtained  on  the  frontier  of  Cashmere  and  feeds  on  an  Oak,(Quercvs  in- 
cana). 

The  Ailanthus  worm  has  tAvo  rather  sei-ious  disadvantages.     The  cocoon 

*  Isaac  Newton  was  inciinibi'iit  at  tli;it  time. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  !!•> 

is  prolongatofl  and  its  threads  arc  attached  by  .strong  and  very  tenacious 
gluten ;  for  which  reasons  it  lias  never  been  successfully  unwound,  and  even 
carding  is  not  an  easy  operation.  In  endeavoring  to  dissolve  this  gluten 
by  different  compositions,  I  obtained  great  quantities  of  a  soapy  substance 
or  varnish,  which  might  ])erhaps  be  turned  to  some  use.  When,  by  pa- 
tience, I  succeeded  in  dissolving  the  gluten  from  a  few  cocoons,  sufficiently 
to  unwind  them,  the  thread  often  broke  by  the  weight  of  its  own  cocoon. 
The  silk  when  wound  off  compares  unfavorably  with  that  of  some  Mulberry 
worms  I  reared  several  years  ago  :  the  threads  have  not  the  gloss,  are  not 
as  thick  by  one-third,  and  not  over  one-half  as  strong.  Mr.  Townend 
Glover,  Entomologist  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Avhile  in  Paris  last 
summer,  made  manj-  inquiries  about  new  silk-reeling  machines  for  the  pur- 
pose of  unwinding  the  cocoons,  but  could  learn  nothing  about  them. 

THOROUGHLY   ACCLIMATED    IN   AMERICA. 

Since  1866  this  worm  has  become  thoroughly  acclimated,  and  is  now 
found  in  a  wild  state  around  the  cities  of  Baltimore,  Washington.  Philadel- 
phia, New  York,  Brookljni  and  Chicago.  Indeed,  it  had  multiplied  to  such 
an  extent  in  ISlO  around  Brooklyn,  that  the  Ailanthus  trees  were  in  man}- 
parts  of  the  city  entirely  strijiped  of  their  foliage  by  it.  The  bare  2")etioles 
bore  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  hardihood  of  the  worm,  and  of  its  power 
to  multipl}'  so  as  to  become  a  nuisance.  Singularly  enough,  a  certain  Mr. 
J.  Q.  A.  Warren,  who  travels  between  this  country  and  Eui-ope,  and  deals 
in  natural  history  specimens,  was  at  this  very  time  attempting  to  get  gov- 
ernment aid  for  the  introduction  and  encouragement  of  this  insect. 

Arriving  from  Europe,  in  apparent  ignorance  of  what  had  already  been 
done  in  this  country',  and  possessed  of  a  sort  of  a  seri-mania,  h?  extolled  it 
in  a  most  enthusiastic  manner  in  lectures  delivered  before  the  scientific 
academies  of  our  principal  cities. 

It  has  also  become  so  abundant  in  Australia,  where  it  was  inti'odueed 
some  years  since,  that  unless  kept  down  by  birds,  it  will  soon  become  a  per- 
fect pest.  One  interesting  fact  connected  with  its  naturalization  as  an 
American  citizen,  is  that,  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  J.  S,  Eidings  of  Phila- 
delphia, the  moths  reared  in  a  wild  state  in  that  city  have  very  generally 
become  darker  than  they  originally  were;  thus  showing  how,  in  a  ver}''  few 
years,  change  of  conditions  and  especially  of  climate  may  affect  coloration. 
During  the  past  year,  for  some  I'eason,  it  has  not  been  as  abundant  as  it 
Avas  in  1870. 

VALUE    OF   THE    COCOON. 

The  silk  is  valuable  in  the  same  sense  as  that  of  some  of  our 
native  worms,  and  if  ever  the  supply  from  the  Mulberry  silkworm  should 
fail,  would  undoubtedly  be  turned  to  good  account.  It  bleaches  well,  and 
has  long  been  used  in  China,  where  it  is  known  to  be  so  durable  that  a  dress 
made  from  it  frequently  descends  as  an  heirloom  for  generations.  It  has 
for  many  years  been  in  the  market  in  France,  and  I  saw  sjiecimens  of  man- 
ufactured stuffs  from  it,  both  In  London  and  Paris,  and  they  had  taken  on 
sundry  dark  colors  very  well,  and  looked  remarkably  fine.     I  understand 


116  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

also  from  Mr.  P.  E.  Uhler  of  Baltimore,  that  specimens  have  been  woven 
successfully  in  Paterson,  N.  J.  This  class  of  goods  is  known  by  the  name 
of  Ailantine  and  might  bo  put  to  a  great  many  uses,  as  there  is  always  a 
demand  for  coarse  silks.  But  it  has  so  far  been  woven  principally  from 
carded  silk,  and  no  cheap,  efficient  and  simple  method  of  reeling  the  cocoons 
has  been  made  public.  The  value  of  anj'  silkworm  depends  on  our  ability 
to  unwind  its  cocoon.  The  cocoon  of  the  Ailanthus  worm,  like  that  of  our 
Gecropia,  is  open  at  one  end,  and  though  the  thread  is  continuous,  and  if 
disengaged  of  the  glutinous  matter  which  binds  it,  may  be  continuously 
reeled  oif ;  yet  such  reeling  is  rendered  extremely  difficult  from  the  fact  that 
the  moment  the  cocoons  are  placed  in  the  basin  they  fill  with  water,  sink  to 
the  bottom,  and  cause  the  threads  to  continually  break. 

Sevei-al  devices  for  unwinding  the  cocoons  have  been  patented  in 
Europe,  but  as  already  stated,  none  seem  to  have  come  into  general  use. 
The  method  invented  by  M.  Forgemol,  and  described  in  a  report  made  in 
1864  to  the  Imperial  Society  of  Acclimatization,  in  France,  will  indicate  in 
Avhat  direction  experiments  may  be  made,  and  I  copy  the  descriptiopi  of  that 
method  from  Dr.  Wallace's  essay.      M.  Forgemol  says: 

By  Avay  of  experiment,  seeking  to  follow  in  your  steps,  I  myself,  a 
«hort  time  ago,  exhibited  before  you  a  particular  method  of  reeling  open 
cocoons.  This  method  has  since  been  studied  anew,  and  I  have  thought  it 
right  to  bring  before  you  the  following  alterations.  Let  me  remind  you 
that  the  cocoons  conveniently  prepared  were  placed  within  linen  or  some 
other  fabric  permeable  to  water;  were  then  passed  through  manj^  Avaters  in 
succession  containing  soap  and  potash,  in  order  to  separate  the  ditferent 
layers  of  silk  which  compose  the  cocoon;  were  placed,  not  too  drj^  nor  yet 
too  moist,  in  a  vessel  of  a  cup-shape  (either  one  or  in  compartments),  and 
were  then  reeled  when  nearly  dr}^ — differing  from  the  method  of  reeling 
closed  cocoons,  which  is  done  on  the  surface  of  water  more  or  less  boiling. 

Such  was  our  first  method.  The  following  are  the  modifications  result- 
ing from  our  experience : — It  seemed  easier,  and  likely  to  save  time,  to  have 
A  plate  divided  in  several  cujds,  which  might  be  removed  at  will,  and  to  place 
therein  the  cocoons  for  reeling.  This  plate,  of  any  form,  should  tit  the  basin 
of  the  ordinary  winding  machine,  sucli  as  they  use  in  the  South  of  France. 
Each  cup  is  pierced  with  little  holes  in  its  centre,  for  the  admission  (if  desir- 
able) of  steam  from  the  hot  water  in  the  basin,  in  order  to  supply  the 
uecessar}'  amount  of  moisture  which  the  cocoons  may  have  lost.  No  change 
is  made  in  preparing  the  cocoons  and  reeling  them  when  neai^l}"  dry,  but 
they  are  placed  in  the  moveable  cups  pierced  with  holes  fitting  into  the 
plate  as  described.  These  plates,  with  moveable  cups,  are  well  suited  to 
reel  cocoons  naturally  open,  so  long  as  they  contain  the  chrysalis  (plein), 
but  seem  no  longer  to  answer  when  the  cocoons  are  empty  (vides),  that  is, 
when  the  moth  has  escaped. 

In  fact,  the  force  used  to  draw  apart  and  collect  the  single  thi-eads 
(brins),  no  longer  finds  a  counterpoise  in  the  empty  cocoons,  which  do  not 
remain  in  the  cups,  but  are  dravvn  out.  Hence  it  becomes  necessaiy  to  give 
the  empty  cocoon  a  certain  weight,  a  certain  resistance,  sufficient  to  retain 
them  "  in  situ,"  but  not  so  great  as  to  rupture  the  threads.  After  consider- 
able experience,  I  conceived  an  apparatus  intended  to  retain  the  empty 
cocoons,  and  j^et  to  allow  the  reeling  to  proceed  easily  and  rapidly.  This 
apparatus  is  composed  of  several  skewers  (broches),  carrying  needles  of 
varying  height,  and  it  is  placed  on  a  basin  for  the  purpose,  if  necessary,  of 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST.  1  IT 

keeping  the  cocoons  in  a  state  of  slight  moisture,  by  means  of  steam  from 
watei"  beneath,  more  or  less  boilirtg  in  the  basin.  These  empty  cocoons  are 
reeled,  as  we  have  already  stated,  when  ncarl}-  dr3',  but  yd  they  require  a 
certain  amount  of  moisture,  whic-h  is  indispensable  for  the  perfect  torsion 
of  the  several  threads  (hrins),  which  go  to  form  the  one  strand  (_/??)•  '^^'''^' 
needles  have,  1st,  an  olive-shaped  head,  which  is  capped  by  the  empty  cocoon, 
suitably  prepared  beforehand  and  divested  of  its  outer  envelope  ;  2ndi3',  a 
middle  portion  sliding  through  a  ring,  secui'cd  by  an  upright  (v?/u/r,  prt/t<  .swr 
les  hroclics)  attached  to  the  skewer;  and  Brdly,  a  base,  with  a  blunt  point., 
which  revolves  in  a  little  cup  worked  in  the  thickness  of  the  skewer. 

The  needles  are  very  moveable  on  their  ])ivot,  and  the  cocoons  being  move- 
able also  on  the  olive-shaped  heads,  turn  on  them  in  every  direction,  follow-" 
ing  the  position  and  the  direction  of  the  threads  as  they  unwind.  The  head 
is  olive-shaped  to  avoid  making  a  hole  in  the  base  of  the  cocoon  during  the 
movement  and  rotation  by  the  resulting  friction,  which  must  ensue  were 
the  head  pointed.  The  needles  are  of  ditfei-ent  lengths  to  allow  more 
cocoons  than  one  to  be  reeled  off  at  once,  those  of  the  first  skewer  being  the 
smallest,  those  of  the  second  bigger,  and  so  on  according  to  the  number  of 
the  strands  and  the  required  thickness  of  the  thread.  The  skewers,  armed 
with  needles  of  ditf'erent  height,  after  being  capped  with  em])ty  cocoons 
suitabh'  prepared,  are  placed  on  the  basin  so  that  two  or  more  may  be  used 
at  once.  So  arranged,  the  skewers  slide  into  a  groove  made  into  the  frame 
of  the  machine.  They  are  kept  apart  by  a  little  bar  of  division  fixed  at 
either  extremity.  When  the  cocoons  are  reeled  the  skewers,  whose  needles 
are  now  free,  are  pushed  forwards  and  removed,  they  are  immediately  re- 
placed by  others  prepared  beforehand,  and  placed  read}'  at  the  end  of  the 
groove.  There  is  no  interrujition  in  reeling;  the  mechanism  of  the  skewers 
and  needles  is  both  simple  and  eas}'.  These,  as  also  thejilate  with  moveable 
cups,  are  easily  and  without  cost  adapted  to  the  well-known  machine,  which 
seems  a  great  advantage  since  the  old  implement  for  reeling  closed  cocons 
is  now  made  available,  almost  without  change,  by  the  simple  method  which 
I  have  described." 

ITS    NATURAL    HISTORY. 

The  female  depo;;ts,  on  an  average,  two  hundred  and  fifty  eggs  (Fig. 
42,  .5).  These  are  about  0.07  inch  long,  oval  in  form,  and  of  a  cream  color. 
They  are  spotted  in  places  with  dark  green  or  black  particles  which  can  be 
rubbed  off  and  which  under  the  microscope  are  found  to  consist  principally 
of  gum,  mixed  with  minute  hairs.  Thej^  become  depressed  four  daj's  after 
being  deposited  and  acquire  a  greener  hue  just  before  hatching.  The  shell 
is  very  hard  and  tough  and  the  clicking  noise  mentioned  in  speaking  of 
the  eggs  of  7nori  (p.  86)  may  often  be  heard.  The  moth  fastens  them  hj  means 
of  a  gum  with  tolerable  firmness  to  whatever  object  she  may  be  upon. 
They  are  however  easily  detached,  and  if  subsequently  placed  on  moist 
cloth  or  paper  will  again  adhere.     They  hatch  at  a  temperature  of.  65°  Fahr. 

Larval  Changes— The  young  worm  is  yellow,  with  a  doi-sal,  subdorsal,  and  stigmatal  row  of 
black  spots — each  row  with  two  to  a  joint — the  anterior  one  in  the  stigmital  row  being  the  smiUest 
and  the  posterior  one  the  largest.  Betwein  eacli  ofthese  rows,  in  the  middle  of  each  joint,  is  a  blaclc 
tubercle,  crowned  with  white  bristles,  and  there  is  an  additional  row  (G  in  all)  which  is  sul)stig- 
matal.  The  head  is  [lolished  black,  and  there  is  a  black  jiatch  on  joint  1,  on  the  caudal  plate,  and  on 
the  outside  of  the  anal  proleg.s.  'i'he  thoracic  legs  are  black,  and  the  prolegs  yellow  with  a  black 
mark  outwardly  near  e.xtremiry.  After  the  lirst  moult  the  head  is  brown  and  the  tijjs  only  of  the 
tubercles  remain  black,  the  rest  of  the  stem  being  light  yellow.  After  the  ind  moult  the  color  is 
paler,  being  of  a  ci-eam-yellow :  the  hea<l  is  entirely  yellow,  except  the  feelers  which  are  brown,  and 
all  the  tubercles,  except  the  stigm'.ital  row,  are  cream-colored,  with  bristles  ending  in  a  knob  of  the 
same  color:  the  stigmatal  row  is  black,  with  cream-colored  bristles:  legs  of  a  bright  yellow:  stigma— 


118  •  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT   OP 

ta  lilack.  At  this  stage  a  mealy  powder  begins  to  manifest  itself  on  the  surface  of  the  body.  After 
The  3rd  moult  it  is  of  a  still  paler  cream-color,  and  only  the  stem  of  the  stigmatal  tubercles  i-emains 
black,  the  knob  and  bristles  being  cream-c  )lored:  the  head,  legs,  and  anus  are  now  sul|)hur-yellow; 
the  stignitita  are  larger,  and  there  are  two  black  spots  at  base  of  prolegs  and  three  at  base  of  thoracic 
legs,  the  central  one  elevated  and  forming,  as  it  were,  a  spine.  (These  spots  are  often  visible  after 
the  second  moult.)  The  white  powder-like  or  wax-like  secretion,  now  covers  the  body  giving  it  a 
most  delicate  look.  After  the  last  moult  the  tubercles  become  blue— the  lower  row  having  black  at 
base— and  as  the  worm  approaches  its  full  growth,  the  white  powder  for  the  most  part  gets 
rubbed  off  and  vanishes.  When  full  grown  it  ai)pears  as  in  the  upper  part  of  Figure  42  and  is  of  a 
light  msaly  bluish-green,  freckled — aside  from  the  black  or,  as  they  now  often  appear,  blue-black 
spots  already  mentioned —  with  numerous  roundish  spots  of  a  darker  green,  more  decided  laterally 
and  veutrally  :  the  head  and  thoracic  legs  are  shiny  yellowish-green,  and  the  |)rolegs  and  anal  joint 
pale  orange-yellow. 

Within  a  month  after  hatching  the  worm  spins  up,  forming  its  cocoon 
(Fig.  2,  5)  within  the  leaf  which  is  drawn  partly  around  it,  and  fastening  the 
leaf  stalklet  to  the  main  stalk  with  strong  silk.  In  five  da3's  it  becomes  a 
chrysalis  (Fig.  2,  Ji)  and,  if  of  the  first  brood,  produces  the  moth  within  three 
weeks  afterwards.  The  second  brood  of  worms  generally  have  the  instinct 
to  fiisten-  their  Cocoons  to  the  more  permanent  twigs,  to  which  they  hang 
securely  during  the  winter;  but  the}"  often  attach  them  to  the  leaf  stalk, 
with  which  they  are  carried  to  the  ground  in  the  fall;  and  the  streets  of  the 
cities  in  which  they  have  become  wild  are  often  strewn  with  such  cocoons 
which  get  trodden  on  and  ruined. 

The  moth  (Fig.  42,  i?,  $)  is  of  a  rusty  yellow  color  inclining  to  green 
and  marked  with  pale  lilac  and  white  with  transparent  crescent  spots  as  in  the 
illustration.  The  males  are  smaller  than  the  females,  having  smaller  bodies 
and  narrower  Avings,  tiie  hind  ones,  especially,  being  much  less  rounded. 
The  male  antennae  are  scarcely  any  broader  than  those  of  the  female. 

The  above  descriptions  are  general  in  their  character.  The  insect  is 
not  only  variable  in  intensity  of  markings  and  coloration;  but  likewise,  to 
an  unusual  degree,  in  the  time  required  for  development.  Some  of  the  first 
ones  I  bred  were  very  irregular  in  tliis  respect,  part  of  the  second  brood  is- 
suing as  moths  in  the  fall,  and  part  remaining  over  winter  in  the  cocoon  till 
the  middle  of  the  following  June.  I  have  also  had  the  chiysalis  remain  not 
only  through  one  winter,  but  throughout  the  summer  and  succeeding  sec- 
ond winter,  and  not  give  forth  the  moth  till  the  second  summer;  though 
the  cocoons  were  submitted  to  precisely  the  same  conditions  under  which 
others,  hatched  from  the  same  batch  of  eggs,  issued  in  the  fall  of  thej-earin 
which  they  were  hatched.  Tliis  is  the  common  experience  of  most  persons 
who  haye  raised  the  worms  in  large  quantities. 

A  high  temperature  generally  hastens  their  development,  as  it  does  in 
other  insects;  and  while  m}^  summer  broods  averaged  but  25  days  from  the 
time  of  hatching  to  spinning,  those  of  the  fall  brood  which  issued  the  same 
year,  averaged  30. 

Some  specimens  which  I  hajij^ened  to  have  feeding  in  1869  in  cages 
contiiining  plum  twigs  as  well  as  ailanthus,  seemed  to  eat  the  leaves  of  the 
former  with  as  much  relish  as  of  the  latter;  aiul  no  doubt  other  food-plants 
might  be  found  for  this  insect,  if  it  were  desirable.  In  Europe  they  have 
also  been  fed  with  success  on  Rhus  coriaria  and  Pimpernel;  while  Dr.  Wal- 
lace has  fed  them  with  Plum  and  Laburnum  producing  moths  weakened  and 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  119 

•ilefeetive  in  size;  and  gives  a  very  interesting  account  of  some  dwarfs  pro- 
duced from  celery  fed  worms. 

BEST  METHOD  OF  KAISlNCi  THE  WOHMS. 

As  this  worm  takes  so  kindly  to  our  climate,  there  will  be  no  difficulty 
in  rearing  it  in  any  quantit}'  in  the  ojjcn  air,  if  onlj^  care  be  taken  to  pro- 
tect it  from  the  attacks  of  birds  and  predaceous  insects  such  as  ants,  ground- 
beetles  etc.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  palatable  to  birds,  as  Dr.  Wallace  found 
that  none  of  them  touched  it  in  England,  except  the  tom-tit,  robin  and  rook. 
Consequentl}^,  by  a  little  vigilance  in  keeping  away  enemies,  it  may  be 
reared  with  but  slight  loss,  upon  trees  without  covering.  Yet  it  would  be 
expedient  and  satisfactory  in  making  an  Ailanthery  to  keej)  the  trees  in 
plantation  so  trimmed  and  pruned  that  an  awning  of  some  kind  of  light  ma- 
terial could  bo  stretched  over  them  during  the  feeding  season,  and  removed 
and*[)ut  away  during  the  rest  of  the  year.  A  few  cocoons,  well  choaen  for 
size  and  quality,  might  be  left  on  the  trees  for  breeding  jJiii'poses,  and  the 
moths  as  they  issue  would  soon  pair  naturally  and  the  females  deposit  their 
eggs  upon  the  branches  of  the  trees.  The  males  show  a  wonderful  power 
in  finding  the  females,  as  the  following  incident  will  demonstrate.  In  18G5, 
knowing  that  the  moths  I  reared  in  Chicago  were  the  first  that  had  been 
introduced  there,  and  that  there  were  no  others  within  himdreds  of  miles, 
it  occurred  to  me  that  an  excellent  opportunity  was  oflfered  to  test  the  at- 
tractive power  of  the  female;  this  power  being  generally  very  strong  in  the 
£oinbi/cid<t,  and  often  made  use  of  bj"  entomologists  to  semble  the  males  of  rare 
species.  Accordingly  I  took  a  virgin  female  bred  indoors  before  anj^  out 
of  doors  had  issued,  and  after  placing  her  upon  a  tree  where  she  inclined  to 
remain,  went  the  same  evening  a  full  mile  awa}',  with  the  wind,  and  let 
loose  a  male  with  wings  slight!}"  notched  so  as  to  be  recognizable  again.  I 
hardly  expected  the  experiment  to  result  favorably ;  but  sure  enough,  the 
next  morning  the  identical  male  which  I  had  marked  was  with  the  female. 
Two  broods  can  easily  be  produced  each  year,  and  the  time  of  hatchmg  of 
the  eggs,  of  the  issuing  of  the  moths,  and  that  required  for  the  development 
of  the  worm,  depends  so  much  on  the  temperature,  that  the  broods  can  be 
produced  at  the  seasons  most  convenient  and  favorable.  When  this  control 
is  desired,  the  eggs  and  the  cocoons  must  be  properlj^  managed.  The 
cocoons  intended  for  breeding  purj>oses  ma}-  be  suspended  in  chaplets  so 
that  the  moths  ma}"  issue  more  readily  and  have  good  opportunity  to  hang 
their  damp  wings  as  they  expand.  They  may  then  be  coupled  and  placed 
in  wicker  boxes  or  any  other  well  ventilated  vessels,  from  which  the  eggs, 
when  laid,  can  be  easily  removed.  The  eggs  when  about  to  hatch  may  be 
fiistened  to  the  trees  in  various  ways,  so  that  the  young  worms,  from  the 
first  moment  of  their  lives,  will  find  the  leaves  convenient.  They  may  be 
jiasted  on  to  thin  wood,  paper  or  linen,  and  pinned  in  small  quantities  to  the 
leaf-stalk;  or  portioned  into  lots  of  fifties  or  hundreds  and  suspended  in 
small  muslin  bags  pinned  near  a  leaf. 

The  young  worms  are  gregarious  and  generally  remain  on  the  under- 


120  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

side  of  the  leaves;  and  as  they  do  not  consume  much  at  this  period,  and  are 
more  liable  to  the  attacks  of  their  enemies,  it  may  be  found  profitable  to 
rear  them  during  the  first  stage  indoors  upon  cut  branches  or  3'oung  ti-ees- 
in  pots. 

A  GOOD  WORD  FOR  THE  AILANTHUS. 

This  tree  (.4.  glandvlosus),  taken  from  Japan  to  Europe  in  1851,  and  for 
a  long  time  suj^posed  to  be  a  sumac  and  known  as  the  Jajmn  Varnish  tree,. 
was  first  rightly  described  b}^  the  French  botanist  Desfontaines.  It  is  now 
(j-rown  as  a  shade  tree  all  over  this  country  and  is  one  of  the  most  valuable,, 
and  at  the  same  time  worst  abused  trees  we  have.  A  2:)eculiar  odor,  reinind- 
ing  one  of  the  urine  ofa  male  cat,  and  quite  nauseous  to  man}-  piersons,  attaches 
to  the  staminate  flowers,  and  in  a  slight  degree  to  the  leaves  and  the  rest  of 
the  tree.  This  odor  is  even  faintly  communicated  to  the  silkworm  which 
feeds  upon  it;  and  is  the  cause  of  the  prejudice  which  many  have  against  the 
tree;  it  is  never  disagreeable  in  the  open  air,  except  daring  the  flowering- 
season,  and  may  be  entirely  avoided  by  growing  only  the  female  or  pistil- 
late tree,  or  by  clipping  off"  the  blossoms  of  the  staminate  tree.  The  advan-  . 
ta'-'es  of  the  Ailanthus  so  far  outbalance  this  one  obnoxious  feature  that  I  con- 
sider  it  one  of  the  most  valuable  shade  trees  we  have.  Growing  freely  in 
chalky jSandy,  or  clayc}' — in  the  poorest  or  the  richest  soil ;  defiant  of  city 
smoke  or  prolonged  drought;  wonderfully  free  from  insect  injuries;  easily 
l)ropagated  by  root  or  seed ;  a  rapid  growei-,  with  a  graceful  semi-tropical  ap- 
])earanee — it  is  quite  undeserving  of  the  abuse  that  has  been  heaped" uj)on  it. 
Away  out  on  the  plains  on  the  Kansas  Pacific  railroad,  wher-c  tree-planting- 
is  yet  an  experiment,  Mr.  E.  S.  Elliot  has  had  excellent  success  with  it,  an<i 
I  was  never  more  fa voi-ably  impressed  with  it  than  in  passing  through  the 
thronged  streets  of  New  York  and  Brookljni  last  sutiimer.  There  it  was, 
on  ever}-  side,  presenting  its  fresh  rich  foliage  to  the  eye,  and  giving  ele- 
gance to  the  streets  where  all  other  trees  either  failed  or  looked  unhealthy. 
During  the  excessive  drought  of  the  past  year,  it  held  its  own  in  our  owt» 
city  of  St.  Louis  better  than  all  other  trees;  and  when  it  finally  shed  its 
leaves,  they  formed  a  welcome  and  nourishing  morsel  to  the  hungry  cattle 
who  at  that  time  found  little  else  to  browse  upon.  The  female  tree  may 
alwaj-s  be  secured  by  root  propagation  and  is  not  only  free  from  the  nause- 
ous odor^  but  grows  more  symmetrically  than  the  male,  and  when  laden 
with  its  large  seed-bunches,  tinted  with  shades  of  yellow,  orange  and  crimson,, 
it  is  really  beautiful.  The  Ailanthus  is  said  to  impoverish  the  ground  and 
is  supposed  to  furnish  the  best  food  for  the  worms  when  grown  on  a  chalky, 
or  limestone  soil. 


[Fig.  «.] 


t'i:u.\iL:iii.:A  Mum,  mal 


N 


[Pig.  Hk] 


vnoMKnwA  MOTH,  fe.male 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


121 


THE  PEOMETIIEA  SlLK\YOnK~Attacus'[CallosamHq  Pronuihca, 

Brtirv. 


(Lt'i)i<loi)ti'ru,    Bombycida'.) 

This  is  one  of  om-  native  worms  posscsi?- 
iiio-  many  eharae  ers  which  closoly  ally  it  to 
the  Cynthia  worm.  Its  cocoon  is,  like  thrtof 
the  two  preceding  species,  elonoate  and  open 
at  one  end.  It  is  alsO  double,  but  the  outer 
coat  is  not  loose  and  rough,  but  smooth  and 
solid  like  a  piece  of  tough  manilla  i)uper;  and 
there  is  very  little  space,  and  consequently 
very  little  floss  silk  between  it  and  the  inner 
coat.  The  silk  is  finer,  weaker,  less  in  quan- 
tity, and  much  more  closely  compacted  and 
-^  agglutinated  than  in  the  others,  and,  Avhen 
I  coupled  with  the  fitct  that  it  is  suspended  by  a 
^^  rope  or  cord,  as  long  as,  and  often  long.er  than, 
^  the  cocoon  itself;  these  qualities  render  it  less 
>  valuable  than  that  of  either  the  Cecropia  or 
J^  Cynthia  worms.  Indeed,  under  present  con- 
ditions, the  cocoon  of  Promethea  is  valueless, 
as  it  cannot  be  reeled,  and  I  doubt  whether  it 
could  even  be  carded. 
The  Promethea  moth  la3'S  her  eggs  on  the  twigs  of  the  tree  which  is  to 
supply  the  worms  with  food,  in  clusters  of  five  or  six  together.  They  are 
of  the  size  and  form  of  those  of  cynthia,  of  a  pale  cream  color  var- 
iously shaded  with  a  brown  gumni}^  substance,  which  is  often  mixed  with 
the  hairs  of  the  mother's  abdomen.  They  hatch  in  the  latitude  of  8t.  Louis 
from  the  middle  to  the  last  of  June. 

Larval  CuAN-GEs.-The  young,  in  the  first  stage,  is  very  much  lilie  that  of  cyntkia,  lieing  vcl- 
low,  with  six  rows  of  tubercles  ;  but  instead  of  having  two  spots  to  each  joint  between  thes:e  tubercles, 
It  has  two  transverse  dorsal  black  stripes  on  each  joint,  the  posterior  reaching  a  little  further  do'vii 
than  the  anterior.  The  tubercles  are  blunt,  tliickened  at  tip,  and  are  white,  except  on  the  thoracx 
and  anal  joints,  where  they  are  ti|)ped  with  black  :  they  are  furnished  with  long  bristles,  which  are 
also  pale,  except  on  the  joints  just  inention.'d.  The  head  is  yellow,  withtwo  transverse  dark  bands  the 
upper  one  bi-oad  and  excavated  laterally.  In  the  second  stage  there  is  no  essential  change,  except 
that  the  black  tips  arc  oufin^d  to  the  i  uiipermost  tubercles  on  the  first,  and  those  on  the  anal 
joints;  the  black  stripes  are  also  more  conspicuous.  In  the  third  stage  (Fig.  43,  a)  the  body  is  paler- 
the  transverse  stripes  are  more  conspicuous,  the  bristles  on  the  tubercles  are  shorter,  having  m.)ri' 
the  appearancL^  of  spines,  and  the  two  ui)).ermost  tubercles  on  joint  2  are  often  tipped  with  black  In 
the  tourth stage  there  is  considerable  variation,  but  generally  the  body  is  still  paler  and  covered  with 
a  whitish  pruinescence  or  powder  which  recalls  the  powdery  appearance  of  cjnthia  at  the  same  age- 
the  transverse  stripes  are  broader  (Fig.  4;{,  c,  represents  an  enlarged  side  view  of  one  of  the  joints)  and 
show  a  tendency  to  approach  between  the  tubercles;  the  dorsal  rows  of  tubercles  are  sulphur-yellow 
except  on  joints  1  and  \1,  where  they  are  black,  an.l  the  central  yellow  tubercle  on  joint  U  becomes 
mere  prominent;  the  subdorsal  row  is  entirely  black,  an.l  the  sti^-matal  row  is  black  <.n  the  thoracis 
joints  and  yellow  on  the  rest;  three  black  ventral  tubercles  each  side  of  thoracic  joints  are  now  often 
quite  con.spicuous;  the  spines  correspond  in  color  to  the  tubercular  stalk;  the  head  (Fig.  4:J  b)  is  yel- 
low, with  the  lip.  a:il  triangular  piece  Iwhite,   and  is  prettily  miirked  with  black,  a.T follows-  two 


122 


FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


black  spots  on  fr«ns,  one  bcliin  I  auteiuue,  a  striiic  aroiiml  labrmu,  ami  ouo  at  lower  base  of  cheek: 
theanal  legs  are  also  niirkeil  above  with  a  rectangular  black  stripe.  In  the  lifth  stage,  i.  e. ,  after  the 
fourth  niDUlt,  the  ai)i)earance  is  totally  changed ;  the  Ijody  is  of  a  most  delicate  bluish- white,  with  a 
faint  prninescence;  all  the  spiny  tubercles  I)ec()mi'  siiiooth,  and  with  the  excc'i)tion  of  the  four  dorsal 
ones  on  joints  2  and  ."i  and  the  l.irge  one  on  joint  11,  they  are  mere  rounded,*  polished,  black  or  Ijhie- 
black  elevations;  the  fmir  on  joints  '2  anrl  .'.are  at  lirst  yellow,  with  a  black  basal  annulation,  but  thex 
soon  become  red;  that  on  joint  11,  which  is  of  the  same  size,  remains  yellow  with  its  black  base;  the 
rectangular  black  m;irk  on  anals  becomes  sub-triangular;  and  the  murks  on  front  of  head  generally 
disappear.  The  legs  and  anal  shield  are  yellowish,  the  abdominal  ))rolegs  having  each  a  black  spot 
outside,  while  there  is  often  a  minute  black  spot  on  eachside  of  venter,  to  correspond  with  them,  on 
joints  4  and  5.     The  stigmata  are  narrow  and  brown. 

As  this  worm  acquires  its  full  growth,  the  pruincscenee,  nientioned 
above  disappears,  and  it  acquires  a  more  greenish  cast,  except  around  the 
base  of  the  tubercles  where  there  is  a  more  decided  blue  annulation.  At  this 
[Fig.  44]  time  it  presents  the  appearance  of  Figure  43,  d.     It 

is  quite  irregular  in  developing,  but  usually  acquires 
its  full  growth  within  a  month  from  hatching.  In 
making  its  cocoon  it  instinctively  fastens  to  the 
twig,  b}'  woolding  around  it  a  strong  band  or  cord  ol 
silk,  the  leaf  which  it  intends  to  use  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  connects  the  leaf  with  this  anchor-band 
b}'  continuing  the  silken  girdle  around  the  leaf- 
stalk. In  the  wintertime  the  leaf-stalk  shrinks  and 
rots,  so  that  the  cocoon  swings  either  the  whole 
length  of  its  fastening,  or  but  part  of  its  length, 
as  at  Figure  44.  As  may  readily  be  inferred,  the 
length  of  this  fastening  depends  on  the  length  of 
the  leaf-stalk,  and  if  no  leaf-stalk  is  at  hand  the 
worm  may  form  a  cocoon  without  a  -cord.  This 
insect  is  single-brooded,  and  the  cocoons  hang 
tlirough  the  winter  and  give  forth  the  moths 
during  the  end  of  Ma}'  and  beginning  of  June.  1 
have  known  the  latter  to  issue,  however,  during  the 
same  year,  but  such  an  occurrence  must  be  considered  exceptional. 

The  sexes  ditfer  strikingly  in  appearance.  As  with  cynthia  the  wings 
of  the  male  are  more  narrow  and  more  falcate  than  those  of  the  female,  but 
though  the  same  design  is  manifest  in  both  sexes,  the  general  color  of  the  male 
(Fig.  45)  is  a  deep  rich  smoky  or  amber-brown  ;  while  that  of  the  female  (Fig. 
46)  is  of  a  lighter  rust- or  reddish-brown.  Both  have  a  pale  wav}-  line 
across  the  middle  and  a  claj-colored  border  along  the  hind  edges  of  the  wings. 
Both  also  have  an  ej-e-like  black  gpot  withapale  bluish  crescent  inside,  near 
the  tip  of  front  wings ;  but  the  female  has  a  pale  angular  spot,  shaded  out- 
side with  black,  near  the  middle  of  each  wing,  which  is  only  occasionally 
faintly  indicated  on  the  underside  in  the  male.  The  antenn.T  of  the  male 
are  about  twice  as  broad  as  those  of  the  female.f 

*  Sometimes  conical  on  the  back  of  joints  3  and  12. 

t  Occasionally  specimens  are  found  combining  the  pattern  of  the  female  with  the  dark  colors  of 
the  male,  and  the'se  should  be  considered  either  as  herma])hrodites  or  anomalies,  But  they  have 
been  described  as  a  new  species  under  the  name  of  nra(7M/J/>ra  by  Mr.  Francis  Walker  of  the  British 
Museum.  I  have  seen  the  specimens  under  this  name  in  said'Museum  and  in  the  collection  of  the 
IJntomological  Society  of  Philadelphia  and  should  not  think  of  considering  them  anything  else  than 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST,  123 

The  eoeoons  are  found  upon  the  Ash,  Sassafras,  AVild  cherry,  Tulip 
xvee  (Liriodendron,)  Sweet gnm  (Liquidambar),  Since  bush  (Lindera),  Ma-ple 
Plum,  Poplar,  Azalea,  Cephalanthus,  Snowdrop  tree  (Halesia),  Barberrj-, 
Birch,  Baj'berrj'  {Myricd)  and  Lilac.  Of  course  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
worm  feeds  upon  all  trees  and  shrubs  upon  which  its  cocoon  is  found  : 
on  the  contrary,  there  is  good  evidence  that  it  often  prefers  to  wander  onto 
some  tree,  other  than  that  on  Avhich  it  fed,  when  about  to  spin  up ;  and  Dr. 
Fitch  (Rep.  HI,  §  80)  has  shown  that  in  New  York  it  spins  up  by  preference 
on  Lilac.  But  I  have  fed  it  successfully  on  the  five  trees  first  mentioned 
while  m}'  correspondents  in  Pennsylvania  and  Mar^^Iand  have  fed  it  on  Tulip 
tree.  Sweet  gum  and  Spice  bush  ;  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  will 
feed  upon  the  others.  In  fact  Mr.  Chas.  S.  Minot  of  Boston,  Mass.^  informs 
me  that  at  a  pinch  it  will  feed  on  Arbor-vitse.  It  is  most  commonly  found 
on  Sassafras  and  Cherry  Avith  us,  while  singularl}-  enough,  Dr.  Fitch  has 
shown  that  in  his  locality,  it  prefers  the  Ash,  and  does  not  touch  Sassafras 
oven  when  adjoining  Ash.  These  facts  goto  show  how  a  species  maj-  o-et 
to  prefer  different  trees  in  diflFerent  sections  of  a  countrj-,  and  indicate  how 
incipient  races  at  first,  and  in  time  varieties  and  species  maj'  be  formed. 

NATURAL    ENEMIES. 

The  cocoons  are  often  guttCd  by  birds,  hard  pushed  for  food  in  the 
winter ;  while  the  Avorm  is  attacked  by  several  parasites.  The  cocoon  is  of- 
ten found  to  contain  numerous  other  small  silken  cocoons,  verjMiiuchas  rei> 
resented  in  Figure  40,  but  formed  of  a  somewhat  darker  material ;  and  from 
th3>3  I  have  brei  Oryptm  nunctus,  Say  which  diifers  prineipall}^  from  ex- 
trematis,  Cresson,  in  having  the  ovipositor  shorter  than  the  abdomen  as  in 
Figure  41,  b  ;  instead  of  nearly  twice  as  long  as  at  a*.  Chalcis  marice  also 
preys  upon  it,  and  Mrs.  Chas.  S.  Minot  has  bred  an  Ichneumon,  an  OpMon 
and  a  J)ttcAma-fly  from  it. 


'HE  LUN'A  SlJAvWOW^—Attacus  lActias]  Luna,\.mn. 

(Leiiidoytera,  Bombycidaj.) 

Whichever  of  the  preceding  moths  may  carry  off  the  palm  of  beauty  in 
the  eyes  of  different  persons,  no  one  will  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  accord 
to  Luna,  our  "queen  of  the  night,"  entire  supremacy  in  grace,  elegance  and 
ohasteness.  K"o  other  N.  A.  insect  can  win  this  distinction  from  "her.  All 
the  large  moths  figured  in  this  article  on  silkworms  draw  forth  expressions 
of  admiration  from  those  who  see  them  in  my  cabinet ;  but  the  delicate  green, 
relieved  by  the  eye-spots  and  by  the  broad  purple-brown  or  lilaceous  an- 
terior border;  the  soft  downy  hair  of  the  body,  and  above  all  the  graceful 
—  ^ 

n;?'.,'vVnn,i'fvf''!'>"'  ""^  f;    ^''om.fhy  ''^^^  'h  't  fhLs  ex  •eptional  form  has  been  reared  froni  cocoons  spun 
to  niegnmiul         "''  '^'  ""'•  '^ ''  ""''"  produced  from  enfeebled  ,worm^  which  have  fallen 

*For  further  details  se?  i  aje  111. 


124 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


prolongation  of  the  hind  wings  (See  Fig.  47)  of  iwna,  are  the  first  to  attract 
the  e^-e.  Tlie  green  varies  in  tint,  having  either  a  cold,  bluish,  almost 
pearly  look,  or  being  strongly  sutlused  with  yellow.  The  body  is  some- 
times pure  white  but  more  generally  yellowish  or  cream-colored,  and  though 


[Fig.  48.] 


[Fig.  49.] 


the  hind 
borders  o  f 
the  wings 
are  usually 
yellowish, 
they  are 
sometimes 

stained  with  the  same  deep  color  as 
the  anterior  or  costal  border. 

The  cocoon  of  this  insect  (Fig.  49) 
is  formed  within  a  leaf,  or  leaves 
drawn  together,  and  in  the  fall  of 
the  year  drops  to  the  ground  where 
it  remains  all  through  the  winter. 
It  is  whitish  or  brownish*,  closely  spun,  tough,  oval  and  closed  at  each 
end ;  but  it  is  so  thin  and  contains  so  little  silk,  that  it  cannot  be  unwound 
and  possesses  no  value  compared  with  some  of  the  others. 

The  eggs  are  deposited  in  small  batches  on  the  twigs  :  they  are  slightly 
lai-o-er  than  those  of  cynihia,  and  more  or  less  deeply  colored  with  a  brown 
adhesive  fluid. 

The  worm  feeds  with  us  principally  on  Walnut  and  Hickorj';  but  is 
also  found  on  Sweet  gum,  Beech,  Birch,  and  even  Willow  and  Plum. 

Larval  CiiAXCE^i. — In  the  lir.st  .stago  the -wonii  Is  of  :i  i):ik'  green  color,  witli  two  brown  tr;^l.'^- 
verse  bands  across  the  head  sometlilng  as  in  Figure  4:5,  6,  and  a  brown  longitudinal  mark  along  each 
side  of  the  body,  especially  distinct  on  the  four  anterior  joint.s  and  sometimes  meeting  on  the  back  of 
the  4th.  It  is  covered  with  setaceous  tubercles,  placed  in  in-ecisely  the  same  posilim,  and  of  the 
same  size  as  those  of  Cecropia,  Promeihea  and  the  others  at  the  same  age,  the  stifl'  hairs  beingniostly 
tinged  with  brown.  In  the  second  stage  the  brown  marks  on  the  heail  mostly  remain,  but  often  are 
less  distinct;  the  lateral  brown  stripes  vani.sh  and  the  four  dorsal  tubercles  on  joint  1,  the  two  upper- 
most tubercles  on  joints  '2  and  3  and  the  middle  one  on  joint  1 1  are  generally  orange-red .  In  the  third 
sta^e  there  is  very  little  change;  the  upper  band  on  the  head  usually  disappears  entirely,  the  tuber- 
cles become  uniform  in  color  again,  and  some  of  the  bristles  become  more  conspicuously  black 
and  more  spinous.  In  the  fourth  stage,  the  tubercles  are  reduced  in  relative  size,  especially  the  sub- 
dorsal row.  In  the  fifth  stage  these  tubercL'S  become  relatively  still  smaller,  and  some  fe\v  other 
changes  take  place.  The  full  grown  larva  (Fig.  48)  alni'ist  ujuals  the  parent  moth  in  delicacy  of 
color,  being  of  a  remarkably  Cli'ar  pale  green  inclining  to  yellowish  above  and  bluish  below.  The 
sides  slope,  roof-fashion,  from  the  spiracles  to  the  back,  which  is  comparatively  narrow,  and  where 
the  sutures  are  very  deep,  causing  each  joint  to  forin  a  sort  of  tubercle  having  a  crescent  shaped  in- 
denture, and  reminding  one  of  those  on  the  back  of  some  of  our  wood-borers  such  as  the  Uouud- 
headed  Apple-tree  Borer.  There  is  a  longitudinal  substigmatal  yellow  line  each  side,  and  a  trans- 
verse yellow  line  on  the  posterior  edge  of  the  4th  to  the  loth  joints  inclusive.  The  tubercles  are  ver- 
million-red,  the  lower  ones  darkest,  the  upper  ones  verging  on  to  orange;  and  on  joints  '2—5  there  is  an 
additional  ventral  tubercle  each  side.  The  spiracles  are  deep  reddish-brown:  the  head  is  bluish- 
green  shaded  above  with  light  brown,  and  at  sides  with  darker  brownf:  the  upper  lip  is  produced 
into  two  appendicles  more  i)r()minent  than  in  any  of  the  species  yet  described  and  serving  no  doub 
to  steady  the  leaf  whichthe  worm  is  gnawing.  The  <;ervic.il  shieM  is  horny,  with  a  tinge  of  blue.  The 
thoracic  li'gs  are  brown  with  yellow  at  base,  and  the  pro'.egs  light  brown  with  a  black  outer  line  jusi 
above  the  coronet  of  hooks.     The  caudal  plate  is  nari-ow,   bluish,   with  brown  edges  ancL  bordered 

*  Doubtless  according  to  food-pl:int.   Specira.'ns  fed  on  Hickory  have  given  me  the  darker  cocoons. 
t  Exceptional  specimens  occur  with  the  head  and  thoracic  legs  almost  black. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST. 


125 


;iV).jve  with  yellow,  aiul  there  are  platos  on  the  anal  legs  of  nearly  the  same  size,  form  and  color. 
The  whole  body  is  sparsely  covereil  with  sliort  yellowish  bristles,  aside  from  tlie  few  longer  ones 
which  emanate  from  each  tubercle. 

The  moths  issue  durina;  the  mofith  of  April  up  to  al)Out  the  middle  of 
■!Mny.  The  worm  acquires  its  full  growth  in  al)Out  a  month  from  the  time 
of  hatching,  and  goes  through  the  earlier  moults  quite  rapidly.  In  a  state 
of  continement  the  moths  from  these  first  worms  have  alwa3'S  issued  in 
Jidy  near  St.  Louis,  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  insect  is  frequentl}' 
2-br()oded  with  us  though  considered  single-brooded  further  north. 

I  have  never  known  this  insect  to  be  parasitized,  but  Mr.  Y.  T.  Cham- 
bers, of  Covington,  Ky.,  has  know  a  Tachina-fiy  to  deposit  eggs  upon  the 
worm,  Avithout,  however,  preventing  its  maturing  to  the  moth. 

There  is  a  moth  occurring  in  China  (A.  Selene,  Leach)  which  must,  I 
believe,  be  considered  identical  with  our  Luna,  or  at  the  most  should  be 
considered  only  jls  a  variety.  Dr.  Fitch  has  minutely  described  such  differ- 
ences as  are  supposed  to  separate  the  two  as  sjiecies.  * 


THE  POLYPHEMUS  SILKWORM— .4f?'(^;//x  [  ^^0  Polyphemus,    Linn. 


(Le|iicl  ptera,  Bombycida^  ) 

[^''--  ■'-  ]  This  is  the 

insect  which,  as 
1  have  already 
remarked,  has 
1 )  e  e  n  styled, 
with  much  jus- 
tice, ''  the  Amer- 
ican Silkworm  " 
by  Mr.  L.  Trou- 
velot,  of  Med- 
ford,  Mass.  That 
gentleman  made 
a  series  of  very 
interesting  ex- 
periments in  rearing  the  worm  in  large  quantities  in  the  open  air,  and  in 
1865  he  had  not  less  than  a  million  feeding  upon  bushes  covered  with  a  net. 
An  interesting  account  of  these  experiments,  but  more  esj^ecially  of  the 
natural  history  of  the  species  may  be  found  in  the  first  three  numbers  of 
that  excellent  periodical  the  J.meriet?7iiVa!'MmZ;'sf. 

The  eggs  of  Polyphemus  are  deposited  singly,  or  in  twos  or  threes,  on 
the  under  side  of  a  leaf  or  upon  a  twig;  and  as  a  further  instance  of  the 
fallibility  of  instinct,  Mr.  Trouvelot  has  known  them  to  be  deposited  in 
the  open  air  upon  jjlants  which  could  not  nourish  the  young  worms.  They 
are  of  about  the  same  size  of  those  of  Cecropia,  less  oval — the  lateral  cir- 

vir.l  X.  V.  n-]'.,  §1S0,     Xote. 


126 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


cumferenee  being  iiearlj'  cylindrical — and  more  flattened.  They  are  whit- 
ish, inclining  to  flesh  color  on  the  top  and  bottom,  and  encircled 
on  the  sides  by  a  characteristic  broad  band  of  amber-brown,  which  is  the 
natural  coloring  of  the  egg-shell  and^iistinct  from  the  brown  fluid  which  is 
secreted  with  and  fastens  them  to  whatever  object  they  are  eonsignetl. 
This  brown  band  has  a  narrow  pale  s^iot  at  the  two  smaller  ends.  The 
moths  issue  with  us  the  latter  part  of  April,  or  in  May,  and  the  female  com- 
mences depositing  very  soon  afterwards.  The  eggs  hatch  in  about  ten 
days  after  deposition. 

The  worm  feeds  on  Oak,  Walnut,  Ilickor}-,  Bass-wood  (^r<Z/rt),  Elm,  Ma- 
ple, Hazel,  Apple,  Eose,  (Quince,  Thorii,  Plum,  Choke  cherr}-,  83-camore, 
Poplar,  Birch,  Honey  locust.  Blueberry  and  Willow;  on  the  tirst  nine  of 
which  I  have  found  it  myself.  It-  has  the  general  form  of  that  of  Luna, 
though  the  sides  are  not  so  sloping  nor  the  incisions  so  deep.  When  full- 
grown  (Fig.  52)  it  is  a  most  delicate  and  beautiful  object,  being  of  a  clear 
apj^le-green  color,  with  oblique  yellow  lateral  lines,  and  tubercles  tinsel  leil 
Avith  orange,  gold  and  silver.  The  head,  spiracles,  legs  and  ends  of  j^rolegs 
are  of  a  buff-3'ellow,  the  front  edge  of  the  tirst  joint  sulphur-yetlow,  and  the 
dges  of  the  anal  shield  purple. 

Lakval  CiiAXCiES. — lu  the  first  ^^tage  the  larva  is  yeUow,  becoming  greener  in  appearance  as  it 
increases  in  size.  The  tubercles  are  situated  as  in  the  other  species  ami  are  yellow,  capped  with  a 
whorl  of  rufous  bristles.  The  two  dorsal  rows  are  large,  conspicuous,  and  except  on  joint  11  uni- 
form in  size.  In  the  subdor.sal  row  they  are  large  on  the  thoracic  and  12th  joints,  but  almost  obsolete 
on  the  rest.  In  the  stigmatal  row  they  are  small  and  of  equal  size.  Each  joint  has  two  transverse 
black  lines  between  the  subdorsal  and  the  stigmatal  rows  of  tubercles :  the  head  is  reddish-brown, 
and  there  is  a  transverse  line  of  the  same  color  on  the  lirst  joint.  In  the  second  stage  it  is  of  a  beau- 
tiful green;  the  tubercles  are  of  the  same  relative  size,  those  on  the  back  having  a  length  of  ,'4  the 
diameter  of  the  bf)dy :  they  are  thick  and  slightly  Ijell-shaped ,  green  at  base,  yellow  in  the  mi<^ldle,  ami 
orange-red  at  tip,  witli  the  bristles  or  spines  mostly  black.  Only  one  of  the  black  lines  renaains 
to  each  joint  and  that  is  very  faint,  contains  the  spiracles,  and  is  shaded  with  paler  green  behind. 
The  head  and  cervical  shield  are  of  a  deeper  red-brown  and  the  anal  i)late  is  edged  with  pearly  whiti-h- 
green.  In  the  third  stage  there  is  little  change:  the  tips  of  the  tubercles  deepen  into  coral-red; 
the  subdorsal  row  becomes  almost  as  conspicuous  as  the  stigmatal,  and  there  is  no  longer  any  blaek 
lines  between  them,  though  the  spiracles  are  now  ipiite  black  and  well  relieved  by  pale  green  behind. 
In  the  fourth  stage  the  tubercles  are  relatively  smaller,  the  head  is  of  a  still  deeper  purple-brown, 
with  the  front  edge  of  lirst  joint,  and  the  lateral  oblique  line,  which  is  now  more  distinct,  of  a  deli- 
cate sulphur-yellow;  the  spiracles  are  deep  brown,  and  the  edge  of  the  anil  plate  is  silvery-white 
below,  graduating  into  lilaceous  and  then  into  deep  jjurple  above.  As  it  approaches  thefourth  moult, 
the  tubercles  acquire  a  metalic,  or  silvery  cast,  and  the  other  colors  deepen.  In  the  fifth  stage  the 
seven  oblique  lines,  connecting  the  subdorsal  with  the  stigmatal  tidjercles  on  joints  .3—11  are  bright  sul- 
phur-yellow, the  tubercles  appear  tinselled  and  reflect  golden,  silver  and  purple  hues:  the  dorsal 
rows  give  forth  but  two  or  three  straw-colored  bristles,  and  the  subdorsal  rows  but  one  of  the  same 
color,  all  pointing  upward  and  forward;  while  the  stigmatal  row  produces  one  light  and  one  dark 
one  which  point  exactly  in  the  opposite  direction.  Numerous  other  stiff  hairs  spring  directly  from 
the  skin,  especially  below;  the  sul) ventral  thoracic  tubercles  are  conspicuous;  and  there  is  a  faint  lon- 
gitudal  ventral  band.  The  front  edge  of  the  first  ioint  is  bright  sulphur-yellow,  with  a  soft  retractile 
band  of  slate  color  between  it  and  the  head. 

The  cocoon  (Pig.  53)  is  formed  of 
strong  silk  which  when  unwound  has 
a  glossy  fibre.  It  is  oval  and  closed 
at  both  ends,  dense  and  generalh'  fas- 
tened to  a  leaf  or  leaves,  with  which  it 
falls  to  the  ground,  though  sometimes 
it  is  fastened  to  twigs  and  therefore  re- 
mains exposed  during  the  winter,  to 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  127 

its  enemies.  This  cocoon  is  said  by  Fitch  to  so  closely  resemble  that  of  Luna, 
that  the  two  cannot  be  distinguished  from  each  other,  and  Harris  speaks  of 
their  great  similarity  :  but  with  us  they  are  vei-y  easily  distinguished.  That 
of  Polyphemus  is  not  only  more  dense,  but  its  fibres  are  intermixed  and 
cemented  with  a  gummy  substance  which  when  dry  gives  the  cocoon  a 
hard  chalkv  appearance.  This  hardness  renders  the  exit  of  the  moth  un- 
usually tedious  and  difficult,  and  the  process  has  been  so  well  described  by 
Mr.  Trouvelot,  that  though  I  have  watched  it  mj-self,  1  repeat  his  words: 

"  But  the  moth  must  have  some  means  of  exit  from  the  cocoon.  In 
factit  is  provided  with  two  glands  opening  into  the  mouth,  which  secrete 
durino-  the  last  few  days  of  the  pupa  state,  a  fluid  which  is  a  dissolvent  for 
the  <''um  so  firmly  uniting  the  fibres  of  the  cocoon,  This  liquid  is 
composed  in  great  part  of  bombycic  acid.  When  the  insect  has  accomplished 
the  work  of  transformation  which  is  going  on  under  the  pu])a  skin,  it  man- 
[Fig.  o4.]  ifests  a  great  activity,  and  soon   the  chrysalis 

covering  (Fig.  54)  bursts  open  longitudinally 
upon  the  thorax ;  the  head  and  legs  are  soon 
disengaged,  and  the  acid  fluid  flows  from  the 
;iouth  wetting  the  inside  of  the  cocoon.  The 
process  of  exclusion  from  the  cocoon  lasts  for 
as  much  as  half  an  hour.  The  insect  seems  to 
be  instinctively  aware  that  some  time  is  required  to  dissolve  the  gum,  as  it 
does  not  at  first  make  any  attempt  to  open  the  fibres,  but  seems  to 
wait  with  patience  this  event.  When  the  liquid  has  fully  penetrated  the 
cocoon,  the  pupa  contracts  its  body;  and  pressing  the  hinder  end,  which  is 
furnished  with  little  hooks,  against  the  inside  of  the  cocoon,  forcibly  ex- 
tends its  body ;  at  the  same  time  the  head  pushes  hard  upon  the  fibres 
and  a  little  swelling  is  observed  on  the  outside.  These  contractions  and 
extensions  of  the  bod}'  are  repeated  many  times,  and  more  fluid  is  added  to 
soften  the  gum,  until  under  the  efforts  the  cocoon  swells,  and  finally  the 
fibres  separate,  and  out  comes  the  head  of  the  moth.  In  an  instant  the  legs 
are  thrust  out,  and  then  the  whole  body  appears;  not  a  fibre  has  been  broken, 
they  have  only  been  separated.* 

"  To  observe  these  phenomena,  I  had  cut  open  with  a  razor,  a  small  por- 
tion of  a  cocoon  in  which  was  a  living  chrysalis  nearly  ready  to  transform. 
The  opening  made  was  covered  with  a  piece  of  mica,  of  the  same  shaj^e  as 
the  aperture,  and  fixed  to  the  cocoon  with  mastic  so  as  to  make  it  solid  and 
airtight ;  through  the  fransiiarent  mica  I  could  see  the  movements  of  the 
chrysalis  perfectly  well." 

Mr.  Trouvelot  also  gives  some  xqvj  interesting  facts  to  show  the  won- 
derful vitalitj^  of  the  chrysalis.  He  once  thrust  a  pin  through  a  cocoon 
which  he  wished  to  preserve,  and,  as  might  be  supposed,  the  pin  also  pierced 
through  the  body  of  the  chysalis  inside.  This  was  done  in  October,  and 
nine  months  afterwards,  in  June  of  the  following  j'eai*,  he  was  surprised  to 
find  a  great  commotion  in  the  cabinet  where  the  specimen  was  pinned,  and 

*  As  I  have  already  intimated  (j).  74)  this  statement  is  not  sullieieutly  giiarded. 


128  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

the  moth  with  head  and  legs  projecting,  endeavoring  in  vain  to  escape  from 
its  prison.  To  prove  also  that  no  air  is  needed  from  outside  for  the  proper 
development  of  the  moth,  he  carefully  covered  cocoons  so  as  to  make  them 
air-tight  and  kept  them  so  covered  all  winter  without  in  the  least  affecting 
the  exit  of  the  moth. 

The  moth  (Fig.  50  ^  ;  Fig.  51  ?)  is  of  a  dull  ochre-yellow,  shaded  more 
or  less  distinctly  with  innumerable  black  particles  and  with  a  broad  gray 
band  along  the  front,  or  costal  edge,  and  passing  over  the  thorax.  There 
is  a  darker,  reddish-brown  shade  across  the  middle  of  the  wings,  and  near 
this  shade  on  each  wing  is  a  transparent  eye-like  spot,  divided  by  a  slender 
opaque  line,  and  margined  by  a  yellow  and  a  black  ring,  the  last  much 
broader  on  the  hind  than  on  the  front  wings,  being  there  Avidened  on  the 
inside  into  a  large  black  spot  with  the  part  adjoining  the  eye-spot  bluish- 
white.  Near  the  hind  margin  of  each  wing  is  a  dusky  band,  (bluish  on  the 
front  ones)  edged  with  pink-white  behind;  and  near  the  base  of  the  front 
wings  is  a  zig-zag  crimson  line,  edged  inside  with  white.  There  is  great  var- 
iation in  the  colors  of  this  insect,  dependent  in  some  measure  no  doubt  on  the 
food  of  the  larva;  and  it  is  a  wonder  that  some  of  them  have  not  been  de- 
scribed as  distinct  species  by  those  who  consider  Callosamui  angulifera  or 
Samia  Columbia  good  species.  Specimens  occur  which  have  the  general  tint 
either  very  dark  or  very  pale;  either  brown,  smokj. -yellow,  cream-color, 
rust-red  or  greenish ;  while  the  large  black  spot  on  the  hind  wings  is  some- 
times replaced  by  rust-red. 

The  male  is  easily  distinguished  from  the  female  by  his  smaller  abdo- 
men, and  very  broad  antennse  which  are,  in  fact,  broader  than  represented 
in  my  figure,  as  I  have  known  them  to  spread  nearly  half  an  inch.  They 
have  actually  been  mistaken  for  a  third  pair  of  wings  by  inexperienced  per- 
sons, and  my  friend,  M.  Provancher,  gives  the  following  amusing  account  of 
such  a  mistake  in  the  Natumliste  Canadien,  which  he  edits :  * 

We  must  look  in  order  to  see ;  and  in  Natural  History  perhaps,  more 
than  in  any  other  department  of  knowledge,  we  must  know  how  to  look,  in 
order  not  to  bo  deceived  in  our  observations.  One  day  one  of  our  worthy 
neighbors  came  to  call  upon  us  with  a  very  self  satisfied  air.  '  Oh,  bir, 
sayl  he,  "  I  can  show  you— you  who  are  so  fond  of  rare  things—an  insect 
such  as  you  have  certainly  never  seen."  "Take  care:  my  collection  is 
pretty  large."  "  I  have  seen  your  collection  and  you  have  nothing  like  it. 
It  is  a  butterfly  with  six  wings  !"  "  A  butterfly  with  six  wings  .'"  "Yes, 
sir  with  six  wings.  Besides  the  four  wings  in  the  ordinary  places,  it  has 
two  little  ones  in  addition  on  its  head.  It  has  a  body  as  stout  s^s  that  of  a 
middling  sized  mouse,  and  two  large  e3-es  in  its  hind  wings.  All  those  to 
whom  I  have  shown  it  say  they  have  never  seen  anything  like  it.  .but 
what  is  most  extraordinaiy  about  it  is  these  little  wings  on  its  head.  \V  hat 
can  be  the  use  of  them?"  "  Recoonizing  without  trouble  bv  means  of  this 
description  the  insect  that  was  referred  to,  we  replied:  "^ou  know  that 
butterflies  are  travelers,  or  rather  navigators,  in  the  air.  Ordinarily  they 
have  only  four  wings,  which,  if  you  please,  we  may  liken  to  the  mainsails 
and  topsails  of  our  common  sloops  or  cutters.  Probably  your  butterfly, 
having  a  longer  voyage  than  usual  to  make,  has  found  it  advantageous  to 

♦  v.)].  1,  p.  -.'J. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  129 

add  a  foresail;  and  I  should  not  be  at  all  surprised  if  some  other  one  took 
It  into  his  head,  to  hoist  a  jib  ahead  of  his  other  sails,  so  as  to  be  still  more 
complete.  But  in  the  meantime  let  us  go  and  see  how  yours  is  rigfred  out  " 
Our  triend,  who  had  received  our  raillery  with  a  self-satisfied  air,  because  he 
believed  that  he  should  soon  have  his  revenge,  by  the  stupefaction  into 
which  we  should  be  thrown  by  the  sight  of  his  wonderful  phenomenon,  was 
quite  put  out  of  countenance  when,  at  the  first  glance  that  we  threw  ui)on 
his  insect,  we  recognized  the  male  of  our  Polyphemus  Moth,  and  invited 
him  to  come  and  see  five  or  six  others  just  like  it  in  our  collection.  He  had 
mistaken  for  wings  the  feathered  antennji)  of  that  magnificent  moth  which 
are  especially  well  developed  in  the  male  sex,  and  which  he  had  not  taken 
the  trouble  to  remark  in  the  specimens  in  our  cabinet.  But  ftir  from  wish- 
ing to  turn  aside  our  young  naturalist  from  his  observations,  in  consequence 
of  this  unfortunate  result  of  his  first  attempt,  we  made  him  fiiithfully  prom- 
ise to  examine  well  all  these  little  beings  which  are  every  day  presenting 
theinselves  before  our  eyes;  assuring  him  that,  although  he  "would  never 
find  insects  with  wings  on  their  heads,  he  would  nevertheless  find  other 
wonderful  things  that  would  interest  him  still  more. 

We  repeat  the  same  advice  to  all  our  readers.  Look!  observe  '  exam- 
ine !  and  you  will  see  wonders  without  number  unfold  themselves  before 
your  eyes. 

It  is  a  rule,  without  exception,  that  no  insect  has  more  than  four  true 
wings.  The  wings  may  be  split  up  as  in  the  Plumes,  of  which  the  Grape- 
vine Plume (Eep.  3,  Fig.  27)  is  an  example;  or  they  may  be  furnished  with 
a  membranous  lobe  as  in  the  European  gernxB  LobojjMmi^  but  they  never 
are  increased  in  number  beyond  four.  ' 

The  principal  difficulty  in  the  way  of  reeling  the  cocoon  of  Pol;yT)he- 
mus  is  the  hard  matter  which  binds  it;  but  it  is  not  an  insurmountable  one, 
and  the  cocoon  could  no  doubt  be  improved  by  a  proper  process  of  contin- 
ued selection.     The  silk,  as  already  stated,  is  strong  and  lustrous. 

.As  with  some  of  the  other  species  already  mentioned,  two  broods  ol 
this  insect  are  frequently  produced  each  year  in  this  latitude,  though  it  nor- 
mally appears  to  be  single-brooded  in  the  more  northern  States.  In  the 
South  it  is  always  -double-brooded,  the  first  moths  issuing  about  the  middle 
of  February  in  Louisiana.  If  it  is  ever  grown  for  silk  the  South  will  be  the 
most  favorable  part  of  the  country,  for  it  often  abounds  in  New  Orleans  in 
such  numbers,  on  Sycamore,  Elm,  and  live  Oak— especially  the  latter— as  to 
be  easily  gathered  hy  bushels. 

The  parasites  of  Polyphemus  are,  the  ]\[ary  Chalcis-fly  (Fig.  39),  the 
Long-tailed  Ophion  (Fig.  37)  and  a  Tachina-fiy  which  I  shall  not*  now  de- 
scribe for  reasons  given  in  my  3rd  Eeport  (p.  150)..  It  difi^ers  from  that 
which  I  have  bred  from  C.ecropia,  principally  in  its  gray  color  being  less 
bluish,  and  in  having  smooth  eyes;  and  may  be  provisionally  designated  as 
Tachina  a7iorii/ina* 


from'^m^r:^';^J^X^\:l^Jl^!:^^;:,^^^  I  ha^  br..d  precisely  the  snme  species 


9 


FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


130 


THE  YAMA-MAI  SILKWOEM— .4f^/c(<s  lAnthema']  yama-mal,  Guer.-Men. 

(L('lii(l(»l)tir:i,  Boiiihycida'.) 


This  worm  is  a  native  of 
the  northern  parts  of  Japan,  liv- 
ing, as  its  name  (meaning 
"  worm  of  the  mountains  ")  im- 
plies, in  the  mountainous  dis- 
tricts. It  feeds  on  a  species  of 
Oak  known  botanically  as  Quer- 
cus  serrata,  and  called  Kunogi 
by  the  natives.  Its  silk  is  jDro- 
duced  in  large  quantities  in  its 
native  country  and  already 
forms  an  article  of  export.  It 
was  first  introduced  into  Europe 
ill  1861  and  soon  afterwards 
named  and  described  by  Cluer- 
i  11 -Men evil le.*  It  has  been 
found  more  ditHcult  to  acclima- 
tize than  the  Ailanthus  worm, 
and  but  indifferent  success  has 
attended  its  culture.  Yet  there 
are  striking  exceptions  and  in 
Austria  it  has  been  successfully 
reared  in  considerable  quantities  for  sevei-al  jx^ars.  It  is  withal  so  valuable 
an  insect  that  further  trial  is  fully  justified.  In  America  it  has  been  experi- 
mented with  only  since  1868,  and  I  have  for  two  years  attempted  to  raise  it  in 
small  quantities  in  Missouri,  In  1869,  the  weather  was  quite  unfavorable,  and 
from  two  dozen  eggs  I  failed  to  obtain  an}^  moths  though  most  of  the  worms 
passed  through  the  third  moult.  The  eggs  hatched  jn-ematurely  and  I  had 
to  feed  the  young  worms  on  crushed  buds.  The  disease  they  died  of  was 
similar  to  one  which  attacks  them  in  their  native  country^  and  which  has 
also  been  noticed  in  Europe.  I  am  very  much  inclined  io  attribute  it  to  ex- 
cessive heat.  The  worms  become  speckled  and  blotched,  the  beautiful  clear 
green  changes  to  dull  j-ellow,  diarrhoea  ensues,  the  body  hangs  by  the  pro- 
legs,  a  flaccid  shapeless  mass  of  putrid  fluid  which  soon  bursts  through  its 
tender  and  rotten  covering,  and  finally  leaves  nothing  but  a  dry  shrunken 
skin.  In  1870  I  had  a  little  better  luck  with  a  second  two  dozen,  though 
nearly  one-half  hatched  before  food  could  be  obtained  for  them,  and  conse- 
quently died,  and  only  one  went  through  all  its  transformations  and  pro- 

*  For  details  of  the  history  of  this  worm,  and  its  culture  in  Europe,  the  reader  may  refer  more 
especially  to  the  fDllowing  works :  Different  papers  by  Gueriii-Meneville  in  the  Revue  et  Mayazin  de  Zoo- 
logie,  iixuX  Revue  lie  Sericicidturc  (or  tiwy<'t\rslS(il-Z.'  Le  ver  a  Sole  du  Clicne  (liombyx  i'ama-mai)  son 
histoire,  sa  description,  ses  mceurs,  by  M,  Camille  Personuat.  Rapport  sur  une  education  en  Anion  flu 
ver  du  Chene  (ISfi;))  by  F.  Blain.  Also  two  essays  by  Alexander  Wallace,  M.  I). ,  one  published  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  London  Entomological  Society  (Vol.  V,  Part  V,  18()7)  and  one  in  separate  form  in 
18G9. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


131 


•duccd  a  beautiful  male  moth.  This  specimen  was  hatched  on  the  13th  of 
April,  commenced  spinning  June  3rd  and  produced  the  moth  September  8th 
— thus  requiring  the  unusually  long  period  of  nearly  five  months  for  its 
changes. 

Mr.  W.  Y.  Andrews,  of  New  York,  who  has  taken  great  interest  in  the 
introduction  of  foreign  silkworms,  gives  me  tl>e  encouraging  information 
that  last  summer,  nearly  800  cocoons  were  obtained  from  about  1600  eggs, 
in  the  vicinity  of  ]S'ew  York.  The  moths  issued  at  such  irregular  intervals, 
however,  and  were  so  scattered  among  different  ex]>erimenters,  that  no  fer- 
tile eggs  were  jjroduced. 

Yama-mai  undoubt- 
edly belongs  to  the  same 
natural  genus  as  Poly- 
phemus, which  it  closely 
resembles  in  habit  and 
aj)pearance.  Its  culture 
may  be  carried  on  in 
the  same  manner  as 
that  of  cynthia,  and  it- 
will  suiKce  here  to  point 
out  such. of  its  peculiari- 
ties as  will  guide  in  its 
maiuigement. 

The  egg  is  rather 
larger  (Fig.  56  shows  it 
of  natural  size  and  mag- 
nified) than  that  of  Pol- 
ypJiennis,  less  flattened 
and  of  a  pale  straw- 
color  with  a  pinkish 
tint.  It  appears  brown 
from  being  more  or  less 
thickly  coated  with  a 
brown  tenacious  gum, 
/--,  which  may  l»e  washed 
off  by  any  alkaline 
fluid.  The  eggs  should 
be  kej^t  over  Avinter  in 
a  temperature  never 
higher  than  40°  F.  When 
hatching  they  should  be 
moistened  or  kept  in  a  moist  atmosphere.  As  in  the  case  of  our  American 
Tent-caterpillar,  the  young  larva  is  fully  developed  Avithin  a  month  after 
the  deposition  of  the  egg,  and  passes  the  winter  in  a  curled-up,  quiescent 
state  within  the  egg-shell. 

The  worm  thrives  best  in  an  atmosj^here  that  is  cool,  moist  and  shady, 


132  FOURTH  ANNUA'L  REPORT  OP 

and  the  heat,  if4t  can  be  controlled,  should  not  exceed  80°  F.  It  is  a  lazy- 
slothful  creature,  and  often  rests  for  hours  in  the  position  given  in  Figure 
56.  As  we  learn  from  Mr.  F.  O.  Adams,  who  has  lately  made  an  interest- 
ing report  on  the  culture  of  this  species,  *  the  color  of  the  more  mature 
worms  so  thoroughly  corresponds  with  that  of  the  leaf  on  which  they  natu- 
rally feed  that  they  can  with  difficulty  be  detected  while  clinging,  motion- 
less, to  the  branches  and  leaf-stems.  They  are  of  a  beautiful  clear  green 
with  generally  two  silvery  spots  each  side  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  joints,  and 
a  pale  yellow  line  running  along  the  sides.  This  line,  with  the  position 
which  the  worm  sometimes  assumes,  strengthens  the  resemblance  to  the 
leaf,  and  I  reproduce  a  rough  outline  (Fig.  57)  from  Mr.  Adams'  Eeport 
which  will  well  convey  this  resemblance  to  the  reader's  mind — the  worm 
being  outlined  at  a. 

The  life  of  the  worm  lasts  from  50  to  80  daj's,  and  it  feeds  on  all  kinds 
of  Oak,  but  prefers  those  of  the  white  oak  group.  Dr.  Alexander  Wal- 
lace, of  Colchester,  England,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  specimens  of  the 
moth,  and  who  has  extensively  experimented  with  it,  found  that  the  worm 
would  feed  also  on  Beech,  Apple,  Quince,  White  thorn,  Neapolitan  medlar 
(Photinia  glabra)  and  Chesnut. 

Larval  Changes.— The  larva  in  the  first  stage  is  yeUow  with  tubercles  corresponding  exactly  in 
number  and  position  with  those  oi  Polyphemus,  and  the  others  described  at  the  same  age.  It  has  a 
narrow,  but  distinct,  dorsal,  subdorsal  and  stigmatal  black  line.  The  four  upper  rows  of  tubercles, 
(except  the  two  dorsal  ones  on  joint  3,  and  the  central  one  on  jt.  11,  which  are  large  anddark)  are  yel- 
low and  give  rise  to  stout  black  outwardly-curving  bristles;  the  stigmatal  row  is  black  with  a  white 
basal  annulation,  and  gives  rise  to  white  bristles.  The  bristles  are  longest  on  thoracic  joints, 
and  are  all  white  on  the  first.  Head  shiny  gum-copal  yellow;  cervical  shield  paler,  more  orange  and 
without  polish;  a  black  spot  on  anal  shield  and  on  each  anal  proleg.  Thoracic  legs  black  with  yel- 
low extremities;  prolegs  with  brown  extremities.  Appi-oaching  the  first  moult,  the  yellow  color 
becomes  more  greenish.  In  the  second  stage  the  color  of  body  is  greener,  the  head  is  chesnut-bvown, 
the  longitudinal  lines  are  almost  obliterated,  the  medio-dorsal  one  being  of  a  faint  and  delicate  blue: 
there  is  a  broad  lateral  band  of  the  same  faint  blue,  witli  a  light  j'ellowish  line  below  it.  The  tuber- 
cles are  longer,  especially  on  joints  2,  3  and  4,  the  dorsal  rows  of  a  delicate  yellow,  the  lower  one  of  a 
delicate  blue  with  yellowish  base.  The  bristles  from  all  are  black  with  a  few  scattering  pale  ones  , 
The  anal  shield  is  edged  with  blue.  In  the  third  stage  there  is  not  much  change;  the  tubercles  are 
relatively  still  more  pi'ominent,  the  lateral  ones  tipped  only  with  blue,  the  green  of  the  body  is  more 
intense,  and  is  speckled  with  straw-color;  and  the  lateral  J' ellow  line  is  suppressed  on  the  thoracic 
joints.  In  the  fourth  stage  the  change  is  slight,  but  from  one  to  three  silvery  spots  appear  on  the 
lateral  yellow  line,  usually  on  joints  5,  6  and  7.  In  the  fifth  or  last  stage,  and  when  full  grown,  it 
presents  a  most  beautiful  and  delicate  appearance,  but  varies  considerably,  and  the  following  de- 
scription is  taken  from  those  I  fed,  and  more  especially  from  that  which  produced  the  male  moth.  It 
is  of  the  same  form  as  Luna  and  Polyphemus,  the  joints  being  deeplj'  insected,  narrowing  from  stig- 
mata upwards,  and  flattened  on  dorsum  by  a  crescent-shaped  depression.  Head  opaque  green  witli 
slight  bluish  tint,  the  five  ocelli  distinct  and  brown ;  a  few  pale  hairs  especially  around,  and  decurved 
over,  the  trophi;  antennas  with  bulbus  yellow,  the  other  two  joints  brown,  the  last  terminating  in  a 
long  seta;  epistoma  with  sutures  and  margins  pale  lilaceous;  labrum  very  large,  with  pale  margins. 
Cervical  shield  paler  than  body,  only  slightly  polished,  ridged  behind,  and  edged  in  front  with  yel- 
low. Body  clear  yellowish-green;  tergum  of  joints  (.j— 10  especially)  paler,  and  almost  nacreous  at 
insections;  studded  with  minute  (0.02  inch  long)  short,  clavate,  sulphur-yellow  projections  or  scales; 
the  tubercles  are  blue  and  emit  black  hairs,  and  there  are  besides  about  half-a-dozen  long  j'ellow 
dorsal,  anteriorly-curving  seta;  on  joints  i — 11;  joint  1  is  small  and  retractile,  2  and  3  large  and  ren- 
dered square  by  the  prominence  of  the  dorsal  tubercles;  5 — ^9  subequal ;  9 — last  diminishing;  a  lateral 
pale  yellow  line,  faintly  edged  above  with  lilaceous,  extends  from  middle  of  joint  4  to  tip  of  anal 
legs;  a' silvery  spot  in  this  band  on  joint  5,  and  sometimes  on  joints  4  and  6.  Stigmata  immediately 
below  the  yellow  line,  slightly  oblique,  sub-elliptical,  fulvous,  with  (except  on  joint  1)  a  brown 
fringe;  a  broad  triangular  brown  patch  on  anal  prolegs,  and  a  broad  margin  on  the  caudal  iilate, 
extending  and  diminishing  to  anterior  part  of  joint  11,  also  purple-bro'wn. 

*3rd  Rep.  on  Silk-culture  in  Japan,  p.  8. 


THE    STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST, 


133 


The  cocoon  (Fig.  58)  is  large, 
heavy  and  handsome,  and  requires  a 
full  week  for  its  completion.  It  is 
formed  within  a  single  leaf  or 
within  several  drawn  together  and 
attached  to  a  twig.  It  is  oval  and 
usually  of  a  bright  golden-yellow 
color  on  the  outside  though  nearly 
white  inside.  Those  raised  out-of- 
doors  are  more  green,  while  those 
raised  in-doors  are  more  yellow, 
and  white  specimens  have  alread}' 
been  produced.  The  silk  is  strong 
and  valuable;  it  bleaches  well 
and  may  then  be  dj-ed;  fewer 
I  threads  are  required  to  make  a 
strand  than  in  that  of  mori,  and  it 
unwinds  with  perfect  facilit}",  by 
the  ordinar}-  process.  It  shows  its 
affinity  to  that  of  our  Polyphemus 
by  the  gum  which  surrounds  it  containing  a  chalky  or  calcareous  substance 
which  may  be  noticed  upon  tearing  or  rubbing  the  cocoon. 

The  Moth  (Fig.  55,  male)  is  magnificent  in  point  of  size  and  color. 
The  front  wings  are  broadly  falcate  and  more  so  in  the  male  than  in  the 
female.  The  collar  and  broad  costal  margin  are  always  of  an  ash-gray- 
The  eye-spots  are  surrounded  Avith  more  or  less  pink  and  yellow,  white  and 
black,  the  black  always  being  on  the  outside.  The  broad  lines  across  th.e 
wings  are  either  v^'avy  and  slate-colored,  with  an  inner  wavy  coincident 
shade,  or  more  straight  with  a  whitish  outer  shade,  relieved  hy  a  darker 
more  reddish  posterior  shade.  The  posterior  margins  are  either  paler  than 
the  general  surface,  or  ornamented  with  a  dark  M^avy  line.  The  median 
shade  across  front  wings  is  either  very  distinct  and  scolloped,  or  obsolete  ; 
and  there  is  either  one  or  two  such  shades  on  the  hind  wings.  The  species 
varies,  in  fact,  very  much  in  the  detail  of  ornamentation,  and  in  general 
color,  being  either  yellow,  brown,  graj'ish  or  olivaceous,  and  some  speci- 
mens much  resembling  certain  forms  of  our  Polyphemus. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  had  most  experience 
with  this  species  in  Europe,  coition  invariably  takes  place  at  night,  and 
lasts  but  a  comparatively  brief  time.  As  the  moths  issue  very  irregularl}- 
and  the  males  are  apt  to  appear  many  days  before  the  females,  and  as  it  has 
been  further  ascertained  that  unless  they  emerge  within  a  day  or  so  of  each 
other,  the  sexes  show  little  affinity ;  it  is  best  to  retard  the  male  cocoons. 
This  can  be  done  by  first  separating  them,  by  weighing  as  described  on 
page  97,  and  keeping  the  male  cocoons  in  a  cooler  place  than  those  of  the 
female 

From  the  foregoing  it  is  evident  that  while  yama-mai  is  the  most  valu- 
able silk  producer  next  to  mori,  it  is  nevertheless  very  difficult  to  rear.     It 


134  FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 

cannot  well  endure  a  heat  beyond  80°  F.,  and  will  doubtless  thrive  best  in^ 
the  more  northern  States,  for  it  will  bear  a  moderate  amount  of  cold,  even 
below  freezing  point,  for  brief  periods,  with  imjiunity.  It  is  invariably 
single-brooded,  and  runs  a  longer  course  of  life  than  any  of  the  other 
species  treated  of.  The  hatching  of  the  eggs  must  be  retarded  till  the  first 
oak  leaves  (the  buds  of  the  Post  oak  are  among  the  earliest  to  swell,  but 
some  species  of  the  black  oak  group,  especially  the  Laurel-leaved  oak,  leaf 
out  first)  put  forth,  and  moisture,  which  is  prejudicial  to  the  Mulbeny  silk- 
worm, is  grateful  to  this  one  at  all  times.  I  have  already  said  that  the 
embr3"o  larva  is  fully  formed  soon  after  the  egg  is  deposited.  Xow  all  our 
eggs,  so  far,  have  been  obtained  indirectly  from  Japan  via  Europe,  and  in 
the  traiisit  they  must  necessarily  be  subjected  to  too  much  dampness  and 
confinement,  too  great  changes  from  heat  to  cold,  and  the  reverse;  and  the 
vitality  of  the  young  worm  thus  impaired.  Mr.  Andrews  *  believes  that 
to  this  fact  must  be  attributed  miich  of  our  failure  in  this  country,  and  I 
fully  concur  with  him.  In  this  country  which,  comjDared  with  Europe,  is  so 
rich  in  oaks,  and  in  the  large  silk-producing  insects  so  closel}^  allied  to 
yama-iitai,  and  which  is  so  varied  in  climate,  we  certainly  ought  to  meet 
with  better  success  than  our  European  friends;  and  imtil  we  procure  eggs 
more  directly,  or  obtain  them  from  insects  reared  in  this  countr}",  so  as 
to  preserve  them  in  uniform  and  flivorable  conditions,  it  cannot  be  said 
that  we  have  taken  the  projior  steps  towards  acclimatizing  it.  Let  us  hojje 
that  friend  Cllover  Avill  induce  Minister  Capron  to  send  direct  from  Jaj^an 
a  good  supply  of  eggs,  next  winter,  to  experiment  with  ! 

Before  concluding  my  notice  of  this  insect  I  will  transfer  from  the  third 
Eeport  of  Mr.  F.  0.  Adams,  already  alluded  to,  the  following  excellent 
account  of  rearing  it  in  Japan,  which  will  be  found  valuable  and  interest- 
ing in  this  connection  : 

The  eggs  of  the  Yaiha-mai  are  deposited  by  the  female  on  the  bars  of 
cages  ijjade  of  plaited  bamboo  strips,  of  the  bell-like  form  delineated  in  the 
sketch  (Fig.  59).  This  is.  probably  towards  the  end  of  July,  and  the  cages 
are  hung  up  one  under  the  other,  in  rows  of  ten,  under  the  eaves  of  the 
roof  where  ventilation  can  be  secured  without  exposure  to  sun,  i-ain,  or 
smoke. 

In  the  10th  month  (November-December)  it  is  generally  the  custom  to 
take  the  eggs  off  the  cages  with  the  fingers,  and  place  them  in  hemj^en  trays 
of  oblong  form,  with  wooden  rims  about  three  inches  high.  Care  must  be 
observed  that  the  eggs  are  not  crowded  one  upon  another.  The  trays  are 
l)laced  upon  the  verandah.  A  cold  atmosphere  is  essential  at  this  stage. 
Sometimes  the  eggs  are  not  detached  from  the  cages,  and  the  latter  are 
placed  in  a  shed  outside  the  housesj  where  good  ventilation  can  be  secured. 
The  walls  of  the  shed  are  formed  of  a  coarse  matting  composed  of  reeds,  and 
the  roofs  should  be  constructed  of  such  material  that  no  rain  can  penetrate 
inside  and  injure  the  eggs.  About  the  end  of  the  2nd  Japanese  month 
(say  the  beginning  of  April)  the  eggs  are  collected  in  small  hempen  bags, 
which  are  placed  in  boxes  pierced  with  holes,  in  order  to  admit  of  proper 
ventilation.  These  boxes  are  either  suspended  out-ofdoors  amongst  the 
trees  where  no  sun  can  reach  them,  or  kept  in  a  cold  cellar,  where  they  are 
put  into  deep  holes  dug  in  the  ground.  This  operation  is  only  necessary 
when  the  hatching  has  to  be  retarded,  because  the  buds  of  the  Kunogi  have 

*  Scientific  American,  March  isth,  1871. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


i; 


not  come  out.  The  eggs,  in  short,  have  to  wait  for  the  buds,  Avhich  are  ex- 
pected about  the  8Sth  day  after  the  Japanese  new  year,  (say  at  the  end  of 
April  or  in  the  first  ten  days  of  May),  though  the}-  may  be  mucli  later.  As 
soon,  however,  as  the  buds  have  come  out,  all  the  eggs,  Avhelher  iVom  out- 
side or  from  the  cellar,  are  brought  into  the  house,  and  fixed  with  paste 
made  of  barle}',  or  still  better,  of  buck-wheat,  on  the  middle  of  slips  of 
paper  five  inches  long  and  a  quarter  of  an  inch  broad.  About  ten  ego-sare 
placed  upon  each  pa])er,  and  all  the  slips  are  then  taken  to  the  ])lantation 
and  tied  to  the  branches  of  the  Kunogi  in  a  single  knot,  which  the  nature 
of  Japanese  paper  readily  admits  of,  the  two  ends  standing  out  at  ri<>-ht 
angles  to  the  branch.  The  paper  thus  surrounds  a  snuili  section  of  the  tree 
the  eggs  lying  on  the  external  surflice.  The  slips  are  placed  in  such  man- 
ner that  the  eggs  maj-  have  a  northern  aspect,  and  not  be  exposed  to  the 
rays  of  the  sun.  One  slip  is  sufficient  for  a  small  plant,  two  or  three  may 
be  attached  to  a  large  one.  In  four  or  five  days  the  hatching  will  com- 
mence, and  it  continues  for  five  or  six  days  more;  the  3-oung  caterpillars,, 
on  leaving  the  shells,  inimediatel}'  crawl  from  the  papers'^  ui)on  Kunoi;i,  and 
seek  the  leaves.  We  saw  a  number  of  these  papers  still  remaining  on  the  trees 
as  they  had  been  tied  before  the  hatching,  Avith  the  empty  shells  sticking  to 
the  surfaces,  and  we  untied  some  and  brought  them  away  with  us  as 
specimens. 

(H'J-    .V.I.J 

The  length  of  time  between 
hatching  and  spinning,  during 
the  whole  of  which  the"  larva  re- 
main in  the  open  air,  passing 
through  four  periods  of  rest,  is 
reckoned  at  about  60  daj'S,  more 
or  less,  according  to  the  temper- 
ature. We  were  told  that  the 
first  rest  commenced  on  the 
seventh  day,  and  continued  for 
two  da3-s,  that  the  succceding 
three  periods  of  activitj'  and 
tor])or  Avere  severalh'  longer 
than  the  first,  and  that  the  spin- 
ning commenced  about  ten  or 
eleven  days  after  the  fourth  rest. 

Three  days  after  the  com- 
niencem(?nt  of  spinning,  said  our 
informants,  the  hinder  part  of 
the  cocoon  is  seen  to  be  stained 
a  white  color.  This  comes  from 
the  secretion  of  the  Yama-mai 
which  it  emits  after  having  finish- 
ed spinning.  The  cocoons  are  then  taken  off  the  Kunogi,  together  with  the 
leaves  to  which  they  are  attached,  and  a  small  portion  of  the  branches. 
They  are  then  brought  into  the  house,  and  placed  upon  shelves.  About  ten 
days  subsequently  the  leaves  are  stripped  off,  and  the  cocoons,  held  b}'  the  low- 
er and  broader  ends,  are  shaken.  Those  which  do  not  rattle  are  considered  to 
contain  dead  chrj-salides,  and  after  having  been  dried  through  the  action 
of  a  charcoal  brazier,  are  reeled.  Those  which  rattle  on  being  shaken  are 
considered  to  be  in  good  condition,  and  such  of  them  as  are  to  be  reserved  for 
seed  are  placed  in  tra^-s,  and  the  moths  emerge  in  about  twenty-five  days 
from  the  time  of  spinning.  The  remainder  are,  of  course,  subjected  to  heat^ 
in  order  to  kill  the  chrysalides,  and  are  reserved  for  reeling. 


136  FOURTH    ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

The  moths  emerge  between  4  in  the  afternoon  and  night,  and  the  great 
majority  of  the  first  moths  are  males.  The  proportion  was  stated  to  us  to 
be  300  males  to  10  females.*  The  males  are  then  secured  in  the  bell-shaped 
cages  already  mentioned,  and  as  the  females  emerge,  they  are  distributed 
among  the  males.  It  would  be  best,  we  heard,  to  place  but  one  couple  in  a 
<:'age;  in  practice,  however,  several  couples  were  put  into  the  same,  other- 
wise there  would  not  be  sufficient  cages.  One  of  the  men  said  he  had  as 
as  man}"  as  500.  The  bottoms  of  the  cages  are  then  closed  with  paper. 
The  coupling  commences  in  the  evening,  and  lasts  ten  or  twelve  hours,f 
after  which  the  males  are  thrown  a^vay  and  die.  It  happens  now  and  then 
that  other  males,  coming  from  a  distance,  fly  to  the  bars  of  the  cages  and 
couple  with  the  females  inside;  these  however  are  looked  upon  not  as  legit- 
imate husbands,  but  as  interlopers,  and  their  presence  or  absence  does  not 
enter  into  the  calculations  of  the  rearers  of  this  district.  The  females  then 
lay  their  eggs,  as  already  stated,  on  the  bars  of  the  cages.  This  operation 
lasts  four  or  five  days,  the  average  number  of  eggs  to  each  female  being  es- 
timated at  from  150  to  200.  The  females  then  die.  The  best  eggs  are  those 
laid  on  the  first  two  or  three  days,  and  it  is  considered  preferable  that 
the  males  which  emerge  on  one  evening  should  couple  with  the  females 
which  emerge  on  the  following  evening. 

The  same  process  which  has  alreadj"  been  described  is  then  adopted 
with  the  new  eggs. 

The  men  to  whom  we  spoke  did  not  seem  to  trouble  themselves  much 
about  the  Uji.  They  all  allowed  that  this  parasite  preys  upon  the  chrysalis  of 
the  Yama-mai,  and  they  considered  that  it  was  more  prevalent  after  a  rainy 
season.  They  even  talked  of  ten  Uji  found  in  one  chrysalis.  To  our  ques- 
tions as  to  how"  they  knew  whether  it  existed,  and  at  what  stage  of  the 
Yama-mai's  life  it  was  observable,  we  received  the  invariable  answer,  that 
they  could  only  detect  it  after  the  worm  had  become  a  chr^'salis,  which  did 
not  rattle  in  the  cocoon  when  the  latter  was  shaken  ;  that  such  chrysalides 
never  turned  into  moths,  and  generally  contained  Uji. 

With  regard  to  other  diseases,  they  stated  that  after  the  4th  rest  dark 
spots  sometimes  come  out  upon  the  worms,  which  subsequently  die  before 
spinning  :  that  they  are  also  subject  to  attacks  of  diarrhoea,  which  prove  fa- 
tal; that  another  disease  shows  itself  by  a  watery  fluid  exuding  from  the 
pores,  the  worms  turning  a  brown  color  and  then  dj-ing.  No  particular 
names  appeared  to  be  given  to  these  maladies.  Our  informants  also  said 
that  if  a  considerable  amount  of  rain  falls  whilst  the  egg-papers  are  attached 
to  the  Kunogi  in  the  open  air,  the  eggs  are  apt  to  be  spoiled. 

"We  were  shown  a  species  of  creeping  plant  called  Tonzuru,  with  leaves 
resembling  those  of  the  Convolvulus  and  a  dark  stem,  which  sometimes 
clings  to  the  Kunogi.  If  the  Yama-mai  eats  of  these  leaves,  it  is  poisoned  and 
dies  at  once. 

*Itis  not  clear  what  our  author  here  iruaiis;  but  probably  that  in  a  given  lot  of  cocoons  300  males 
will  appear  by  the  tira-.  lOfeiniles  have  issued.  If  he  mnius  that  the  sexes  are  proportiouod  as  300  cf 
to  10  g  ,  then  the  statem^it  is  erroneous,  as  in  a  given  lot  the  females  predominate  at  last,  sq  as  nearly 
to  equal  the  males  in  number. 

tThis  is  also  mjst  probably  an  error;  for  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  coitus  lasts  sel- 
dom as  long  as  an  hour. 


THE   STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


137 


THE  PERXYI  SlliKWOmi—AttacuslAntheroea}  Fernyi,  Gu6r-Men. 

(Lepulopti'ni,  Boinbycidaj) 

This  is  also  an  oak-feeding  species  which  has 
been  introduced  from  Northern  China,  and  it  so 
closely  resembles  yama-mai  that  a  few  remarks 
by  way  of  comparison  with  the  latter,  will  serve 
my  purjiose. 

It  was  named  after  M.  Perny,  a  missionary 
who,  in  1850,  sent  it  to  France  from  Mandchoiiria, 
China.  It  has  been  cultivated  in  Europe  with 
better  success  than  has  attended  the  culture  of 
yama-mai,  unA  in  this  country  the  success  with  it 
has  also  been  greater.  It  develops  more  rapidly 
than  the  yama-mai  and  differs  essentially  from 
that  species  in  being  double-brooded,  and  in  pass- 
ing the  winter  in  the  chrysalis  state,  like  cynthia 
and  our  native  species.  This  trait  gives  it  agreat 
advantage  over  yama-mai,  as  not  only  can  more 
silk  be  produced,  but  we  can  more  easily  obtain 
sound  eggs.  It  is  also  less  affected  by  confinement 
indoors.  Its  cocoon  is  not  so  valuable,  thoup-h 
ranking  third  best  of  the  eight  species  treated  of. 
The  egg  (Fig.  <31,  enlarged  and  natural  size)  is  of  about  the  same  size, 
form  and  color.  The  worm  in  the  first  stage  is  of  a  chocolate-brown  with 
the  tubercles  reddish  and  emitting  reddish  bristles.  In  the  second  stage  it 
is  yellowish-green ;  in  the  third  and  fourth  it  becomes  greener,  while  sil- 
very spots  begin  to  show  at  the  base  of  the  "anterior  tubercles.  In  the  last 
stage  it  is  of  a  dark  green  with  a  faint  reddish  lateral  lino  over  the  stigma- 
ta; the  head  and  legs  are  light  brown  with  black  spots  and  the  triangular 
anal  mark  is  chocolate-brown.  In  form  and  general  appeai-ance  it  resembles 
yama-mai. 

The  cocoon  (Fig.  61)  is  suspended  by  a  cord  which  does  not,  however, 
materiall}'  effect  its  reeling  proj^erties,  as  it  is  attached  onlj^  to  the  loose 
outer  silk.  The  silk  is  yellowish-gray,  stout,  brilliant  and  valuable.  It  is 
almost  twice  as  thick  as  that  of  yama-mai  and  stuffs  made  of  it  are  said  to 
have  the  appearance  and. nature  of  mixed  silk,  cotton  and  wool. 

Some  eggs  which  I  received  from  Dr.  Wallace,  of  England,  in  1869, 
were  so  injured  on  the  way  hither  that  but  few  of  them  hatched,  and  none 
of  the  worms  completed  more  than  one  moult.  I  have  not,  therefore,  been 
able  to  present  a  figure  of  the  worm,  but  through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Wal- 
lace, who  sent  me  si>ecimens,  I  present  good  figures  of  the  cocoon  and 
moth.  The  moth  (Fig.  60,  female)  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  yama- 
mai,  and  varies  nearly  as  much  in  color.  The  tips  of  the  front  wings  are 
generally  a  little  more  curved;  there  is  less  black  about  the  eye-spots,  the 
hind  wings  are  less  produced  behind,  so  that  their  transverse  band  is  more 
in  a  line  with  that  of  the  front  wings,  and  the  ground  color  is  usually  darker 
and  more  uniform. 


138  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

In  China  the  species  is  reared  in  the  open  air  in  a  wild  state,  and  also 
in-doors  on  cut  bi'anches  kept  fresh  by  insertion  in  vessels  containinui;  water. 
In  this  country  Mr.  Andrews  obtained  cocoons  from  the  tirst  brood  of 
worms  by  the  4th  of  July  :  the  moths  began  to  issue  about  three  weeks 
later;  copidation  immediately  ensued,  and  by  the  middle  of  August,  or 
about  ten  days  I'rom  the  time  of  laj^ing,  the  second  brood  of  worms  began 
to  hatch.  lie  also  found  that  the  worms  would  feed  on  Beech  and  Sweet 
gum. 

The  Tusseh  Silkworm  (Aitaciis  3IyJ itta=Anthcrcea  Paphki),  an  insect 
found  in  India,  and  which  is  quite  common  in  the  wild  state,  especially  in 
Bahar,  Assam  and  Bengal,  feeding  on  the  Rhamnus  jujuba,  is  very  closely 
allied  to  Fcrnyi,  and  should,  perhaps,  only  be  considered  a  geographical 
race.  It  bears  the  same  relation  to  Fernyi  as  does  the  India  castor-bean- 
feeding  ricini  to  the  Chinese  ailanthus-feeding  cynthla';  and  differs  princi- 
pally in  the  cocoon  which  is  more  solid,  and  hangs  by  a  more  solid,  harder 
cord.  It  has  never  been  introduced  into  America,  though  its  silk  is  much 
used  in  its  native  countr}-,  and,  if  not  put  into  hot-water,  the  goods  made 
from  it  have  a  wonderful  durability. 


SUMMAKY 


There  can  be  no  good  reason  given  wh}- silk-culture  may  not  become  one 
of  the  industries  of  this  country,  or  of  our  State — especially  if  fostered  at  the 
start.  I  would,  however,  advise  no  one  to  enter  into  it  on  a  large  scale,  as 
a  business.  The  raising  of  silk  is  seldom  lucrative,  even  in  the  most  favor- 
able countries ;  for  in  this  as  in  most  other  industries,  the  principal  profits 
accrue  to  the  middle  men,  reelers  and  manufacturers ;  but  on  a  small  seale^ 
and  prosecuted  in  connection  with  other  branches  of  Agriculture  and  Hor- 
ticulture, it  will  give  most  desirable  returns  for  the  time  employed.  The 
erection  of  a  few  reeling  establishments  is  absolutely  necessary  to  establish 
this  industry. 

For  in-door  culture,  no  worm  surpasses  tlie  Mulberrj-  sf)ecies  (mori). 

out-door  culture  none  at  present  surpass  the  Ailanthus  species  (c?/nif/«'a), 
though  if  yama-mai  and  Pernyi  can  once  be  acclimated,  their  cocoons  are 
more  valuable.  Of  the  native  worms  Polyphemus  is  the  most  valuable 
and  important,  its  silk  being  easily  reeled  and  of  excellent  quality:  Cecropia 
comes  next  in  order,  its  silk  being  reeled  with  difficulty^  while  that  of 
Promethea  and  Luna  is  of  less  value,  has  never  yet  been,  and  jjrobably 
cannot  be,  reeled. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


139 


INNOXIOUS  INSECTS. 


THE  HOIiXED  PAHSXLUS— Passed  us  coniutus^   Vnhv. 

(Coleoptera,  Lucanidse.) 

t*''i''-  *'--i  Man}-  an  one  will   doubtless 

recognize  in  the  insect  illustrated 
at  Figure  G2,  c,  the  "  bug "  with 
which  he,  or  she,  as  a  child,  was 
wont  to  play  at  "  oxen  " — the 
curved  horn  on  the  head  forming 
such  an  inviting  projection  on 
which  to  hitch,  \)y  means  of  a 
thread,  small  chij^s  and  other 
diminutive  objects,  to  be  dragged 
by  the  rather  awkward  beast  ot 
of  burden.  Every  pioneer  in 
this  Western  country,  as  he  rolled  over  huge  decaj-ed  logs,  in  the  work  of  clear- 
ing his  land  to  make  it  ready  for  the  plow,  must  have  become  familiar  with  this 
highly  polished  coal-black  beetle.  Every  woodsman  who  has  split  or 
grubbed  an  old  stump,  will  be  likely  to  recognize  in  this  horned  "  bug  "  an  old 
acquaintance.  Every  entomologist  who  has  dug  into  or  pulled  to  pieces  old 
rotting  stumps,  in  search  for  other  treasures,  must  time  and  again  have  seen 
this  lazy,  clumsy  Passalus  tumbling  down  wnth  the  loose  and  crumbling 
dust  and  excreta  of  its  own  making,  and  expressing  its  disapproval  of  such 
summary  disturbance  in  the  plainest  manner,  by  emitting  a  peculiar  half- 
hissing,  half-creaking  noise.  And  though  met  with  at  almost  every  step  in 
his  forest  rambles, 

' '  Where  wild  birds  sing  beneath  the  leafy  bowers, ' ' 

the  inquisitive  student  has  no  doubt  found  himself  repeatedly  examining 
specimens,  not  only  to  admire  the  elegance  and  beauty  of  form,  but  to  as- 
certain the  means  by  which  the  peculiar  noise  is  produced.  A  sufficiently^ 
careful  examination  will  end  in  the  knt)wledge  that  it  is  caused  b}"  the  rub- 
bing of  the  rather  hoi-ny  terminal  joints  of  the  abdomen,  known  as  the 
pygidium,  against  the  inside  of  the  hard  wing-covers. 

This  insect  cannot  be  considered  injurious  in  any  sense   of  the  word. 


140  FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 

and  might  with  propriety-  be  introduced  in  the  section  of  '<  Beneficial  In- 
sects." It  is  never  found  in  sound  or  green  wood,  but  invariably  in  that 
which  is  decaying;  and  it  very  materially  assists  and  hastens  the  reduction 
of  stumps  which  might  otherwise  remain  treble  the  length  of  time  to  occupy 
valuable  ground,  and  serve  as  an  ej^e-sore  to  the  careful  farmer  in  wooded 
countries.  Unseen  and  unheard  it  carries  on  incessantly'  the  good  work  of 
converting  useless  timber  into  mould  which  enriches  the  soil;  and  this  has 
been  its  office  in  all  the  past  ages  of  its  existence.  A  decaying,  moist  con- 
dition of  the  wood  is  necessary  to  its  development,  and  it  will  be  found  most 
common  on  low  moist  ground,  and  in  Oak,  Hickorj-  and  Sweet  gum  logs  or 
stumjis. 

Common  as  is  this  beetle,  its  larva  and  pupa  are  rarely  seen,  and  seem 
to  be  unknown  even  to  most  entomologists,  while  no  good  figures  of  them 
have  been  published. 

The  larva  (Fig.  62,  a)  is  of  a  very  exceptional  character  being  the  only 
one  in  this  country  which  possesses  but  four  well  developed  legs,  for  though 
man}^  butterflies  in  the  imago  state  have  the  front  pair  functionally  impo- 
tent, no  other  insect  than  our  Passahis  exhibits  a  similar  feature  in  the 
larva  state.  Indeed  the  only  other  larvae  in  the  whole  Class  of  Insects 
which  are  similarly  characterized,  are  those  belonging  to  the  same  geims  in 
other  parts  of  the  world.  The  third  j^air  of  legs  really  exists,  however,  in 
a  rudimentary  state,  as  shown  at  Figure  62,  d.  This  larva  is  of  a  bluish- 
white  color  with  the  anterior  joints  broader  and  flatter  than  the  rest.  It 
transforms  in  the  fall  of  the  j'ear,  Avithin  the  wood  it  inhabits,  to  a  whitish 
pupa  (Fig.  62,  h)  in  which  the  front  pair  of  legs  is  thrown  forward  under  the 
head,  and  the  horns  of  the  future  b(?etle  show  plainly  on  its  top.  The  pupa 
lasts  but  about  a  fortnight,  when,  throwing  off"  the  pupal  garb,  it  becomes  a 
perfect  beetle.  At  first  the  parts  are  all  beautifully  white  and  delicate; 
then  the  head,  thorax  and  limbs  gradually  become  amber-brown,  and  lastly 
the  wing-covers  assume  this  color.  The  whole  body  then  deepens  very 
graduall}'  so  that  many  days  elapse  before  the  coal-black  color  is  acquired; 
and  in  the  month  of  August  the  beetle  is  as  often  found  brown  as  black. 
As  larvae  only  half  grown  are  found  in  companj-  with  those  that  are  full 
grown,  they  require  at  least  two  years  to  mature. 

Passalus  corxutus  Fabr.—Larya— Color  bluish-white,  with  a  dark medio-dorsal  line;  polished, 
with  scarcely  any  hairs;  13  joints  exclusive  of  head;  slightly  arched;  thethoracic  joints  broader  and 
flatter  than  the  rest  [though  in  alcoholic  specimens  they  often  appear  the  reverse] ;  joint  1  with  a  pronii- 
nent  neck- wrinkle  underneath,  and  with  a  slight  horny  depression  each  side  above,  the  prominences 
immediately  outside  of  the  depression  being  often  marked  with  dark  brown;  abdominal  joints,  4—11 
inclusive,  each  with  a  broad,  slightly  elevated  fold,  occupying  the  hind  %  of  the  joint  in  the  middle 
of  the  back,  gradually  increasing  until  at  the  sides  it  occupies  the  whole  width  of  joint;  Kith  or  anal 
joint,  bulbous,  as  long  or  longer  than  any  of  the  others;  anus  transverse,  surrounded  by  triangular 
folds.  Head,  except  the  parts  mentioned  below  as  dark  brown,  light  rust-brown;  rather  small; 
flattened  above;  smooth,  with  a  few  stiff  lateral  yellowish  hairs  springing  from  ocelli-like  dots;  an- 
tennaj  3-jointed,  the  basal  joint  broad,  short;  2nd  only  half  as  wide  and  about  the  same  length;  3rd 
brown,  as  long  as  1  &  2  together  and  fusiform;  epistoma  large,  transverse,  divided  in  two  by  a  brown 
transverse  line;  labrum  smaller,  transverse-oval,  and  sparsely  furnished  with  stiff,  yellow  hairs; 
mandibles  moderately  large,  with  two  sharp-pointed  teeth  at  extremity  and  a  larger  single  tooth  in- 
side; brown  with  the  teeth  black;  maxiUa3  composed  of  a  basal  transverse  piece,  a  stout  cardinal 
piece;  two  inner  lobes,  well  separated,  pointed  and  curved  inwardly  in  the  same  direction  as  tlie 
madibulary  teeth  and  with  their  inner  border  fringed  with  stiff  hairs;   maxQlary  palpi  3-jointed,  the 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


141 


basal  broa(iest,  2iid  rather  longest,  3rd  brown,  fusiform,  constricted  a  little  near  the  tip,  and  directed 
inwards;  labium  narrow,  elongated,  divided  into  .3  transverse  pieces,  the  basal  as  long  as  the  other 
two  combined,  the  3rd  or  palpigerous  piece  short  and  trapezoidal  with  a  square,  horny,  brown  plate 
extending  between  the  palpi;  labial  palpi  i-jointed,  joints  of  about  equal  length,  tlie -ind  fusiform 
and  directed  inwards.  Lfj-s,  well  developed  only  on  joints  1  and  2,  being  long,  with  a  stout  thigh, 
a  slightly  curved  shank,  and  a  fine-pointed  liorny  claw;  rudmientary  on  joint  3,  consisting  of  a  sinv- 
ple  horny  pi'ocess,  projecting  obliquely  outwards  under  the  second  pair  of  legs,  and  armed  on  the  in- 
side witli5  small  blunt  teeth  (Fig.  02,  c) .  Sligmata  9  in  numl)er,  tlie  first  in  a  line  with  the  others,  on 
posterior  portion  of  joint  1,  the  others  on  anterior  portion  of  joints  4 — 11  inclusive.  Average  length 
1.60  inches. 

Described  from  one  living,  and  two  alcoholic  specimens. 

Madame  Merian,  in  her  work  on  the  insects  of  Suriuam,  1*1.  .W,  has  figured  what  purports  to  be 
the  larva  of  Passalus  intcrruplus  with  six  legs,  but  as  slie  has  incorrectly  figured,  on  the  same  plate, 
what  isapi)arently  a  Limiellicorn  larva  for  that  of  Bupreslis  fjiganica,  tlie  probability  is  that  her  Pes 
saltis  Idrva  is  equally  spurious.  Chapuis  &  Candeze  (Catalogue  des  Larvcs  des  Coleoptei-es,  1853)  des- 
cribe and  ligure  that  of  P.  distiiictu^  which,  as  in  ours,  has  but  4  well  developed  legs.  In  their  de- 
scription they  allow  but  2  joints  to  the  antennw,  and  consider  the  joint  which  I  have  described  as  ba- 
sal but  a  part  of  the  head;  in  cor/iK^us  it  is  certainly  well  divided  by  sutures  from  tlie  liead.  They 
likewise  consider  the  anal  joints  i)  and  10  as  but  one,  but,  though  bearing  no  stigmata,  they  are  as 
thoroughly  and  distinctly  segmented  as  are  any  other  two  joints  of  the  body.  I  have  not  at  hand  the 
description  o{  cornutus  l)y  Burmeister,  to  which  they  refer,  but  if  he  mentions  more  than  nine  pair  ' 
of  stigmata,  as  tliey  indicate,  he  errs.  Mr.  Walsh  (Proc.  Ent.  Soc.  Phil.,  Ill,  p.  559,  note)  speaksof 
the  rudimentary  legs  being  ' '  decussated  on  the  sternum. ' '  If  the  larva  has  the  power  of  moving  them, 
they  may  possibly  be  found  in  such  a  position  but  I  have  never  seen  them  thus  crossed. 

Pupa— (Fig.  62,  b)  White,  with  all  the  parts  of  the  beetle  distinctly  traceable,  the  head  bent  al- 
most at  right  angles  from  the  thorax,  the  jaws,  enclosing  tlie  labrum,  projecting  prominently  nearly 
in  the  same  direction,  and  the  front  legs  brought  obliquely  forward  under  them.  The  third  pair  of 
legs  fully  developed. 


THE  GEE  AT  LEOPAED  'K0T:3:—Ecpantheria  scribonia,  Stoll. 

(Lepidoptera,  Arctiada?. ) 

There  is  a  large  Family  of  moths,  known  as  Arctians  or  Tiger-moths, 
which  is  rendered  conspicuous  by  the  beauty  of  design  and  boldness  of  con- 
trast in  color  which  its  members  generally  present.  There  are  two  whose 
caterpillars  are  often  seen,  either  rolled  up  cozil}^  under  some  plant  or 
crawling  rapidly  across  a  path,  but  which  are  not  by  any  means  generally 
known  in  their  more  beautiful  and  perfect  states.  They  were  both  more 
than  usually  common  the  past  year,  and  both  have  very  similar  habits. 
They  neither  of  them  can  be  considered  injurious;  but  a  brief  account  of 
their  transformations,  in  this  department  of  my  Eeport,  will  doubtless 
please  and  gratify  many  an  inquisitive  reader,  who  has  wondered  what 
these  "hedge-hog"  caterpillars  produce. 

The  sjiecies  above-named  is  the  largest,  and  perhaps  the  most  beautiful 
of  the  Family  in  North  America. 

[t'ig-  f5'5.]  Its  larva  (Fig.  63)may  be  called  the  Large 

Black  Bear,  as  the  hairy  worms  of  our  ditferent 
Arctians  are  jDopularly  called  bears,  and  the 
Family  name  was  derived  fi'om  the  Greek  word 
for  "  boar. "  It  is  often  observed  in  the  fall  of 
the  year,  though  few  persons  have  ever  seen  the 
moth  which  it  produces.  This  larva  is  black, 
and  so  thickly  covered  with  jet  black  spines  as 
almost  to  hide  a  series  of  roughened  warts  on 
^'"'^^  each  joint,  from  which  the  spines  spring.     When. 


142 


FOURTH   ANNUAL   REPORT    OF 


[Fig.  04.] 


disturbed,  it  curls  itself  uj),  and  then  the  sutures  of  the  joints  are  seen  to  be 
reddish  brown,  in  strong  contrast  with  the  black  of  the  rest  of  the  body.  If 
carefully  observed,  the'spines  will  be  seen  to  be  barbed,  as  represented  at  b. 
This  worm  fet?d.*i,  mostly  during  the  night,  ui)On  the  wild  Sun-flower 
(Helianthus  decapetalus),  the  different  species  of  Plantain  (Platitago),  and 
upon  WilloAvs.  My  friend  J.  A.  Lintner,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  thinks  it  like- 
wise feeds  on  Black  Locust,  as  he  has  often  found  it  beneath  that  tree  and 
has  fed  it  on  the  leaves.  It  comes  to  its  growth  in  the  fall,  and  curls  up 
and  passes  the  winter  in  any  shelter  that  it  can  find,  being  especially  fond 
of  getting  under  the  bark  of  old  trees.  In  the  spring,  it  feeds  for  a  few 
days  on  almost  any  green  thing  that  presents  itself,  and  then  forms  a  loose 
cocoon,  casts  its  prickly  skin,  and  becomes  a  chrysalis.  The  chrysalis  is 
black,  and  covered  with  a  beautiful  pruinescence,  which  rubs  off  almost  as 
readily  as  that  covering  a  Duane's  Early  plum.  It  has  a  flattened  blunt 
pi'ojection  at  the  extremity,  armed  with  a  few  barbs  and  bristles. 

In  a  few  exceptional  instances  I  have  known  both  this  and  the  follow- 
ing species  to  go  through  all  the  transformations  and  produce  the  moth  in 
the  fall.  The  chrysalis  state  lasts  but  about  a  fortnight  when  the  moth  es- 
capes. 

The  accompa- 
nying illustration 
(Fig.  64)  represents 
the  female  moth  at 

a,  and  the  male  at 

b.  The  upper  por- 
tion of  the  abdomen 
is  steel-blue,  or 
blue-black,  marked 
longitudinally 
along  the  middle 
and  sides  with  yel- 
low or  orange. 
Vith  this  excep- 
tion, the  whole  in- 
sect is  white  mark- 
ed and  patterned 
with  dark  brown, 
as    in    the    figures. 

The  male  ditiVi-s  from  the  female  principally  in  his  smaller  size  and  more 
acuminate  wings,  and  by  the  narrower  abdomen,  which  is  also  generally 
duller  in  color,  with  the  pale  markings  less  distinct.  The  markings  on  the 
Avings,  var}^  in  a  striking  manner  in  different  individuals,  the  oval  or  ellip- 
tical rings  sometimes  filling  up,  especially  in  the  male,  so  as  to  look  like 
black  blots.  This  insect  is  considered  rare  in  New  England,  but  is  much 
more  common  in  the  Mississippi  Yallej'.  It  occurrs  still  more  abundantly 
in  the  Southern  swamps,  where  the  larva  is  dubbed  "Fever  Worm"  by  the 
negroes,  under  the  absurd  impression  that  it  is  the  cause  of  fever  and  ague. 


THE    STATE    ENTOMOLOGIST. 


143 


As  an  illustration  of  the  wondeiiiil  power  of  resisting  extreme  cold, 
which  this  caterpillar  possesses,  I  will  quote  the  following  experience  com- 
municated to  me  by  Mr.  Lintner.  lie  says  :  "  I  had  placed  one  for 
hybernation  in  a  small  keg  among  leaves,  which  I  inserted  in  the  ground. 
During  my  absence  from  home,  either  the  thawing  of  the  snow  or  the  wind 
had  overturned  the  keg,  and  driven  away  the  leaves.  On  my  return  I 
found  the  laiwa  remaining,  but  stifH}-  frozen,  Avith  its  head  encased  in  ice 
and  fastened  to  the  ground.  As  an  experiment  I  detached  a  piece  of  the 
ground  with  the  larva,  and  placed  it  in  a  warm  room.  On  the  thawing  of 
the  larva  and  the  release  of  its  head,  it  was  restored  to  activity. " 

EcPAXTiiKUiA  scitii'.oxiA,  Stoll.  —  Lofvit — ( I  Iviiow  (if  but  one  good  iIlsci  iptiou  cil'lhis  larva,  and 
that  by  Mr.  Wm.  s.aunders,  in  Proc.  Ent.  Soc. ,  Phil. ,  II,  p.  -iii;  but  a.s  that  is  not  as  lull  us  it  might 
be,  I  give  the  following  )  :  Average  length  -J'^  inches.  Head  black,  polished,  browni.'^h  at  sides  and 
below:  cpistoina,  anteniKe  andpaljn  nioreorlessdistinctly glassy  white,  the  joints  of  ant enn:e  marked 
with  light  1  rown,  cervical  shield  brown-bl;ick.  Body  above  black,  inclining  to  brown  laterally; 
bright  reddish-brown  at  sutures,  showing  in  strong  contrast,  especially  between  joints  ;i— 10  when 
the  larva  is  curled  up,  but  scarcely  visible  when  sti'aighteued  and  contracted.  Verrucose  warts 
arranged  as  follows:  On  joint  1,  two  each  .-ide  of  cervical  shield;  on  jts.  2  and  3,  a  transverse  row  of 
S;  on  jts.  4— 11  inclusive  12,  the  4  on  dorsum  trapezoidal,  the  two  anterior  .ones  appi'oaching  nearest; 
onjt.  12  a  transverse  row  of  (>.  Venter  dull  purplish-brown,  the  legs  of  the  same  color,  the  legless 
joints  with  i  small  verruc  )se  warts.     Hairs  barbed,  still',  spiuc-like  and  jet  black. 


THE  ISABELLA  TIGET^.  MOTH— Arctia  ImheUa,  Smith. 

(  Lepidoptrra ,    .Vvctiad;e. ) 

The  larva  of  this  insect  (Fig.  Q^, 
a)  is  very  common  with  us  and  is 
familiarly  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Hedge-hog  Caterpillar.  It  is  thickly 
covered  with  stiff  black  hairs  on 
oach  end  and  with  reddish  hairs  on 
the  middle  of  the  body.  These  hairs 
are  ])retty  evenly  and  closely  shorn 
so  as  to  give  the  animal  a  velvety 
look ;  and  as  they  have  a  certain 
elasticity,  and  the  caterpillar  curls  up 
at  the  slightest  touch,  it  generally 
manages  to  slij)  away  when  taken 
into  the  hand.  It  feeds  on  Plantain, 
Clover,  Dandelion,  grasses,  and 
a  variety  of  other  plants,  and  after 
passing  the  winter  in  some  sheltered  spot,  rolled  up  like  a  hedge-hog,  it 
comes  out  in  the  spring  to  feed  upon  the  first  herbaceous  vegetation,  and 
finally  spins  its  cocoon  (Eig.  65,  b  represents  one  cut  open,  giving  a  view  of 
the  chrj'salis)  and  goes  through  its  transformations.  The  cocoon  is  com- 
posed principally  of  the  caterpillar's  hairs  (which  are  likewise  barbed)  in- 
terwoven with  coarse  silk.  The  chiysalis  is  brown  with  tufts  of  very  short 
irolden  bristles,  indicating  the  positions  of  the  larval  warts,  and  with  a    tuft 


144 


FOURTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 


of  barbs  at  the  extremity.  The  moth  is  of  a  dull  orange  color,  with  the 
front  wings  variegated  with  duskj^,  and  spotted  with  black,  and  the  hind 
wings  somewhat  lighter  and  also  with  black  spots. 

Mr.  Huron  Burt,  of  Williamsburg,  informs  me  that  this  caterj)illar  is 
also  called  "Fever-worm"  in  his  neighborhood.  As  the  miasma  of  the 
Southern  swamps  induces  ague,  and  as  the  large  black  species  is  found  abun- 
dantly in  such  situations,  the  two  circumstances  have  doubtless  been  asso- 
ciated through  ignorance;  and  some  Ethiopean,  right  from  Dixie,  has  per- 
haps perpetuated  the  name  in  Missouri,  by  applying  it  to  our  more  nor- 
thern Hedge-hog  Caterjiillar. 

Neither  of  these  insects  are,  so  far  as  known,  attacked  b}^  any  parasite, 
though  a  peculiar  fungus-disease,  probably  identical  with  Muscardine  in  the 
Silkworm,  (see  p.  88)  often  causes  the  laiwre  to  die.  AVorms  attacked  with 
this  disease  fasten  themselves  tirmly  to  some  stem,  and,  stretched  out  nat- 
urally^, death  would  scarcely  be  suspected  were  it  not  for  a  certain  rigidity, 
and  a  mildew-like  powder  covering  the  skin. 


THE  ACOEN  MOT^—Holcocera  glanduMla,  Eiley. 

(Lepidoptera,  Tiiiciilw.  ) 

The  mast  which  is  so  valua- 
ble to  the  swine  breeder  in  the 
oak-land  sections  of  the  State,  is 
ofte)i  very  seriously  affected  and 
greatly  diminished  in  quantity  by 
the  workings  of  the  larva  or 
"  grub  "  of  a  species  of  long-snouted 
nut- weevil  {Balanimis  rectus,  Say.) 
The  female,  with  her  long  bill, 
pierces  a  hole  in  the  3'oung  acorn,  and  deposits  therein  an  egg  which  gives 
birth  to  a  legless,  arched  grub  with  a  brown  head.  This  grub  devourg  dur- 
ing the  summer,  the  contents  of  the  acorn,  and  in  the  autumn  drops,  with 
the  rifled  fruit,  to  the  ground,  where  it  soon  gnaws  its  way  out  through  a 
circular  hole' and  buries  itself  for  the  winter.  It  becomes  a  pupa  in  the 
spring,  and  eventually  issues  as  a  beetle. 

After  the  original  depredator  has  vacated  its  tenement,  a  little  guest- 
moth  comes  along  and  drops  an  egg  into  the  already  ruined  acorn.  The 
worm  hatching  from  this  egg  grows  fat  upon  the  crumbs  left  by  the  former 
oceujDant,  rioting  amid  the  refuse  (Fig.  66,  a)  and  securing  itself  against  in- 
truders by  closing  with  a  strong  covering  of  silk,  the  hole  which  its  prede- 
cessor had  made  in  egress  (Fig.  66,  b).  In  the  winter  time,"  or  in  spring,  or 
early  summer,  the  farmer  who  notices  three-fourths  of  the  acorns  under  his 
trees  infested,  as  they  have  been  for  the  past  two  years,  by  this  worm ;  is 
very  apt  to  consider  it  the  true  culprit,  whereas  it  is  rarely,  if  ever,  found 
in  acorns  that  have  not  first  been  ruined  by  the  weevil  above  mentioned  or 
injured  by  some  other  insect,  or  in  some  other  way. 


THE   STATE   ENTOMOLOGIST.  I45 

This  after-comer  is  of  a  yellowish  or  grayish-white  color,  often  with  dark 
PKirkson  the  back,  a  light  brown  head,  and  a  horny  piece  of  the  same 
(..lor  on  the  first  and  last  joints,  and  small  hair-emitting  dusky  points  over 
the  body  (see  Fig.  66,  .,  ./,  .).  It  i.,  withal,  easily  distinguished  from  the 
Aveevd  larva  by  its  full  complen^ent  of  six  true  and  ten  false  le.^s  It 
changes  to  the  chrysalis  within  its  borrowed  domicile,  and  the  chrvsalis 
gives  forth  the  moth  by  first  pushing  partly  through  the  silken  door.  " 

The  moth  (Fig.  66,/,  ?)  is  ash-gray  in  color,  and  characterized  chiefly 
l)y  two  distinct  spots  near  the  middle  of  the  front  wings  and  a  transverse 
pale  stripe  well  relieved  behind,  across  their  basal  third.  The  male  differs 
from  the  female  by  the  basal  joint  of  his  attenn.-e  being  much  flattened  and 
articulating  with  the  stalk  by  means  of  a  nodule  (Fig!  66,  <j\  The  moths 
.ssue  all  along  from  the  end  of  April  till  September.  They  vary 
much  111  size  and  conspicuity  of  design.  The  following  description  of  the 
species  was  first  published  in  the  Canadian  Entomologist  (Vol.  lY,  pp.  18—19) 

win"''ii?''''''''  •^'''^^'^^^^^^^'  Ril^y.  (Fig.  66.  /,    S)-/ma^o.-A!ar expanse  0-5(J,  SOinch      Fn.ut 
u  .ng.  Mh  c.  y-gray ,  more  or  less  distinctly  suffused  and  marked  with  fuscous  •  two  distinct  dirk  disci 
spots ;  a  pale  transverse  stripe  across  the  basal  third  of  wing,  sli<.htl  v  elbow«l  ou7w.v  II  v",t  t  ,? 

tjus  stripe  is  weU  relieved  behindby  a  dark  shade,  and  th,:  shaf  g;.;"  :u  -    x^:"nlr  ^^Z^'!! 
the  costa  above  discal  spots,  forming  a  more  or  less  distinct  triangular  sLadeiu  tie  rte^or^-/ 
portion  of  wmg:  three  tolerably  distinct  dusky  spots  surround  the  discal  dots  1  tl  eTutX    .  ,     a 
ser  es  of  mmute  vem-specks  mark  the  posterior  margin;  fringes  concolorous.    Hin    wings  of  k  m  r^ 
glossy,  warmer,  brownish-gray,  the  reflection  inclining  to  golden  in  certain  li-hts-  f-^fr'  , 

orous  but  not  glossy.     Under  surface  uniformly  of  sam^  tint  afmnd  w  ^gr-Head'  tJorlx  a'^d  w" 
Z^:^uZT   r'.:'''^  :*"'^--"-^^f^hind  wings,  the  joints  of^rin^.^t^:^^. 

o.o-haU    he  length  of  abdomen,  of  same  color.     The  basal  antennal  joint  of  f     the  nodule  on,^ 
attennaj,  ba.se  of  palpi,  an.l  sometimes  tarsi,  also  tinged  with  fulvous  «     '^  '   f'^'^  ""^"1^  on   g 

Described  from  8  Qs,  20  cf  s,  all  bred  from  acorns.     The  intensity  of  the  dark  shadin<^s  is  ouite 
V  anable,  and  xn  some  specimens  the  basal  space  shows  decidedly  pale^-  than  the  "est  of  wht'       ' 

hairs  springing  from  them  pale  andToT    S^do^s      oil es'^rio'lnt'r'^^;  T"^  ^'^^"^  ''^^^'  "- 
transverse  row  <i.  e  there  are  4  uair    Pic   r«    J  l^t     !  .!  •*  ^  ''"'^  ^  ''""^  geminate  and  in  a 

:u,gularly  arranl^ed;  tt^WonT^^m^  fim^slrr^^^^^^^ 

Described  from  numerous  specimens. 

Pupa-Light  brown,  smooth,  with  no  characteristic  marks. 


ERRATA. 


\':ijH'  IIJ,   ill  llif  luiiilin^;,   lt>r   "Hiiliii."   r<':iil  "Diury." 

ScvvimI   loivij;-!!  wiinls  are-  not  iin>|>i'rly  iH-ciMited  for  lack  ol'  proin-r  ty| 


INDEX. 


A 

A roni  Motli ' ^^ 

A ctias  Luna, ' -•"• 

AciobaiiiJi  nebulo •'•'^ 

' '        nebulella +- 

' '       juglandis ■*"- 

' '        vonsociella +•"' 

A  ilanthus  tree— A  good  word  for 1-" 

Allan  thus  .silkworm '1- 

'  •  "        —  DUlVreuce  between  Castor  Bean  and  Ailantlnis  Worms 1I-' 

• '  "        — lletrospective  History  of 1  l^l 

"  "        —When  introduced  into  America lU 

"  "        — Thoroughly  acclimated  in  Ainerica ll'> 

"  "        — Value  of  Mie  Cocoon 1 1'l 

"  "        — Its  Natural  History li" 

"  "        — Larval  Changes - "^ 

"  "        — Best  Method  of  .raising II'' 

Ainpliicerm  bicaudatus •">  1 

Anthera-a  ijnmtv-mai '•'" 

"         Pernyi 1'^' 

' '  Paphia l-'!'^ 

Antidote  for  Paris  Green !•! 

Apide-leaf  Skeletonizer -W 

"     Tyer t'l 

"        "     Folder — The  Lesser ii 

"        '  *     Bucculatrix +!• 

"         "     Twig  Borer "d 

"        "     Worm,  again -"- 

Arctia  Isabella It'! 

Anna  spinosa i^ 

Arsenious  acid  for  I'otato  hugs II 

Ashes  and  Air-slacked  Lin>e  foi-  I'otato  hugs ■ H 

Asiliis  MlxnouricnHis -1 

A ttacuK  Cvcropia HKJ,   l;'„s 

' ' '        cynthia 112,   l;js 

' '         Luna l"2;j,   la."^ 

' '        Polyphemus 121 ,  138 

'  •        Promo thea 121,  l.is 

' '        Selene I2."> 

' '        yamor-mai    130,  l.'is 

Pernyi 137 ,   l;js 

Mijlilta l;i!S 

B 

Hanchwt  fufjitivuH 41 

Beneticial  insects 72 


Z  INDEX 

Best  Bandage  for  Apple- worm 23 

Birchromate  of  Potash  for  Potato  bugs li 

Boissiere's  Silk  Establishment 82 

Bombyx  moH 75,  138 

BosMchus  bicaudatus 51 

Botrytis  Bassiana 88 

Brachinus  Katisahus 21 

Brochimena  annulata 20 

Bucculatrix  pomifoliella 4!) 

"           thuiella 51 

Buprestis  yigantea 141 

c 

Cabbage  as  Food  for  Colorado  Potato  Beetle 10 

' '        bug — The  Harlequin 30 

Castor  Beau  Silkworm 112 

(jaliforuia — Sllk-growiug  in ■ "!( 

Callidium  ninccaum 54 

Callosainia  Proinethea 121 

' '             angulifera 122 

Carbolate  of  Lime  for  Potato  bugs 14 

Cecropia  Silkworm 103 

"                   "        — Larval  Changes 100 

"                   "        — Parasites  of 107 

"         Cryptus 110 

"         Tachina-tly 108 

Chalcis  maricB 109,  110 

Chaulioynalhus  Pennsylvanicus 'J8 

Chrysapa 45 

atheroma regalis.   120 

Classification  of  X.  A.  Grape-vines 60 

Cltsiocampa  sylvatica 41 

CodUng  Moth,  again 22 

"         "       — Time  ot  Year  that  the  first  Moths  appear •-'•2 

"          '•        — Best  kind  of  Bandage  for 23 

"          "        — New  Methods  of  trapping ' 23 

"          "        — Wier's  Trap 23 

"          "        — It  attacks  Peaches 22 

"          "        — .Jarring 25 

"          "        — Fires,  Lights,  Bottles  of  Liquid  as  liemedies 27 

"          "       — Natural  Enemies 2S 

Colaspis  Jlavida 34 

Colorado  Potato   Beetle 5 

"                ■'            "        — Us  Injuries  in  1871 J* 

"               "           "       — Amount  of  Damage  caused  by  it  in  Missouri 7 

"               "           ''        — New  Territory  invaded J^ 

I  oloniclo  I'l.hilo  IJeelli— It  sitreads,  but  does  not  travel  in  the  Sense  of  leaving  one  l.)istriol  for 

Another "J 

"               "            "        —New  Food:  Cabbage 10 

"                "            "        — Its   Hibernation 1 11 

"               "           "        — More  about  Paris  Green 11 

"               "            "        — Antidote  lor  Paris  Green \'.> 

"               "           "        — Otiier  Applications  for 13 

"                "            "        — Mechanical  Means  of  destroying l."> 

"                "            "        — Avsenious  acid 14 

"               "           "        —Sulphate  of  Copper 14 

"               "    •        "        — Bichromate  of  Potash 14 

"                "            "        — Powdered  Hellibore 14 

"                "            "        --Carbolate  of  Lime 14 

"               "           "        —Mandrake  or  May-ap|)le .^ 15 

"                "            "        —Upg- fennel 15 

"               "           "        --Natural  Enemies   increasing It! 

Cryptui  extrematis 110 

' '        nuncius 110 

' '        xajniee 110 

' '        Smitfiii Ill 


INDEX.  6 

Ci/nthia  cardiii 1"' 

D 

Danais  archippus ■■•  '2'' 

Ihilana  minisira I-'* 

I  )iseasi'S  (if  Mulberry  Silkwdrm , •  •    f''^ 

Dvitti'il-legKi'd  Plaut-biig '■  ■  •     1" 

Drijocampa  senaluria ■*' 

' '  alitima <■■■      *' 

E' 

Kcpantheria  scribonia 1-U.  ^^'^ 

Elaphiilion  panitlfluni •>^ 

Kinpusa  muscce '*' 

l^riosoma  laniyerii ''•' 

Kiuh(Ble.i  egle %.- ■• ' 

Eiischistiui  punclipes '•'.  -" 

E.vurista  pkijcitce -^^ 

' '        leucania l'*f^ 

' '       var.  cecropice ''•*< 

' '         militarig ; 1"-' 

t 

F 


h'il'tefn-s|K)tteil  Ladybird. 
Fires  for  Oodlins?  M«th... 


G 

Gairius  olens ■. '-• 

(Jrand-daddy-loug-leg.s IT 

(ir;i[ie-viiu-  Ciihipsis -'l 

— Insects  injurious  to ■">•' 

t  ;r:i|)i--vin< — Ked-shouldered  Sinoxylon •'>•■> 

Disease ■">■"' 

lenf  (iail-louse ">^' 

— Further    Proof   of  the    Identity     of    the    Anierieaii    and    Furopean 

Insects ''7 

•'            "         — (iall-louse  and  Koot-louse  identical .">7 

"            "          —Habits  (if  Root-inhabiting  Type 'iS 

"            "         — Susceptibility  of  different  \'iueri  to  its  Attacks  tiO 

'•            '^          "         — Means  of  Contagion  from  one  Vine  to  .Vnother tH 

"            "          —Probable  Ueason  why  its  Injuries  are  greater  in  Kurope  than  witli  us  iJti 

"            "            "         — Practical  Suggestions iii 

'  •            "            "          — Kejiiedies  against 'if^ 

"           "           "         — liesurae  of  its   History r>!i 

"             "            "          — (j'onelusion To 

» i rape- vines— I 'lass ilicatlon  of  X.    A Tu 

Great  Leopard  moth / 1^1 

tireeu  Apple-leaf  'Iyer i*' 

JI 

Hammond's  Knot-horn ■*■• 

Harloiiuin  I'alibage-bug '•^•' 

Hcliotliis  armiyera I-'' 

Hellebore  for  Potato  bugs 'I 

Hiiilophora  Cecropia I"'"* 

Hippudamia  glacialis '^"^ 

H(flcocera  glandulella l^>  ^^^ 

Horned  Passalus ^-'^ 


4  FNl^EX. 

I 

ley   Liulyltiiil IS 

Impi'oved  I'atent  Insect  Destroyer , 15 

Insects  injurious  to  Grape-vine '. :>;{ 

Isabella  Tiger  Moth 14:; 

J 

.farrint?  for  Ap|)le-W(>nn ; -J") 

K 

Kiiiisas  Bombarillcr-beetle , .     -21 

L 

Larval  Changes  of  CecropLa  worm loCi 

"        "    Cynthia       "      117 

"            "        "     Luna             " 1-il 

"            "        "     J'olyphemns  "    l->r, 

"            "        "     Promothea     "      '. 121 

"            "        "     Yama-mai  "     _. 132 

.^           "        "     I'ernyi         " 137 

Les-tr  Apple  Leaf-folder 47 

Limnena  fugitiva 41 

Lobophora !2!t 

Long-tailed  Ophion 107,  12!) 

Lyctiis  o-paculus ,")4 

Luna  Silkworm 123 

— Larval  Changes 124 

M 

i\Ia ndrake  for  Potato  bugs I ."i 

Mary  Chalcis-fly I(i!(,  I211 

Moscicera 1 12'.i 

May  A pyde  for  Potato  bugs , I.") 

Microganter 45 

Missouri  Hee-killer 21 

' '        — Silk-growing  in s:i 

Mulberry  Silkworm 75 

— Us  past  History 75 

— Its  History  in  America 77 

"               "         — Silk-growing  in  California •  •  ^ ■  ■   "•'■* 

"               "         —    "          "          "     Kansas sj 

"         —    "          "         "     Missouri s.; 

— Natural  History  of «4 

"               "         — Enemies  and  Diseases S7 

"               "         — Best  Varieties  or  Kaces 91 

'                ' '          — How  best  to  rear !t2 

"                ' '          — -Cocoonery '. !i(> 

— Choking  the  Chrysalis Hi; 

—Lgg-laying :t7 

—Heeling 9!S 

"               "         —Best  Food  for luii 

"    ■            "          — (.)sage  orange  for loo 

Murgatitia  histrionica 35 

"            miinilii 35 

Muscardine fW 

Mijclois  indigirtella ^58 

Mysia  V^-pimctata ; IS 

N 

natural  Ui-loi\  oniic  Mulberry  silkworm ^\ 


INDEX.  5 

Nazara -JO 

Xeliraska  IJt'i'-killcr. •>{  ' 

New  Methods  of  ti'a))|)ii)^  Applf-wonn •.>;> 

Notes  of  the  '^'(•ar *. 5 

Noxious  luseots 7-j 

o 

OpMoti  macnirum KIT 

Osage  orange  for  Mullierry  Silkwonu Khi 


Piiilii/mi'riix  rulncralor -js 

I  'aris  Green  for  Potato  bugs II 

"         "         Duster rj 

"        "       — Antidote  for , I:; 

I'arasiles  of  Cecropia  Worm 1((7 

Partis  alncapillun ^. loT 

Pdnnfihis  cornul nx i:i<i 

' '      distinctuis U  I 

' '      interruptus 141 

IVaches — Codling  Motli  attacks -i-^ 

Pebrinc S!i 

Pempelia  Hatnmondi U 

Penfatoma  rufipen •_'(! 

I'eunsylvania  Soldier-beetle is 

Prritymbia  vitisana .V) 

Pprilitus  indagator +;; 

Perillus  circumcinctuH J !i 

I'eriodical  (Jicadu ;;(( 

reriij'i  Silkworm |;!7 

I'linianyium  dorsatum , 17 

Philontkus  apicalU 21 

Phyyadeuon  brevis js 

Phycita  nebulo : .'{s 

Phylloxera  vitifolicB . . . : 55 

' '        vastatrix 55 

Riley  i ; .     (j(; 

Pimp/a  conquiiitor 4;; 

' '       indagatrix 43 

"        anmUipes 4;{ 

Platysamia  Cecropia lo:; 

Prodenia  autumnalis l^ii 

Proviachus  Bastardii -jl 

Proniothea  Silkworm 1 1-j I 

"  "        — Its  natural  Enemies I'J.'J 

"  "       —Larval  Changes j-jl 

Polyphemus  Silkworm l-iS 

"  "         — Larval  Changes 126 

"  "         — Xatm-al  Knemies 126 

Qn<'(/iU8  mo  lot:  til  HUH 21 

E 

Kascal  Leul-i-Tumpler :ts 

Red-8houl<lered  Sinoxylon 5:{ 

Ra/ihty aster    20 

Kiiig-banded  Soldier-bug , IS 

'     s 

Samia  Columbia ,, 1(»7,  Hi 


6  INDEX. 

Snmin  n/vlhin 1 J-J 

' '         G  uerinii I  ]  2 

' '        ricini .■ ^ 11 .' 

' '        Cerropia • l(t:i 

Sntiirnia  inaia .' 41 

Sfricaria  mori T.j 

silk-gvowing  in  ('aliloniiii 7!» 

"            "     Fvaii.sa.s M2 

■  •           "    Mi.s.souri H:i 

SilkwKi-nis 7'_' 

"       — siimmnry i:;s 

silkworm — The  Mulberry 7."> 

"         — The  Cee,roj)ia .■ Kc; 

' '         — 'I'he  .\ilinitlius l!-.' 

' '         — The  l'olyi>hcinii.s I'J.'i 

' '         — The  lAina - I'li 

' '          —The  Promothea I J I 

' '         — The  Yiiini-inai l.!(» 

—The  Terny i 1:57 

Sintwillon  ba^lare .V; 

Spined  .Soldier-huj^ lit 

Sphinx  Carolina I2!i 

SIrachia  hinlrionica ;5."> 

"        ornata ."is 

SfirefrnH  fimbria  lus 'iO 

Sweftencd-water  for  Codling'  31oth -27 

T 

Tmrhiiia  phi/cifeB 40 

' '        aiionijma J'iii 

Tclephoriig  bcUneatwt •_".!,  :j(i 

Teiea  Polyphemus 1-2.') 

Tortrix  Cinderella 17 

' '        malivorana 17 

Two-lined  Soldier  Beetle i\) 


Vinegar  for  Codling  Moth 

w 


Walnut  Case-bearer 

Wier's  Apple-worm  Traj) 


Yama-mai  Silkworm 130 

"  "       —Larval  Changes 132 


•^ 


A 

A- 


4- 


f. 

3=^*  -^ 


:V' 


.*'*' 


2.  P.  MetcaIp 


^_     > 


.'■!>*'  V 


^    /^ 


*.^; 


.  .-/^j 


^:  ^-  ^.7      ^-">rT 


\  --^ 


^•^Ht. 


4^W 


